Since his first year, junior Rob Granholm has toyed with the idea of creating an Eastern version of eBay.

Now, over sixty users are logged onto a site called EUtrader, which Granholm built. The site grants students the freedom to buy and sell many kinds of products.

The aim of the site is to give students at Eastern an affordable opportunity to find what they need and to sell what they do not. The sale transactions are left for students to work out through campus mail.

Items being sold cheaply include textbooks, whose prices are reduced when there is more than one person selling them, according to Granholm.

Granholm said he used eBay’s format as the basis for his website. He erected the site after only three weeks of code writing and design. Two of Granholm’s friends, junior Matt Socci and senior Ben Davis, revised the site to make it more organized and effective.

During the first operating days of EUtrader, 30 users logged on, learning of the site by word of mouth, according to Granholm.

Books are not the only items on EUtrader. An NCH loft and a ticket to a U2 concert have also been posted for sale.

Granholm plans to make his site more official in the future.

“When the site has 100 members logged on, I will start a three-dollar charge to join,” he said. “It will give the site a more serious appeal.”

Granholm feels the site has been received well by students.

“So far the response I have gotten has been all positive with a few constructive comments,” he said.

The site may be visited at www.eutrader.org.

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