Walamu - changing the way college students sell stuff?

Fellow young entrepreneur Rohail Rizvi recently launched his much anticipated site Walamu. Walamu is a place for students to buy and sell textbooks or post classified ads.

In general, I usually don't think there is much of a marketplace for buy/sell sites or classified sites, UNLESS you have a really unique selling proposition that's so good that users will gravitate to your site. I think that's the case with Walamu - it focuses on people buying and selling that attend the same school. That eliminates shipping charges and puts an emphasis on simply meeting the person you want to buy from (imagine that, actually getting off your computer to accomplish something!).

I think it's better than Craigslist because it's limited to students (and thus not covered in SPAM), it's better than a message board because of the way it organizes listings, and it's better than eBay or whatever you currently use to sell your books online because you don't have to deal with shipping.

As of now, it's limited to Rutgers students, but there are plans to expand across the country (another smart move to start local and then grow throughout the country, in my opinion). The site layout is extremely simple, clean, easy to navigate, and has a very "professional" look & feel to it.

On a personal note, I've exchanged a lot of emails with Rohail and he's always been nothing but professional to deal with. Over the past six months or so, he and I have developed a great relationship. As YE's, many of us know how hard it is to juggle all of the things a college student has to deal with AND try to get a business off the ground, which is what Rohail is doing now down at Rutgers. I have a great deal of respect for him and am really pulling for Walamu to be a big success!