Twenty percent of students at the University of York are now members of the ‘York Uni Swap Shop’ Facebook page with over 3,500 members. The page allows members to post unwanted items that can be sold to other students who then arrange to meet on campus to exchange money or items.
One student told Vision about their experience using the page to buy a ukelele. “It was great! I was browsing all over the internet for a good deal but the postage and packaging was so expensive. When I saw the ukelele on the swap shop page I went for it straight away – easy to pick up from King’s Manor and it felt good knowing my money was going to a fellow student!”
Creator of the page, Madeline Spink, said; “I started it up mostly because I was sick of having to buy expensive books every year when I knew that there were people in the year above who probably had them cheap. I also moved out of halls and had a load of stuff that I couldn’t get back on the train, so I wanted to sell it but had nowhere to do that.
“So, I thought that it would be cheap, save a lot of waste and I also thought it would be good to have a place where other students could make money from their skills, e.g. people needing someone to fix their bike for a small fee or to sell jewellery/crafts.
“I think it’s really great that so many other students think it’s a good idea, and having so many people makes it work really well. Someone put a car on etc. so it’s so much bigger than I thought it would be.”
You can find the page online by searching on Facebook for ‘York Uni Swap Shop’.