Mac Book Swap, a student-run textbook trading web site, has become increasingly popular this semester as students looked for alternatives to buying from Macalester’s textbook store and from national online merchants.

The web site, www.macbookswap. com, allows users to list their textbooks for sale, name a price and give a brief description of the book’s condition. Prospective buyers can search for books by title, author, class, department, name of the seller or ISBN number.

Tim Bates ’06, Matt Dickens ’06 andWill Watson ’06 came up with the idea for the web site last year after noticing the high cost of textbooks from the bookstore and realizing that there was no uniform system on campus for students to trade their books.

The same web site, www.macbookswap.com, had been used for the same purpose by a Macalester student several years ago, but was defunct when Bates, Dickens and Watson purchased the site.

To advertise books, students have put notices on bulletin boards and ads in the Today.

“It seemed really inefficient,” Bates said. “People didn’t say anything about their book, it was just like, ‘buy my econ book.’”

Since Bates did not create Mac Book Swap until after the add/drop deadline last semester the site didn’t receive much attention until this semester.

He said that the site currently has 684 books listed for sale by 180 users. One hundred thirty-five books have already been sold.

Bates said he feels it is very important that the web site remains hassle free. He wants to keep it so users don’t have to log in or pay any fees.

“The Mac Book Swap is really about connecting potential book buyers with sellers here on campus,” Bates said. “At its most basic level, the site does nothing more than provide an organized searchable forum for people to list and search for books and enable buyers to contact sellers.”

Many students who used Mac Book Swap for the first time this semester reported a positive experience.

“I got my Contemporary Concepts book for $8, so I was pretty happy with it,” Riley Gibson ’07 said.

“I really liked Mac Book Swap,” Maggie Thompson ’07 said. It was easy to use and I bought a book for really cheap.”

Ruminator Books had been in charge of selling Macalester’s textbooks until this year, when financial problems forced the bookstore to turn over textbook sales to the college.

Ruminator’s owner, David Unowsky, explained that the textbook store tries to provide students with affordable used books but has difficulty competing with online booksellers like Amazon and eBay. In order to make a profit, Ruminator sells used books for 25 percent more than what it pays wholesalers and students for them.

“Students have that 25 percent to save money on,” Unowsky said.

Unowsky said he doesn’t have a problem with students getting together to trade their books but he dislikes the increased reliance on national booksellers at the expense of local businesses like Ruminator.