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

SMU runs its on-campus housing through the Residential Commons, and every first-year undergraduate is required to live in one. New Mustangs are sorted into Armstrong Commons, Boaz Commons, Cockrell-McIntosh Commons, Crum Commons, Kathy Crow Commons, Loyd Commons, Mary Hay/Peyton/Shuttles Commons, McElvaney Commons, Morrison-McGinnis Commons, Virginia-Snider Commons, or Ware Commons, and they keep that Commons affiliation for the rest of their time at SMU even after they move out. Returning and upper-division students shift into Hilltop Heights, Martin Hall, Moore Hall, Smith-Perkins Hall, SMU Service House and Thomas House, or into the Hillcrest Manor and Red Door Apartment communities. With that many students living within a few blocks of each other, everything you need is already on campus. SMU students post mini fridges, futons, storage bins, desk lamps, monitors, bikes, and gently used textbooks every semester — usually for a fraction of retail.

Rooms come furnished, which shapes what's actually worth buying secondhand. Each resident gets a desk, chair, bed and dresser, with a pedestal in most Commons, plus wired and wireless internet; electricity, water, sewer and trash service are rolled into the housing rate. The bed frames are listed at 85 inches long by 38 inches wide, so standard twin sheets will not fit and extra-long twin bedding is the safe buy. Lofted beds are requested through the housing portal, while concrete blocks, bricks and boards, homemade lofts, risers and waterbeds are all prohibited. University furniture has to stay in the room, and nothing can be bolted, screwed, nailed or glued to the walls — painter's tape, poster putty and a limited number of pushpins and 20-pound picture hangers are the workaround. Hoverboards and motorized scooters are banned from all SMU housing.

Meet somewhere public and busy. The Hughes-Trigg Student Center, Fondren Library, and the Dallas Hall lawn are easy to find and full of people most of the day. Hand off the item, split in five minutes, and get on with your day: no shipping labels, no delivery fees, no meeting someone off campus.

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