Students
Can’t find what you’re looking for? Let us help!
Jan 13th
In some of my upcoming posts, I will be covering some features on BorrowMe that you may or may not be aware of. This will help to bring awareness to these features, but also to make life easier for the users (That’s you!).
This week, we talk about Wishes!
Our ‘Buy Nothing Christmas’
Dec 8th
While many Christians still celebrate Christmas as the birthday of Jesus, the rest of the world has been sucked into the consumerist holiday that infects our lives like a plague, starting on November 1st. The holiday season has been poisoned by mass consumption and greed. While millions of people suffer, barely able to eat, local children are throwing temper tantrums because they didn’t get the latest *INSERT TOY OF THE YEAR HERE* in their stocking.
Cavalier Daily
Oct 29th
Imagine an online network of people so generous and resourceful that they lend and lease their unused belongings to people in their communities who actually need them. It almost sounds too good to be true.
Such a system of borrowing, however, already exists in Charlottesville, and it is growing everyday.
With all the perks of popular Web sites like Craigslist and Amazon, BorrowMe.com allows students, small organizations and other “frugal folks” to enjoy the convenience of borrowing the items they need, without the purchase price, safety concerns and hassles of cross-country shipping.
Created in 2005, BorrowMe began in Calgary, Canada as a way for people to save money on items like textbooks, furniture and cookware.
The idea for the company started with a Spiderman DVD and a close friend, CEO and Founder Sean Young said.
“I was walking to the rental store when I bumped into one of my friends,” he said. “We chatted and I revealed where I was going and why. He later suggested that I just borrow his entire Spiderman DVD collection instead of buying it.”
Everyone appreciates saving a few bucks here and there, Young said. Why not take the idea one step further?
“If I had X-ray vision and could look through all of these peoples’ garages, I’d find all of these piles of stuff that we all collect,” he said. “Who really uses all of the junk in their basement or garage? On average, how much dust does it collect? If everyone could share the things they didn’t use with people they chose, money would be saved and those items would be put to great use. Life would be a whole lot cheaper and everyone would be happy.”…
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The Manitoban
Oct 14th
Website promotes borrowing, lending instead of tossing in trash
Eric Seniuk | Oct 12
With the economy turning sour, people are looking for creative ways to save money. Many have turned to BorrowMe.com, an online forum where people can lend, rent or sell just about anything.
Users that are new to BorrowMe.com must begin by creating an online profile — similar to those found on Facebook or MySpace. Once the profile is created, users can then register items that they wish to lend or sell.
In addition, users can register “wishes” for items that they’re looking to rent or buy. When a wish is matched up with an item that someone else is looking to unload, users can be alerted with emails, text messages or even Facebook notifications.
Each BorrowMe.com user sets a geographic radius in which other site users are considered “neighbours.” For example, if Jane deems anyone living within a 50 km radius of her home to be a “neighbour,” then she would receive alerts when people living within this radius are looking to lend or sell something that she has requested…
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The Argus – Lakehead University
Oct 8th
Both a Borrower and a Lender Be
Posted on 23 September 2009
New website “helps students borrow, lend, or rent anything from anybody”
Amy Szybalski
“Imagine a world where you bought as little as possible, borrowed as much as possible, got as much use from what you already own as possible, and brought as little as possible – to the dump”: this is the goal of a new social networking website. BorrowMe.com helps connect people, mainly students, with others who may be willing to lend some of their possessions.
“A lot of students have just left home for the first time, and are setting up in new digs. They need everything from pots and pans to a couch, a stereo, textbooks, maybe a used car or course supplies. Money’s tight, and every penny counts,” says Sean Young, chief architect of the program.
On BorrowMe you create your own profile, a home page if you will, that keeps you up to date on your BorrowMe activities and inventory. There you can read comments, see new people in your friends list, and get updated with items of interest in your area.
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The News Record
Oct 5th
Renting textbooks online an option for students
By Eric Johnson and Ariel Cheung | The News Record
Published: Sunday, September 27, 2009
In the everlasting search to save a buck or two, more students are turning to the Internet to order textbooks.
Now, not only can books be purchased on Web sites like Amazon.com or the University of Cincinnati Bookstore’s site, but they can also be rented or exchanged.
Rental sites like Swaptree.com and BorrowMe.com let users borrow everything from textbooks to DVDs. BorrowMe.com also offers swaps for furniture and game consoles.
Other sites are created specifically with students in mind. Web sites like Chegg.com and Campusbookrentals.com both offer rentable textbooks at a discounted price.
Most rental sites offer textbooks for nearly half the price of a retail store and give students the option to rent their books for varying periods of time.
“I guess if there are no hidden fees, it would be worth it,” said Emily Schwieterman, a third-year education student. “It seems pretty cheap and efficient.”
One negative aspect of the rental sites is being able to find the textbooks required for classes in a somewhat shallow pool. Long delivery time can also be a problem….
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Renting your Textbooks
Sep 25th
At borrowme we are huge fans of textbook rentals for students. There are 3 reasons:
1/ The money. Borrowme may be new, but as of this writing sites like Chegg.com have already saved students over $44 million in reduced textbook costs through renting. Textbook buyback programs pay 10-15%of the original purchase price, and are immediately resold at 60-75% of retail. That represents an abusive practice in our books.
2/ Impact on people and planet. 20 textbooks is about 1 tree. (http://www.conservatree.org) x the 18 million students enrolled in universities and colleges in the US alone every year. As a comparison - it takes about 100 million trees to produce the total volume of junk mail that arrives in American mailboxes each year.
3/ Private ownership is not the only way. Despite what we have been taught about the high achievement of private ownership – temporary use items should move from person to person (the inspiration behind the creation of borrowme). Some items are not shareable – but textbooks are a prime candidate. Characteristics of highly ’sharable’ items include:
- Durability – does it largely maintain its value from user to user (not easily perishable, damaged or requiring maintenance);
- Temporary demand – do people need them for a short time, and then are largely done with them?
- Availability – are they in common supply on book shelves and in boxes?
The more any item matches these ’sharing’ criteria – the more ’shareable’ it is, and clearly textbooks do. Not only textbooks, but millions of other items from baby cribs & DVD’s to utility trailers meet this criteria. What will be required to bring these items into circulation is a system to match supply and demand. How can a person who needs something find the person who has it? For textbooks it seems – the answer is “the bookstore”. The other option is a place like Clegg.com where you can rent it.
A third option that has been the subject of discussion recently on various money saver blogs for students is the creation of local ‘Textbook Sharing’ clubs on campus. BorrowMe is a terrific tool for organizing a group and quickly listing required and available course material.
To find or start a local textbook sharing group on BorrowMe – go checkout www.borrowme.com/students. If you’d like to discuss the idea with me personally for your campus community, I’d love to hear from you.
– Sean
Does this make sense to you? TAKE ACTION before you leave, and make a small change in how you deal with your stuff.
Create a wish for any kind of special item on BorrowMe.
Create a listing to lend any book, dvd, tool or treasure to a friend or neighbor.
– Sean
http://www.borrowme.com/sean
Contact me directly.
Don’t forget to Come be a Fan, follow us on Twitter, or consider Getting Started.
Don’t lend anything to just anybody.
Sep 18th
Yes, you heard me. Even though you’ll hear us say, “borrow, lend or rent anything from anybody” – you should not. We mean that you can – not that you should. Part of saving money and more than a few trees by borrowing personal stuff is make a few smart choices. The biggest decision is ‘what should I lend to whom’. Here are my suggestions on smart borrowing, whether you’re on borrowme, or looking in your friend’s storage locker.
Lending the right stuff to the right person:
1/ Select the right item to lend: Stuff that is durable and idle top the list. A shovel, a game cartridge (ok – more for a kids DS game) top the list. After that – it becomes more difficult. A digital camera, or a laptop like BrokeGrad lent out… more difficult, and less suitable.
2/ Select the right person to lend to: For very durable items, it matters less who you lend to, with some sort of minimum standard (there are clearly some people you should never lend to – perhaps you know some of them!). For less durable items – it becomes more critical to choose the right person.
3/ Mitigate the risks. There are ways to reduce your risk if you’re lending out your things:
a) Collateral: exchange your item for one of similar value. They get their DVD back when you get yours back.
b) Try using a site like borrowme.com to arrange and record personal lending (you’ll both have a basic record of who, what and when – and such a system can provide automatic reminders to avoid that ackward 4th request to get something back). In more formal situations – you can even take a deposit, held in trust until the item is returned in its original condition.
Good luck, and safe borrowing!
– Sean
Does this make sense to you? TAKE ACTION before you leave, and make a small change in how you deal with your stuff.
Create a wish for any kind of special item on BorrowMe.
Create a listing to lend any book, dvd, tool or treasure to a friend or neighbor.
– Sean
http://www.borrowme.com/sean
Contact me directly.
Don’t forget to join our Facebook Group, follow us on Twitter, or consider Getting Started.
A New American Dream
Aug 25th
Here at BorrowMe, we are real fans of the New American Dream Foundation. Their perspective on how we’ve lost our freedom & opportunity to the bondage of the consumption myth is one we can’t deny.
For past generations of Americans, the American dream stood for opportunity—a promise of attainable comfort and security. More recently, however, the traditional dream has been displaced by a much crasser version. Relentless marketing and an exclusive, myopic focus on growth have created a “more is better” dream that promotes, not comfort and security, but rather the unbridled production and consumption of stuff.
By shifting the prize from well-being to stuff, the “more is better” version actually harms the very things we cherish. It is unsustainable personally, as it draws American families into a work and spend treadmill that clutters our lives and depletes our savings. It is also unsustainable for the planet and its people, as it requires an endless churning out of cheap goods, with little regard for who made them and how, the strain on precious natural resources, or where it all goes in the end.
The Center for a New American Dream is dedicated to helping support and nurture an American dream that upholds the spirit of the traditional dream—but with a new emphasis on sustainability and a celebration of non-material values. We envision a society that values not just “more” but more of what matters.
It will be those who are willing to swim against the current, take a chance, and rebel against the momentum of the consumption myth. If you’re up to the challenge – we are here to help you.
– Sean
Does this make sense to you? TAKE ACTION before you leave, and make a small change in how you deal with your stuff.
Create a wish for any kind of special item on BorrowMe.
Create a listing to lend any book, dvd, tool or treasure to a friend or neighbor.
– Sean
http://www.borrowme.com/sean
Contact me directly.
Don’t forget to join our Facebook Group, follow us on Twitter, or consider Getting Started.