Textbook Trading

Year 10 student Jeffrey Chen has set up a textbook exchange platform with three friends with the aim of saving students and parents money, keeping useful books from landfill and helping a national literacy program.

Textbooks2U was launched a few weeks ago by the Baulkham Hills teenager alongside fellow students, Soren, Ethan and Alex from Sydney Grammar who had been working on it during the extended Lockdown period.

The online platform enables people to sell and buy used textbooks online.

Listing on the site is free. The business takes a commission from each successful transaction and will be donating 10 per cent of its profits to the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation (ALNF).

Jeffrey says the rest of the money will be reinvested into the business at this stage.

“Brand new text-books are quite expensive and they are only used for a year. We saw an opportunity to provide people with an option,” said Jeffrey. “We want to make it the “go-to place” for textbooks.”

So far they have $2100-worth of text-books listed on the site and 70 active members. “The books are between 50 to 60 per cent off the standard retail price,” said Jeffrey.

The aim of the four budding entrepreneurs is to make textbooks more affordable for students and parents while preventing useful books from ending up in landfills.

“We wish to make education more affordable, accessible and sustainable by reducing book costs, donating to charity and enabling environmentally-friendly reuse of books,” said Jeffrey. “We see it as a positive thing for the community.”

Sellers need to load up a photograph of the books they are selling. Jeffrey says, unlike other platforms, Textbooks2U offers buyer protection and will only release the payment to the seller when the buyer has the purchase and is satisfied.

While Textbooks2U offers mainly books for sale, for primary, secondary and tertiary students it also has an option for students to sell their notes.

He said selecting The Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation as their partner charity was easy because it aligned with their aims.

ALNF helps young people in Australia’s most marginalised communities to gain vital language, literacy and communication skills.

To find out more about Textbooks2U visit the website https://www.textbooks2u.com.au