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College Marketplace is the student-only buy and sell app for Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. Every account is verified with a @drake.edu email address, so you're only ever trading with other Bulldogs — not strangers from Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.

Where Bulldogs buy and sell

Drake's campus is small enough that everything is a walk. Most first-year students are in Carpenter, Crawford, Herriott, or Stalnaker; upper-class students move into Goodwin-Kirk or off to Drake West Village and Campus Suites at Dogtown, with Jewett Hall covering interim and summer housing. Bulldogs post futons, storage bins, desk lamps, monitors, seating, bikes, and gently used textbooks every semester — usually for a fraction of retail. Same rule applies: verified students only, and the person on the other end is someone you'd pass on the way to class.

The futon rule — check this before you buy one

Drake publishes an exact spec that catches people out: if you want a futon to fit under a lofted bed, it must measure shorter than 80 inches. Buying a longer one means it simply won't go where you planned. Drake also caps refrigerators at 4.2 cubic feet and microwaves at 700 watts, and prohibits extension cords, halogen lamps, coffee pots, toasters, and George Foreman-type appliances outright — unapproved items get confiscated. Check the measurements and the wattage before you pay for anything secondhand.

Put the furniture back

Drake charges a $45 furniture reset fee if you leave your room without returning furniture to its original position and bed height. Worth factoring into your move-out day, and a reason to sell your stuff before the last minute rather than during the scramble.

Meeting up on campus

Handoffs happen at landmarks everybody already knows. The Olmsted Center, Cowles Library, the Bell Center, and Hubbell Dining Hall are all short walks from the residence halls. Campus is compact enough that most handoffs take five minutes. No shipping labels, no delivery fees, no driving across Des Moines to meet someone off Craigslist.

The weeks that matter most

For 2026–27, first-year move-in is August 19, 2026 and transfer move-in is August 18. All residence halls close December 12, 2026 for winter break and reopen January 23, 2027. At the end of the year, Carpenter, Crawford and Stalnaker close at noon on May 16, 2027, with Goodwin-Kirk and Herriott closing at noon on May 17. Those closures are hard deadlines — if you're selling, post before finals rather than after.

Popular categories at Drake: textbooks and course materials · futons and seating · mini fridges and microwaves · dorm and apartment furniture · storage bins and organizers · winter gear · bikes · Drake apparel and game day gear · electronics and monitors