The Flea Market was created in the summer of 2007 as a University of Redlands research project in computer science, by Eli Delventhal, and advised by Pani Chakrapani. It is written entirely in HTML, PHP, and MySQL, mainly being an experiment in web database design and management. The result is a fast and easy to use tool for selling no longer needed items to people in a common school or area.

Eli had the original idea for the concept his freshman year in college when he found himself spending $500 per semester on books that sold back for only a $100. This overwhelming difference meant that the book store (Barnes and Noble), already a rich conglomerate, was getting $400 free per semester, from one student alone. Add in 2,000 students to this equation, and the book store is making somewhere around $800,000 per semester, and $1,600,000 per year. That is not right.

Other companies in similar places, like GameStop for video games, make similar bank just by being there and being the only place for people to turn to. Buy a game for $50, sell it back to them for $5, then watch them sell it again for $45. The people making all the money are the ones who have it already, and people like Eli who make $9 / hour are losing it.

And what about all the books, games, furniture, etc. that is worth so little that commissions alone cost more than what the seller can even get? They go in the trash can. Not only are people losing money, but the earth is getting flooded with unneccesary garbage.

So, the Flea Market. The goal is to have created a free service that can connect two students who want to exchange items, without any sort of giant corporation middle man. Cash, no commissions, just cash. If you think this is a wonderful idea, then tell everyone you know about The Flea Market. Because the more people selling on this site, the better off everyone becomes.