If you have a son or daughter in college you might not be surprised to hear that many text books cost well over a hundred dollars.
Even buying used books on-line or from the bookstore can take a big bite out of your wallet. Two former U.C. students hope they've come up with a way around this financial pinch.
Local 12's Paula Toti joins us live from U.C. with this new idea.
It's the first day of class for U.C. students .... and two former students are feeling their pain.
After being here today ... so am I. The books seemed more expensive and even heavier than I remembered.
Two former students have come up with a book website ... where you don't spend money. You simply give a book ... and you get a book.
It's called Socialbib.com. The mission statement is freely give, freely receive. The two founders say if you have a text book to give, the site will automatically look to see if there's a taker.
"When you give a book away, you get a credit and it is good toward a book you need."
To keep it simple all books have the same value. They hope students buying at bookstores will see the value of the site once word spreads.
"As of right now, I just spent $400, but that's nothing comparatively speaking"
"What we realized was that when you sell used books to the book store and buy new books, book stores are the ones winning"
Socialbib.com has only been up and running three weeks .. but already has shown hits from across the U.S.
It's great if a match is made locally. You can just walk the book right over. If not the U.S. Postal Service has media mail at discounted rate. For two or three bucks you can get it across the country in about a week.
Social Bib is just for students ... they need a .Edu address.
"Which means they're a current student, and that way they should have current books."
And there's a rating system for people who use the site ..
"If someone is giving away bad books, they will be flagged and taken out of the system."
This student says he'd give it a try.
"I would , I mean i'm looking to save as much as possible as it is, I have enough on my mind as it is. "
The site's already made dozens of matches ... saving those students more than $5000.
The site is new so selection is going to be limited right now. The founders hope by winter when students are buying their next round of books ... they'll find them at Social Bib.
They're spreading the word through campus flyers .. and places where students go on line.
