offers online A1aptop computer selling for $250. A date in the student center, complete with free food. CD's, textbooks, computer software. . It was all available at HUBUy.COffi, Harding's auction Web site that was reminiscent of eBay. Senior Luke Dockery and junior Jonathan Towell started HUBuy.com in the spring of 2004 to serve as an outlet for Harding students, faculty, staff and alumni living in Searcy to sell an assortment of products more easily within the area. The idea first came to Towell, an information technology major, and Dockery, an international business and Spanish double-major, after seeing all the flyers on bulletin boards around campus. Towell and Dockery saw a need for an easier way of selling and buying products from each other. "Who wants to carry around 15 little pieces of paper with phone numbers on them just to call and find out the thing you wanted has already been sold?" Dockery said. Towell said an auction site like eBay would be the best way to solve the problems resulting from bulletin board trading. "Iam personally convinced that an auction is the best way to sell limited goods," Towell said. Since the Web site's beginning in 2004, it received many updates with new features and graphics. Even though it was a work in progress, about 170 users had registered to use HUBuy.com by January. Pictures of the items for sale and their current prices were posted on the Web site. Placing a produet for sale was free, unless the seller wanted to purchase extra display features. New items were posted daily, and all items could be purchased by check, cash or Paypal. For some items, users could also JUNIOR ANDREW DORSEY searches the ~udent center bulletin OOard fordeals NovA. Senior Luke Dockery and junior Jonathan Towell be<jan HUBuy.com, aWeb site similar to eBay for Harding students, in the spring of 2004 to eliminate the bulletin ooardsearching process. ,A. BEENE Internet auction offers bargains select the "buy now" option to skip the bidding process. Senior Ashley Sims, a frequent user of eBay, said HUBuy.com even had some advantage over eBay because of the ability to receive purchase items directly from the seller or through campus mail "I think it's even better than eBay because you can still find anything, but you don't have to deal with shipping," Sims said. Items were removed from the site once they were sold, so students did not have to worry about wasting time on something that was purchased. Used textbooks were also sold on the Web site, and even though Towell said that was not the only purpose for the site, he agreed that it would be a definite option for students at the end of the semester. "If people want to use the site to sell used textbooks, it will definitely make things cheaper:' Towell said. -MARANDA ABERCROMBIE 67 - JUNIORS
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