A contract between Associated Students and BIGnerd.com was finalized on Sept. 2, allowing an alternative to the Hornet Bookstore and a lucrative opportunity for students to purchase and sell textbooks.

BIGnerd.com is an eBay-style textbook exchange program that eliminates the middleman, allowing students to save money when purchasing textbooks, and reap larger profits when selling them.

Sacramento State alumni Ryan Gillette and Terry Donohue founded the online company.

ASI President Josh Wood and Executive Vice President Angel Barajas met with Shane Barker, BIGnerd.com campus director, on Sept. 2 in the ASI conference room to execute the deal.

“This is a big accomplishment,” said Wood. “It’s one of our biggest projects from last year that we’ve worked on for months.”The contract was drafted and revised multiple times since legislation passed on Feb. 25, 2004.

“There were so many things we learned just in this process of writing contracts,” said Wood. “We wanted to make sure we lobby that students get as much money as possible in the whole process.”

Other details include protecting both entities from fraud and marketing design.

Barajas will organize and manage a committee of 10 students, and possibly student volunteers, to tackle a vigorous public relations and promotion effort. The committee has an annual budget of $2,500 to launch the initial phase of marketing.

“We’re trying to get two to four thousand students to register on the website, and just basically make Sac State students aware of this, so that every year it can multiply,” Barajas said.

Barajas said he also plans to ask professors to add BIGnerd.com to their syllabuses to help get the word out. Faculty can assist by letting students know whether or not their textbooks will be used the following semester.

“Most of the faculty that we’ve talked to, they’re very supportive of the idea and they want to make sure that it gets pushed,” Wood said.

The user-friendly Web site took two and a half years to design. Students can expect to search for textbooks by title, author, seller, or by its International Standard Book Number. The site will feature an online meeting place where students can contact each other and save on shipping costs. Anyone can register on the site, but Sac State students will be placed in a pool to make the book exchange easy.

Barker will propose a potential business venture next week, at a scheduled meeting with the Los Rios Community College District.

“Even if Sac State isn’t buying a particular book, another college might,” Barker said. “I’m excited. For years students felt the bookstore was their only option, and it doesn’t have to be.”