BITS Marketplace
01 / How it works

Three roles, one summer-long handover.

Graduating seniors leave behind useful things, volunteers store them safely over the summer, and incoming juniors pre-book the essentials before they reach campus. Here's exactly how each piece works.

02 / Donors

Graduating seniors

  1. 1
    Sign in with your BITS email
    We use a one-time code sent to your @hyderabad.bits-pilani.ac.in address. No passwords, ever.
  2. 2
    Add your mobile number once
    On first sign-in we ask for a phone number so we can coordinate pickups. You decide whether peers and volunteers can see it — by default it stays private and they can only reach you by email.
  3. 3
    Submit a donation with photos
    On the donate page, list each item, pick a category and condition, and upload at least one photo per item(up to five). The photos become our shared baseline — they let us track damage during transport and help juniors see what they're booking.
  4. 4
    Pick a pickup date and hostel
    Anything within the next 90 days. We hold onto items in volunteer storage until the next batch arrives.
03 / Volunteers

Current students

  1. 1
    Apply through /volunteers
    We accept volunteer sign-ups first-come-first-served. Once we're full, additional applications land on a waitlist — admins promote waitlisters when slots free up.
  2. 2
    Tell us when you can help
    Pick the days you can help with pickups. We only assign items on the days you choose.
  3. 3
    We pair you with the pickup
    Based on the days you said you're free and the donor's hostel, we assign you the right items and surface the donor's contact info in My pickups so you can confirm the handover. No browsing, no claiming — just say yes when the work lands.
  4. 4
    Mark collected with a photo
    Take 1–5 photos of each item as you receive it. They're stored separately from the donor's photos so any damage between drop-off and warehouse intake is on record.
  5. 5
    You get paid for the items you held
    The proceeds from each subsidised sale go directly to the volunteer who held the item through the summer. Rates are still being finalised; you'll see them before your assignments confirm. The platform doesn't take a cut today.
04 / Juniors

Incoming students

  1. 1
    Browse open pre-bookings
    When the window opens (usually mid-summer), the pre-book page lists donated items at heavily subsidised prices. First-come-first-served.
  2. 2
    Reserve before you arrive
    One click locks the item to you. We keep it in storage until you reach campus.
  3. 3
    See the volunteer's contact
    On My bookings, you'll see the volunteer holding your item — phone if they've opted to share it, otherwise email. Coordinate pickup at a time that works for both of you.

Privacy: the phone-number toggle

Every account collects a phone number once during onboarding. Whether it's shared with peers and volunteers is up to you — we ship with the private setting on, so by default everyone reaches out by email. You can flip the toggle any time. Admins always see the number for support purposes.

Photos: why we ask for them twice

Donors photograph each item before pickup. Volunteers photograph each item again at pickup. Juniors see one of those when they pre-book. If something turns up damaged on hand-off day, the two photo sets let us answer the question fairly: did the damage happen before, during, or after the volunteer collected it?