Baseball season is up and running and Walamu is giving away two free Mets tickets in celebration. Sell your textbooks, furniture, electronics, and more in the marketplace or post your events in the classifieds, and you automatically have a shot at these hot tickets for the Saturday, April 14th game. Hurry, post now!

Walamu.com is giving away one night with a stripper (male or female, we don’t care) to a lucky Walamu user. To qualify, post a listing in the Classifieds section of Walamu.com.

Things you can post in the Classifieds section:
Roommate requests, parties, events, announcements, car pools, study group sessions, and more.

Winner will be chosen at random and will be given a selection of strippers to choose from.

Click here to go to the Classifieds.

Selling your textbooks on Walamu is a piece of cake. Here’s all you need to know.

• If you don’t already have an account, you can register here. You can sign up if you have a college .edu e-mail address.
• After you confirm your registration by clicking the link in your email, click on the blue “Marketplace” tab.
• Next, click “Add Listing.”

• You’ll arrive at the “Post a new listing” page. Enter all the information about the item you are selling here as well as your contact information.
• You can choose to upgrade your listings at the bottom of the page.
• MAKE SURE EVERYTHING IS CORRECT.
• Click “Continue” and you’re all set! Your listing will now appear in Walamu’s marketplace.

What is now the world’s largest college classifieds network did not always used to be. Our story comes from humble beginnings and tough times coupled with creativity and an eye for what college students need.

They say that college is the best time of your life. College is also a time for many students where resources are scarce and where living frugally becomes the only option. This reality is more so for some students than others. Take the story of this college student:

Times were tough for this young man. College was supposed to be hard on the wallet, but not this hard. Without enough money for a meal plan or a dorm room, this college student was forced to eat more Ramen noodles than you can imagine and sleep in the library nights at a time when there were simply no other options. Food and dorm weren’t the only expenses that were excessive for this student. Textbooks were a whole different story. In order to be able to buy the books he needed for class, he would go from campus to campus, from bus stop to bus stop, looking for “FOR SALE” signs of the books he needed at a price he could afford. He knew he’d have a decent chance at finding the books because a lot of the students at his campus would be taking the same courses he would take. The problem was that it took forever to find these books.

Frustrated with the problem of finding the textbooks he needed from the students around him, he used all the nights he spent living at the University library to work on creating a site that allows college students to buy and sell with individuals on their campus. He realized this would make it so much easier for students to get the things they need and cut costs because shipping would no longer be involved. On a shoestring budget, this very frustrated and at the same time motivated college student came up with what has come to be known as Walamu.com, the world’s largest college classifieds network.

The blog is back and it’s definitely been a while since we’ve posted here. We were busy at work getting the site up in time for the new school year and we have to say that it’s been pretty exciting so far.

Walamu officially launched on September 11, 2006 and has since been received with much attention. Walamu has received a great amount of publicity on the web and looks to expand this publicity into the public domain in order to let students know about the ease of getting things done on Walamu.
Walamu recently made the news in the Rutgers University publication, The Daily Targum. The full article can be found online by clicking here.

In other news, we have a contest running on Walamu in association with RookieTees.com. The user who has the most listings in the marketplace will receive a t-shirt from RookieTees.com of their choice. So bring those old textbooks out of the closet and put ‘em up for sale on Walamu today!

but we just couldn’t help ourselves. Walamu is comin’ at you fast and is going to change your college experience. You’re thinking how could getting better deals on textbooks really change my college experience? The truth is sure, Walamu’s going to help you put a little more money in your pocket, but we want to do more than that. Walamu wants to make your college years what college is really about.

Walamu is well-poised to be the world’s largest college listing network. Walamu is going to be the number one place to get what you need. Period. If you need a new desk, come to Walamu. If you need a new laptop, come to Walamu. If you need a cheap haircut, COME TO WALAMU. We say this with great pride as we want your college years to be memorable and not tied up in things you would rather not be tied up in. Most of the time you only get four years to enjoy what college has to offer. Why waste it on mediocre tasks when you can get what you want at Walamu?

Sure we still want you to be able to get your textbooks at great prices. But we also want you to be able to find/sell whatever it is you need to without the hassle. This brings a new era for the college student. Walamu will change the way college students get things done as it becomes the number one market to buy, sell, or find whatever it is that you need to.

We can’t let the cat out of the bag just yet, but be excited, very excited, about what Walamu is going to mean to you in the very near future as it becomes the world’s largest college listing network.

Walamu.com will allow students to find the textbooks they need from the students around them on campus. Since most students taking a particular class willl have the same professor, it’s likely that the required textbook is already in the hands of someone who previously took the course you are about to take in the near future. Walamu
lets you search within your particular college for the textbooks you need and who has them. This allows students to:

• Avoid dealing with the post office and lost orders.
• Get a better price on their textbook since no shipping is involved.
• Give students the chance to gain old notes from the students they are buying their textbook from
• Ensure they are getting the right textbook.

As a college student, I can think of more than a few situations where either I was ripped off at the bookstore when buying my textbooks or was given too little money for my books when I tried to sell them back. If you have a particular story where a bookstore tried to take advantage of you or if you just paid a ridiculous amount for a textbook we would love to hear it in the comments! It just gives us more motivation to get you textbooks at a cheaper price with less hassle.

You may think that publishers are the only ones responsible for the outrageous cost of buying textbooks. It’s true, they do play a major if not the core role. However, colleges and professors also become a contributing factor when it comes to higher prices. According to this article, much of what goes on before you get to your first day of class looks like this:

“Publishers’ salespeople swarm campuses, bombard faculty with PowerPoint presentations promoting extra features they can bundle with texts, such as online homework programs, tests, even course syllabi. These make a professor’s job easier – while increasing the price of the books. The professor chooses a text; the student pays for it.

It’s as if your company decided which car you should use, picking a Mercedes because it works well for the corporate image but being oblivious to its cost and the employee who pays for it.

‘There’s no question many faculty don’t have a clue about the cost of the books they’re picking for courses,’ said Michael Granof, an accounting professor at the University of Texas at Austin and chair of the UT bookstore board.”

Furthermore, there’s a huge trend going on that’s affecting middle-class students all across the nation. Colleges are hiring adjunct professors for part-time positions. These professors are looking for whatever teaching gig they can get their hands on and so often look for what’s known as a “course in a box.”

“Another trend prods faculty to pick pricier packages. Colleges have stepped up the use of part-time, or adjunct, professors, who shuttle from campus to campus cobbling together enough teaching gigs to earn a decent living. These adjuncts cost the universities less, and give schools the flexibility to meet fluctuating student demand for courses in hot subjects. Community colleges and second-tier state universities use part-timers frequently. The adjuncts often get their assignments at the last minute with little chance to prepare.

The result? A pool of faculty who jump at enhanced textbook packages – as Mr. Hildebrand called them, ‘courses in a box.’”

That accounts for three huge forces working against us students- publishers, colleges, and professors.

It’s time to put an end to this madness. It’s time for Walamu.

It’s ridiculous the amount of money students are forced to pay for textbooks these days and even more ridiculous the lengths some students will go at to get a good deal. With Walamu, students no longer have to face monopoly prices at the bookstore or run back-and-forth to the post office to get the textbook they need. Think about it- More than likely, the students around you are going to have the same textbooks you need since a lot of them are taking or once took the course you are about to take. Being at the same college means having the same professor teach the same course with the same required book as the students around you. That means less hassle and lower prices for you!

With student and faculty complaints about the price of college textbooks on the rise, the California Student Public Interest Research Group (CALPIRG), the Oregon Student Public Interest Research Group (OSPIRG) and the OSPIRG Foundation conducted a survey of the most widely assigned textbooks in the fall of 2003 at 10 public colleges and universities in California and Oregon. Student volunteers and staff also interviewed 156 faculty and 521 students about the cost of textbooks and their purchasing practices. Key findings from this survey include:

Textbooks are Expensive and Getting Even More Expensive

• Students will spend an average of $898 per year on textbooks in 2003-04, based on surveys of University of California (UC) students in the fall of 2003. This represents almost 20 percent of the average tuition and fees for in-state students at public four-year colleges nationwide. In contrast, a 1997 UC survey found that students spent an average of $642 on textbooks in 1996-97.