How to Sell Textbooks Online in the UK: A Student's Guide for 2026

The best place to sell university textbooks depends on what you've got. Current-edition course texts sell for £10–25 to individual buyers on marketplaces. Outdated editions are worth pennies anywhere. The single most important thing you can do is check whether your edition is still on the reading list before you spend any time listing it.

If you've just finished your degree, or you're clearing out before the new academic year, here's where to sell and what to expect.

How much are university textbooks actually worth?

More than most books, but the range is enormous.

Medicine, nursing, and dentistry: £15–30. High cover prices and guaranteed demand every September. Anatomy atlases, pharmacology references, and clinical handbooks hold value better than almost any other category of book.

Law: £10–25. Core texts like contract, tort, and criminal law sell reliably. The catch is that new editions come frequently, so timing matters more here than in most subjects.

STEM: £10–20. Engineering, maths, and computing texts hold value well, and some classics stay on reading lists for a decade. If your textbook is a "standard text" rather than a specific edition requirement, it can stay sellable for years.

Business and economics: £8–15. Solid demand but a lot of supply, since these are among the most popular degree subjects in the UK.

Humanities and social sciences: £5–12. Lower cover prices mean a lower secondhand ceiling. Set texts for popular modules (the ones every English or history student needs) sell better than niche monographs.

GCSE and A-Level revision guides: £3–8. Seasonal demand and huge volume, but low cover prices cap what you can charge.

The rule that trumps everything: the edition must be current. A superseded edition is worth almost nothing regardless of subject. Nobody's buying the 4th edition when the 5th is on the reading list. Check your university's current reading list or the publisher's website before listing.

When is the best time to sell university textbooks?

Late August to early October. Freshers and returning students are buying for the new academic year, often working through reading lists with a maintenance loan that just landed. Demand and prices both peak in this window.

January. A smaller second spike as semester-two modules start and students buy for new courses.

Avoid May–July. Everyone who just finished exams is selling at once. Supply floods in, prices sag. If you've just sat your finals and can bear to wait, holding until August is worth real money — the same book can fetch £20 in September and £5 in June.

Where to sell university textbooks in the UK

Sell Your Shelf

Full disclosure: I built this, so weigh accordingly. You film your shelf with your phone, the AI identifies each book and checks live market pricing, and your listings go up in about 90 seconds. Textbooks work particularly well because the pricing data stops you underselling — a textbook you'd guess is worth £5 might be selling for £18, and the app catches that.

When something sells, you ship it for £2.50 (paid by the buyer) with a printerless QR code drop-off. You can browse what's currently listed in education and reference to see how others price.

Best for: Selling a stack of textbooks quickly without pricing guesswork.

eBay

Strong prices for high-value individual textbooks — £15–25 for current-edition medical or law texts is realistic. But each book needs its own listing with photos and a description, fees run 12.8% plus 30p, and you handle postage yourself. Textbooks are heavy, so postage costs bite harder than with paperbacks.

Best for: One or two valuable textbooks where the listing effort is justified.

University Facebook groups and noticeboards

Most universities have buy/sell groups where students trade textbooks directly. No fees, no postage if you arrange campus collection, and buyers who need your exact edition. The downsides: posts get buried fast, you're coordinating meetups, there's no pricing data to guide you, and demand only exists during term time.

Best for: Selling to students on your own course, especially niche module texts.

Amazon Marketplace

Amazon takes a larger cut than most platforms — around 20–25% for books, plus a monthly seller fee if you list more than a few items. The buyer pool is huge, though, and textbooks with an ISBN match quickly to existing catalogue entries.

Best for: Textbooks with high demand where Amazon's buyer pool outweighs the fees.

Trade-in services (Ziffit, WeBuyBooks)

They accept some textbooks, but offers are typically £1–3 for books that would fetch £10+ from a student. For current-edition texts this is leaving serious money on the table.

Best for: Outdated editions that nothing else will shift. Something beats nothing.

Campus bookshop buyback schemes

Some university bookshops buy back course texts. Convenient, but offers are usually well below what you'd get selling to another student directly. Check the offer before committing — it's rarely the best deal.

Best for: Convenience when you're leaving halls and out of time.

How to get the best price for university textbooks

Verify the edition first. This is worth repeating because it's the difference between £20 and 20p. Check the current reading list for your course, or search the ISBN on the publisher's site to see if a newer edition exists.

Sell before the new edition drops. Publishers love releasing new editions. If you know a new version is coming, sell the current one before it becomes obsolete — your course tutor or the publisher's website will usually give advance warning.

Mention the module or course. "Contract law textbook — core text for first-year LLB" helps buyers confirm it's the right book. Students search by module, not just title.

Sell access codes honestly. If your textbook came with an online access code, say whether it's been used. A redeemed code is worthless; an unused one adds real value.

Bundle by course year. "Complete first-year law bundle" or "Year 1 mechanical engineering set" sells faster than five individual listings, and freshers love buying a whole reading list in one go. Bundles over £10 also ship free on Sell Your Shelf, which matters when textbooks are heavy.

Annotations can be a selling point. Unlike fiction, marked-up academic texts don't always sell for less. Good marginal notes from a student who got a first are genuinely valuable to some buyers. Be honest about the extent, and mention it if your notes are actually useful.

Price against sold listings, not asking prices. eBay's sold-listings filter shows what textbooks actually fetch, which is often well below what hopeful sellers list them at.

What about revision guides and A-Level books?

GCSE and A-Level revision guides (CGP, Letts, Pearson) sell well but cheaply — typically £3–6 each. The volume is huge because every student needs them, but the low cover price caps what you can charge secondhand.

The smart move with revision guides is timing. List them in August before the school year starts, not in June when everyone else is dumping them. And bundle them by subject — "GCSE Science revision bundle, 4 books" will sell faster than four individual listings.

One thing to watch: curriculum changes can make revision guides obsolete overnight. If the exam board has updated the specification, last year's guide might not cover the right content. Check before you list. There's more detail in our guide to selling GCSE and A-Level revision books.

Frequently asked questions

Are old edition textbooks worth selling?

Usually not, with one exception: if the changes between editions are trivial (a new preface, renumbered chapters), some students deliberately buy the older edition to save money. If the reading list says "any recent edition," yours is still sellable. If it specifies the current edition, an old one is effectively worthless.

Can I sell textbooks with highlighting?

Yes. Academic buyers are far more tolerant of highlighting and notes than fiction buyers. Describe the extent honestly — "light highlighting in first three chapters" — and price slightly below a clean copy.

Is it worth selling Open University books?

Yes — OU course books have a steady market because the same courses run year after year and materials aren't always included in fees. Check the module is still running with the same materials before listing.

How much does it cost to post a textbook?

Heavier than a paperback, so £3–5 for most single textbooks with a tracked service. On Sell Your Shelf, shipping is a flat £2.50 paid by the buyer, which works in your favour for heavy books.

Are international edition textbooks worth selling?

International editions (often printed in India or Southeast Asia) are cheaper to buy new, so they sell for less secondhand. They're also sometimes flagged by platforms. If you have one, be upfront about it in the listing — some buyers actively seek them out for the lower price.

What if I can't find my textbook when I scan the barcode?

Not every textbook has a barcode that matches online databases, especially older editions or international prints. Most platforms also support manual listing by ISBN or title search. On Sell Your Shelf, the AI spine scanning picks up most textbooks automatically, but you can also add books manually using the ISBN barcode scanner.

Should I sell my textbooks or keep them for reference?

Honestly? Most graduates never open their textbooks again, and editions date quickly. If you're in a field where the reference genuinely matters (medicine, law practice), keep the one or two you'll actually use. Sell the rest while the editions are current — a textbook depreciates faster than almost anything else on your shelf.