Grassroots hosts textbook flea market

Baruch Grassroots hosted the Textbook Flea Market on Tuesday on the second floor of the Vertical Campus, in an effort to make cheap textbooks available to students.

"This idea has been kicked around for a while now, and we felt the time was right to finally make it happen," said Ben Guttmann, president of Baruch Grassroots. "In a year as tough, economically, as this one with tuition increases and murmurs of a student activity fee increase, [we] felt it was time to do our part and save everyone some money."

Students wanting to sell their textbooks had to fill out an application on the organization's website, and Grassroots arranged the titles for easier book search and made the list available to buyers at the event.

Guttmann also stated that initially the club was going to take books from students and sell them, but the process became "too intricate." The organization provided the space, and buyers came to purchase books from fellow students at negotiated prices.

Freshman buyer Young Kyu Park said, "The text books are a lot cheaper than the book store, but I had to come twice because I could not find the person who was selling the book I needed."

At the event, each table contained labels of the subjects of the books that were being sold.

Mona Khalil, a freshman who sold books at the event felt that the idea was great but the room could have been a bit bigger, and more students could have attended the event.

But Grassroots said that the success of the event surpassed their expectations.

"I think the turn-out was great, we expected this event to be popular but the response we received was overwhelming," said Guttmann.

A second event was held on Thursday.