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College Marketplace is the student-only buy and sell app for Lamar University in Beaumont, Texas. Every account is verified with a @lamar.edu email address, so you're only ever trading with other Cardinals — not strangers from Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.

On-campus living at Lamar happens in Cardinal Village, the five-hall residential community made up of Campbell Hall, Combs Hall, Gentry Hall, Monroe Hall and Morris Hall, which together house roughly 2,500 students a few minutes' walk from class. All first-year students who graduated from high school between September and June are required to live on campus and be on the University Meal Plan for their first academic year, so a full class arrives every August furnishing a suite from nothing — and everything you need is already on campus. Lamar students post mini fridges, futons, storage bins, desk lamps, monitors, bikes, and gently used textbooks every semester, usually for a fraction of retail.

Know what's already in the room before you spend money. Cardinal Village is suite-style: a two-person suite gives each resident a private bedroom off a shared living space and bathroom, while a three-person suite has one private bedroom and one shared bedroom with bunk beds. Every bedroom comes with an extra-long twin bed and headboard, dresser drawers, a full-length mirrored closet, a computer desk with lamp, and a desk chair, and the shared living area already includes a couch, side chair, coffee table, end table, sink, and a microwave — so a second microwave is not allowed. Buy XL twin sheets, not regular twin. Lofts and waterbeds are prohibited, and so are window and portable air conditioning units, hot plates, electric skillets, toasters and toaster ovens, crock pots, slow cookers, rice cookers, space heaters, and halogen, heat and lava lamps. Laundry in every hall is free, no card and no quarters, which is one less thing to shop for.

When it's time to hand something over, stay somewhere public and busy. The Setzer Student Center, the Mary and John Gray Library, and the Quad are all central, well-lit and full of people during the day. Meet, look the item over, pay, done — no shipping labels, no delivery fees, no meeting someone off campus.

Popular categories at Lamar: textbooks and course materials · dorm and apartment furniture · mini fridges and microwaves · bikes and scooters · Lamar apparel and game day gear · electronics and monitors · event tickets · lofting kits and bed risers · storage bins and organizers