Student Loan Blog : Craigslist

“Reduce, Re-Use, Re-Ride”: Sell and Trade Your Surfboards, Skateboards and Snowboards Online

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 25 Sep 2007 19:40:00 GMT

ReRip may not show you how to transform your old boards into something completely unboard-like, the way IKEA Hacker overhauls furniture, but ReRip does share with IKEA Hacker the goal of making the stale new again, giving old boards a second chance at life with different owners.

“Reduce. Re-use. Re-ride.” It’s ReRip’s official slogan.

ReRip, as the company explains on its website, “wants to pull used but rideable surfboards, skateboards and skis out of people’s garages and put them under the feet of those looking for a ‘new’ ride.” ReRip’s founders hope their venture will translate into fewer boards made, fewer toxins emitted and fewer materials discarded.

The company, started four months ago by Meghan Dambacher and Lisa Randall of Solana Beach, Calif., hopes to capitalize on the current trend that has consumers going green. In addition to hosting its used board network, ReRip wants to promote eco-friendly boarding businesses for those customers looking for new equipment, according to a story by David Berlin that appeared in The San Diego Union-Tribune (“New Life for Old Gear,” Aug. 26, 2007).

Start Small Until You’re Ready for the Big Leagues

Dambacher and Randall, as the ReRip homepage says, aim at “raising awareness one board at a time,” developing their business plan that can appeal to both eco-conscious and cost-conscious consumers.

“The idea is to make it easy for people to recycle equipment instead of throwing it away or buying something brand new,” writes Berlin. Dambacher and Randall acknowledge that “[i]t might not save the polar ice caps all by itself, but it could help.”

Much like frugal parents who start their musically inclined children on pawn shop instruments, or money-strapped college students who troll garage sales, eBay and online classifieds for affordable finds, wannabe extreme sportsters can turn to ReRip to find secondhand starter boards or trade up once they master new tricks—all while saving money and the environment.

ReRip, as Berlin explains “is essentially a Craigslist.com for action-sports items.”

You can get a 6-foot-4-inch epoxy Retro Fish surfboard for $320 from a seller in Oceanside, Calif. Or learn new moves on a Birdhouse skateboard autographed by professional skateboarder Brian Sumner, available for $165. Or grab a $150 M3 snowboard that’s seen a couple of seasons and is now too small for its owner.

Brian Sumner “Liverpool Tone” skateboard.

But the ReRip interchange doesn’t stop at just boards. Find skis, ski boots and other gear to hit the slope; helmets, longboards and wheels to shred up the park, and wetsuits and fins to ride the waves.

Taking Eco-Boarding to the Next Level

Eventually, Dambacher, a child development counselor, and Randall, a fitness manager, want to expand ReRip from a used product intermediary into a forum where action-sports enthusiasts can also buy new equipment that, in keeping with the company’s green outlook, is made with environmentally friendly products like Biofoam^™.

Homeblown US, which manufactures Biofoam, incorporates the material in its surfboards. These Biofoam surfblanks are made from a mix that consists of 50 percent agricultural products and replace traditional polyurethane surfblanks. Homeblown claims that using Biofoam produces 36 percent less global warming emissions and reduces non-renewable energy use by 61 percent.

Homeblown US Biofoam surfboard (left) and Biofoam surfblanks (right).

By promoting eco-minded companies like Homeblown, which is generating press for its Biofoam boards, ReRip hopes to attract boarders who support green initiatives but may not necessarily want to confine themselves to used equipment.

As Dambacher says in Berlin’s article, “We understand people want new things, but we want to say, ‘OK, if you’re going to buy it new, buy it from this company because they’re doing X, Y and Z, and it’s easier on the planet.”

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit

Refashioning IKEA: Do-It-Yourself Low-Cost Makeovers

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 11 Sep 2007 17:55:00 GMT

When you first shop at IKEA, you may be seduced by its modern furniture with sleek lines and space-saving features. You can’t help but “ooh” at the glass-enclosed displays of furniture-battering electric arms that show off just how much force IKEA furniture can withstand. This demonstration of durability may sell you on a stalwart red armchair you may otherwise have skipped.

And as you wander throughout the store, you may find yourself shelling out for decorative and complementary accessories like coordinating photo frames, kitchen bowls, shower curtains and floating shelves.

Once home, you rip open your flat boxes with giddy abandon and assemble life into furniture with inscrutable names like “skruvsta,” “leksvik” and “dalselv.” You applaud yourself for transforming your space from drab to fab.

But at some point, the love affair with your hip items sours.

As your sense of décor evolves, the luster of that red coffee table, plain pine bench or white armchair that you couldn’t wait to get home two years ago wears off and your furniture may seem more shabby than chic.

But if you think that means your IKEA investments are headed to the curb or the Craigslist free section, think again.

With a few do-it-yourself modifications, you can put your own modern spin on your Swedish goods and reinvent them into something that suits your new style. Give yourself a whole new living room without buying a single new piece of furniture.

If you think it can’t be done, take a tour through IKEA Hacker. This blog dedicated to the radical metamorphosis of IKEA pieces will prove it’s possible, and IKEA aficionados throughout the world are doing it.

Breathe, er … Hack, New Life Into Your IKEA Wares

Thanks to blog creator Mei Mei Yap, a 37-year-old copywriter who works at a Malaysian ad agency by day and trolls for IKEA hacks by night, you have a library of ideas for how to revamp almost anything IKEA.

Having trouble picturing what to do with your ribba frame? Add a kort art card and an alarm clock, and you’ve got your own funky, one-of-a-kind clock.

Tired of your Benjamin stool? Chop its legs off to convert it into a portable laptop desk.

See your pine tabletop reborn as a blond electric guitar.

Make old IKEA shower curtains into a dress and IKEA linens into a shopping tote.

Or use the colorful patterns to transform a plain white IKEA orgel floor lamp into a luminous work of art.

Recycle and reconstruct your furniture to make something completely new, or repurpose items like stolmen wardrobe cabinets into a floating media storage solution.

Yap categorizes her IKEA hacks by function: accessories, audio-visual, bathroom, bedroom, furniture, craft, media storage, and work station. She also features ideas for wall décor, pet furniture and lighting.

Whether you’re stuck on a budget or in an interior decoration rut, try her creative remodelings, or use her ideas as a launching point for ingenious transformations of your own.

You may find yourself agreeing with a blog visitor who goes by the name of Baly who describes the blog as an “instant obsession.” And like Baly, after one look through IKEA Hacker, you may feel your “crafty glands waking up again.”

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit

Kickin’ It with Craigslist: Facebook Offers New Marketplace Classifieds

Student Loan Girl — Tue, 29 May 2007 18:15:00 GMT

You might say that Craigslist is a bit like an old friend—we have been through a lot together. It is a great place for college students to hang out and find and sell all kinds of stuff. I even have received tons of part-time gigs off my local Craigslist and made some good money as well.

So, when I heard the news that Facebook was coming out with a new classified ads offering called “Marketplace Classifieds,” I was sad. In light of the once popular Friendster recently having fallen from grace (no longer as popular as it once was), I thought perhaps Craigslist may follow suit.

My thinking was that with Facebook’s 22 million users, its new Marketplace Classifieds would put a huge dent in Craigslist, and that maybe it would fade away into oblivion. Thankfully, that is not likely to be the case.

Here Comes Facebook

According to the May 13, 2007 ZDNet blog by Donna Bogatin, titled “Craigslist vs. Facebook? Why Craigslist wins, big time,” found at http://blogs.zdnet.com/micro-markets/?p=1338, Facebook may THINK that its new service may be a threat to Craigslist, but after careful consideration, I no longer think so. The blog entry states that, “In teasing a classifieds ‘Facebook Marketplace’ offering via a CEO Mark Zuckerberg briefing for the New York Times Friday, the Facebook message apparently was ‘Craigslist, here we come!’ ”

The blog goes on to report about the interview, saying “‘Facebook, the social networking Web site, is adding free classified ad listings, putting it into competition with dozens of established companies like Craigslist and many newspapers.’” This officially happened Friday, May 11, 2007.

Facebook Adds Twist to Classifieds

Just like with Craigslist, users can choose a city to browse for stuff, sell their things, and look for jobs, apartments or housing around their campus. Granted Facebook just got started, so it will not have anywhere near the volume of classifieds that Craigslist has, but with 22 million Facebook users, that all may change relatively quickly.

Besides Craigslist being super easy to navigate and almost intuitively simple for posting ads and doing virtually everything, Facebook may face a challenge in proving itself in the online ad community. Also, when considering that Craigslist has turned down all buyout offers and largely refuses to play the corporate game, Facebook may find that it really does not threaten Craigslist after all.

The biggest difference I have found? With Facebook’s Marketplace Classifieds not only can you search and post ads to the entire community (as with Craigslist), but you also can restrict access and postings to your network of friends, contacts or designated Facebook groups. Why would you NOT want to expose your listings to the entire community? Really, I am not sure, since the more people that see your ad, the more likely it is that you will sell it. Only time will tell how well the Facebook formula works.

New College Classified Site

Another really cool college-related classified ads site I just discovered that “lets you target specific schools” is www.collegemedium.com. I have not thoroughly checked it out, but from what I can see, it looks promising. It has that new Web 2.0 look and not the clunky “old school” look and feel of Craigslist, which many purists prefer.

The Education Finance Advisors at NextStudent can help you figure in all your college expenses so that you get the student loan that best suits your needs. Don’t get caught short. Go to www.nextstudent.com for all your student loan needs.

Check back here next Friday for my next blog on Campus Life.

Student Loan Girl

Share this post: email this | del.icio.us | reddit