Sam Toloui said that when he sees problems, he wants to do everything he can to solve them.
The ASU business sophomore saw a problem with the prices students must pay for textbooks each semester and worked with his father to find a solution.
Toloui initially had the idea for a Web site for book trading but needed his father to help work out the details.
Toloui's father, Shawn Toloui, financed the project and used family money to hire senior programmers to build the software that his son hopes can change the way students get books in the future.
The Web site was scheduled to go online today, and Sam Toloui said the success of the program depends on student involvement. "When there are a lot of people on there, it works really well," he said.
Toloui estimated that the program needs at least 4,000 registered users to be successful because the software uses multiple records to create exact matches between students' needs and resources. Once students register on the Web site, they enter the International Standard Book Numbers of their current books into the system and the ISBNs of the books they need for the upcoming semester. The software then matches those numbers with other users who need and have the same books.
The process is free of charge up to the point where users can contact each other to trade books. Toloui said users must pay a $5 fee for each transaction and could either pay each fee individually or register a credit card at the Web site for automatic payment.
The software also allows for books to be prioritized by cost to prevent expensive books from being traded for cheaper ones, something interior design freshman Lily Hanna identified as a problem with most book-trading Web sites.
"For me, it's hard to think that [the trade] is exactly equal," she said.
The proximity of the ASU Main bookstore to on-campus housing makes buying and selling books more convenient, Hanna said.
"I could see how, if you lived off campus, [a Web site] would be easier. But for those of us on campus, we can just walk down to the bookstore," she said.
Biology sophomore Anthony Cartner said he usually keeps his books to use as a resource for later learning.
"Because I keep coming back to the stuff I learned once, I find my books are a nice source for that material," he said.
Cartner also questioned the success the new Web site would have without a large amount of advertising. Toloui said he recognized advertising as a problem but planned to distribute fliers on campus.
Jim Selby, assistant director for ASU Bookstores, said book trading has been going on ever since people have had to buy books.
He said the trouble with most book trading Web sites is the lack of a guarantee or rebate option.
"They [Web sites] don't have access to the right editions, and so they end up buying the wrong edition or selling the wrong edition, and no one has the recourse to go back," he said.
Another advantage ASU bookstores have over book trading Web sites is that the stores send money back to the University, which helps students in more ways than the information in the books, Selby said,
"Our mission is to serve the students, but we're also here to generate funds for the University," he added. "We're here as part of the University; they're doing it for profit only."
Toloui said he started to work on the project shortly after selling back his books from the last spring semester. He said that although he hopes the Web site proves profitable, he approached the project as a student first.
"We're just a service, not a bookstore," he said.
Reach the reporter at cameron.eickmeyer@asu.edu.
