To help Spartan book buyers and sellers, Gross came up with the idea for Booklify, an online site launched at the beginning of this semester to give MSU students the option of buying and selling textbooks to another Spartan.

Students looking to buy a textbook can search for the book by subject, number and section and see who is selling the textbook.

Sellers can post a book at a price they choose and whether they want the payment in cash in person or credit card through the site.

To buy a textbook, students contact the seller by email and discuss a price and how to exchange the book.

Sellers also can put a note by the textbook telling buyers they have related materials to the class to include with the textbook.

Gross said there are some precautions taken to create a safer environment for buying and selling books, including encouraging students to meet at common places, such as the Union or Main Library. He said signing up with a Facebook account allows the students to possibly find mutual friends, and the requirement to have an MSU email means every student is from MSU.

“The idea of buying a book from other students around campus means that these students took the same class, (so they) can also act as tutors,” Gross said. “Because they have taken the same classes, they most likely have the same major.”

There also is an option for sellers to list a textbook as unavailable, meaning the seller is currently using the book, but wants to sell it at the end of the semester.

Kyle Clifton, general management sophomore and chief marketing officer of Booklify, got involved with the service right after it launched. Clifton said he serves as the “campus presence” since Gross graduated.

Although Booklify might be a good way to take care of the math book collecting dust under his desk, nutritional sciences sophomore Quan Blunt said in an email he is not sure whether the site will be successful or not.

“Students are usually too lazy to sell their books to other students, which is why they sell them to stores. It takes time and effort to sell anything on campus,” Blunt said. “I do not know too many students who are willing to go through that process just to sell a book.”

Genomics and molecular genetics and preveterinary sophomore Kathe Freiberger said in an email she posted two books on the site but had no buyers and ended up selling them to Amazon.com.

“It is an awesome idea; it is just currently hard because not many people know about it yet,” Freiberger said.

“(Booklify) would definitely cut down on shipping costs, and you would get some (information) in trading off the book, like how the class was depending on professor, or even how (or) what to study.”