Sell Student Books.com is the brainchild of 28-year-old Stockport-based web designer Mark Fraser.
Mark has been developing the site for the last 12 months and has attracted a é1m-plus funding deal from a business angel.
He says: "It is the first commercial website to give graduates and students the opportunity to buy to sell academic books.
"The site enables graduates to reduce their debts and clutter by selling unwanted books, while hard-up students can buy them at a fraction of the original price."
Mark, who also runs a web design company, Zero5media, which turns over around é160,000, had the idea for the site a couple of years ago. He has since fine-tuned the site and has been piloting the scheme with a number of universities.
He says: "Until now, we have been promoting the site through viral marketing as well as establishing links with a number of university websites. We have now taken on a number of agencies to market it properly."
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Sell Student Books.com will initially be available to students at universities in the Manchester area but Mark hopes to expand it nationwide in the future.
It is primarily a listings site, where students register to join then upload their books on to the site for sale.
Mark, who says the venture will turn over é500,000 in its first year, has also signed a deal with a book wholesaler and offers new textbooks at discounted prices.
He says: "I wanted to be able the offer a complete service, so if we didn't have the book available second-hand, students would be able to buy it new. I got a very good deal with the supplier and our books are heavily discounted."
Sell Student Books.com has a database of 100,000 second-hand and 700,000 new books, covering every college and university course in the UK.
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