I hope you’re enjoying the last few weeks of your summer to the fullest. Here are this week’s back to school tips on how college students can use Rentalic:
• Make money – by renting out your old freshmen year bike. If you are a sophomore or older, you probably live off campus now and will be taking the bus or driving to school.
• Save money – by renting an Xbox and/or videogames only when you need it. Your time in college is best spent socializing… oh, and studying too. =)
Sorry kids—the reality is that the beginning of the school year is quickly approaching. The good news is that students can use Rentalic to save money and make money. Each week this month, we will be featuring quick tips on how college students can benefit from using Rentalic.
THIS WEEK’S TIPS:
• Make money – by renting out your textbooks from last semester.
• Save money – by renting a microwave for your dorm room, instead of buying one.
Rentalic, the fastest-growing person-to-person online rental community, launches its first-ever online team scavenger hunt, the Scavenger Challenger, on Monday, July 19th. The competition, which runs through August 8th, will award two winning teams $1,000 each. In addition, the winners will split their items’ rental transaction fees normally retained by Rentalic.
Each team (and the individual) earns a point for each item it posts for rent on Rentalic.com. All teams will retain any money earned from the rental transactions of their posted items. Every day a new category of rental items eligible for earning double points for that day will be announced.
How It Works
1. The team with the greatest overall number of points will win the first prize of $1,000.
2. The second prize of $1,000 will be awarded through a raffle. The more points a team earns, the more times its team name will be entered in the raffle.
3. No team can win both prizes.
4. Individuals can only join one team.
5. Each item rented will earn money for the individual who uploaded the item. The individual can keep the rental proceeds or donate them to his/her team.
6. Teams can begin signing up at http://www.rentalic.com/scavenger.
The competition launches at 12:01AM on July 19th and continues through Aug. 8.
For questions, contact info@rentalic.com or 650-787-6034. May the best team win!
It’s been a decade since I was in college and had to go through the quarterly ritual of purchasing textbooks. I often bought a mix of brand new textbooks and some used ones from my campus bookstore. Regardless of mixing it up with used textbooks, my total cost on books was usually just a little south of $1,000. I was always bothered by the fact that I repeatedly spent several hundred dollars on textbooks that I would never use again after one quarter.
I wish I had the luxury of today’s online textbook rentals when I was in college. Today students are flocking to websites like Chegg.com, BookRenter, and Rentalic to rent their textbooks. In the process, students are each saving hundreds of dollars on textbooks each semester. Chegg.com boasts that it has collectively saved students over $200 Million off the list prices of new books.
“I literally saved $400 by renting my textbooks online, instead of buying them. I put the money I saved toward buying a new laptop,” remarked Sam, a UC Davis undergrad who rented his Spring quarter textbooks on Rentalic.com.
With recent tuition hikes and tough economic times, textbook renting has grown immensely popular among students. University bookstores that traditionally monopolized textbook sales to local students now have to reevaluate their business models.
Many bookstores have decided to mitigate their lost revenue by partnering with online textbook rental businesses. Rentalic, whose person-to-person rental market expands across all industries, recently began its campaign to partner with book stores on textbook rentals.
“Students typically don’t have much disposable income, but the current economy has exacerbated this even more. It’s harder for students to get part-time jobs, and tuition has also been skyrocketing. With less money in their pockets, students are moving increasingly toward renting textbooks instead of buying them,” remarked Rentalic CEO, Punsri Abeywickrema.
“We recognize that consumer behavior is changing with the times. Many bookstores at universities are facing the reality that they could go out of business if they don’t change the way they do business. Rentalic’s online marketplace enables any individual or business to set up its own rental store,” continued Abeywickrema.
“For any textbook store considering adapting to the change in consumer behavior, Rentalic can provide invaluable assistance. It’s as easy as creating an account and listing the inventory to be rented. Rentalic consultants are working with individuals and business owners to help them succeed and alter their business models to incorporate renting instead of just selling. Anybody can setup a rental store within minutes and start listing their inventory.”
For more sophisticated businesses, Rentalic consultants are available to help with customizing storefronts to promote each business’ unique branding style. Similar to the concept of eBay’s Power Sellers, Rentalic’s storefronts allow serious renters to run their own rental businesses using the Rentalic website.
For more information on storefronts or textbooks for rent, visit www.rentalic.com.
Pepsi Refresh Project - Rentalic
The Pepsi Refresh Project is looking for people, businesses, and non-profits that will have a positive impact on their communities. Naturally, we believe Rentalic’s vision to help make the world a better place by building economically and environmentally sustainable communities makes us a great fit for the Refresh Challenge. Rentalic has entered the $50,000 prize category and would use the funds to continue supporting our website development and national marketing expansion–thereby spreading the message that we can make a difference in the environment through reuse.
We thank all of you for your continued support as Rentalic continues to strive to reach the next level. We again need your assistance in voting for Rentalic in the Pepsi Refresh Challenge. Here’s how you can help:
Voting is open until June 30th. Please help people earn money, save money, and save the environment by supporting Rentalic!
What a weekend! Another Maker Faire rides off into the sunset. As I mentioned in my previous post, Maker Faire 2010 was to be a homecoming, of sorts for us. Setting up the booth on Friday was like seeing a flash-sideways in “LOST”. (I had to throw in the reference, the finale was just last night!) I saw some familiar faces and new faces stop by the booth this year. The fire that got us stoked last year was talking to all of the people that stopped by our booth at Maker Faire. You. You shared your ideas with us and we talked to a lot of you. On that note, my favorite moments from this weekend were being able to show the functioning site to those of you who stopped by from last year. The smiles on your faces told the story. =)
This year’s Maker Faire leaves us with a renewed sense of purpose that we’re heading down the right path. So we just want to say thank you for your support, your enthusiasm for our mission, and willingness to think a little different.
On a side note, we hit a huge milestone: We now have rental inventory from 105 cities and 28 states across the U.S.! Keep using the site gang, the more you use it, the better it gets.
Rent. Share. Be Green.
Your rentals can help little Rimaan!
We recently heard the story of Rimaan and his struggle to be healthy. This amazing little boy has overcome great odds but he needs our help so his parents can buy a Hyperbaric Chamber to help ease his pain and restore his vitality. In case you don’t know about HBOT treatments, they’ve been used to amazing effects in all sorts of cases and are e read more about that here.
And you can help by simply registering an account here at Rentalic.
On top of this, we’ll donate 100% of rental fee charged for rentals for the next 30 days!
So what are you waiting for? Open an account. Invite your friends! List some items for rent! Rent that hedge trimmer. Rent the video camera you need for your documentary, rent anything else that you need!
Rimaan
To Learn More, Goto “Help a Lost Child” Page.
We just found out some excellent news: This year, the Rentalic booth will be located in the Main Expo Hall towards the “Green Living and Sustainable Lifestyle” area at the Maker Faire. This is great news because that means we’ll be in the thick of the action and be with great company! Be sure to swing by and meet our fantastic crew and join in on the fun!
Here’s where you can find us and our neighbors:
We’re also looking for a few good people to volunteer at our booth in exchange for a FREE Maker Faire Day Pass and rockin’ Rentalic T-shirt. Please contact samantha@rentalic.com for details.
See you this weekend at the Maker Faire where a sea of fascinating ideas will come to life!
Rentalic t-shirt
As we start to build momentum heading into Maker Faire, there’s no doubt that we’re excited. But I also think about the challenges we will face for this year’s show. And ironically, the picture for Maker Faire mirrors the picture for Rentalic.com as a community website.
The truth is that while our small team can begin the coordination and set-up of the project, ultimately, we need help from our community. We need you.
Here’s what we need:
- Maker Faire volunteers: We’re offering free Maker Faire passes in exchange for 4 hours of your time working at the Rentalic Booth. The job is simple…talk to people. Tell them about Rentalic. Believe me, it’s a fun job. You’ll get to meet the Rentalic crew and roam around Maker Faire for the rest of the day. How funny…if you think about it, we’re renting you. =)
- Post your stuff up for rent: This year, our goal is to source the equipment used at the Maker Faire booth from Rentalic.com. So we want to rent your stuff:
1) Sports equipment – Tennis racket, bike, volleyball net, outrigger canoe, etc.
2) Outdoor equipment – hiking and camping gear
3) Party/Event equipment – tables, chairs, lights, etc.
Our goal for Rentalic.com is that we’re able to offer you with a service that provides value beyond your expectation. The challenge is that we can’t do it by ourselves. Rentalic.com needs the community to succeed. It needs you.
If you’re interested in volunteering, contact us at samantha@rentalic.com. And if you’re interested in making a little bit of money while helping us out at Maker Faire, post up your stuff for rent. We need you…and your stuff!
It’s pretty amazing to see how much has been accomplished in 11 months. After last year’s Maker Faire, I was, in short, stoked. I spent a weekend talking to hundreds of people about sharing, reuse, and the idea that we could all be better neighbors to each other. We got hundreds of people who signed up to beta-test the site. We were awarded the Editor’s Choice Award from the editors of Make Magazine. And to cap it all off, practically everyone, I mean everyone loved the idea. How could you not be stoked?
Well, it’s a year later and we’re coming back to Maker Faire folks. Back to where it all began, sort to speak. So what do we have to show for the time that’s passed? Our goal is the same: to promote reuse and the sharing of resources in our community. But where we were asking you to sign up for beta-testing, we’ll be back asking you to sign up for the “real deal.” Our site has been up and running for a few months now and the feedback has been phenomenal. As we further developed the site, we developed a pretty cool process for facilitating person-to-person renting. Our process evolved into a solid piece of patent-pending technology that’s integrated with PayPal and can provide owners and borrowers a high level of security, ease of use, and peace of mind.
So there you have it. We put our money where our mouth is and we’re back for more. I personally can’t wait to come back to Maker Faire and show you all how far we’ve come. If you’re here reading this blog, I know you’re interested and intrigued. Maybe you should post something up for rent and see what happens. What’s the worst that can happen? You’ll meet a neighbor and help your community. Then when we meet at Maker Faire, you can show me how far you’ve come since last year. =)
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