Detroit native, Ray Holbrook, has been planning his internet based project for over one year. It was not until the beginning of last month that ‘www.collegeresale.has.it’ became a reality.Holbrook, a junior criminal justice major said the website was created for and by college students to buy and sell mainly school items, such as books and other basic necessities at reasonable prices. According to Holbrook, the idea came to him when he encountered difficulty finding specific items necessary for school.
“The idea came from being around Grambling and I remember going to the bookstore looking for school items that were hard to find, but I couldn’t find them on campus at reasonable prices .. so I came up with a plan to link all colleges nationwide to sell items,” Holbrook said.
He said that the project is still in its infancy stage, but has received some positive feedback. “We are getting new members everyday and so far the responses from the public has been pretty good,” Holbrook said.
Students from Louisiana Tech, GSU and Michigan State University have already signed up for membership.
On ‘collegeresale.has.it’ students can post an item for sale, post a notice for an item they want and participate in blogging. However, he outlines that unlike other popular selling sites, registration is free and all profit made by the seller is theirs. He said that his company makes its profits by advertising for businesses.
He admits there were challenges such as finances. Through skillful negotiations Holbrook was able to overcome these hurdles.
Terrence Griffin, the website designer and Carris Carey are some of the persons who are working with Holbrook to ensure that the project continues to be successful.
Holbrook said he encountered many skeptics who doubted the success of his business venture. Despite the cynics he said he still found encouragement within himself, ” … I say put the wind in your own sail,” Holbrook said.
The young entrepreneur said he has no boundaries in terms of development of and expansion of his website, “Right now the sky is the limit.