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

The best time to sell university textbooks is August and September, when students are buying for the new academic year. The best place depends on how quickly you need the money and how much effort you're willing to put in.

If you're finishing exams and want your textbooks gone, here's everything you need to know.

How much are university textbooks worth?

More than you'd think — but only if the edition is still current.

A textbook that's on this year's reading list can sell for £10–25 secondhand, depending on the subject and original price. Medical, law, and engineering texts tend to hold their value best because the cover prices are higher and students have no choice but to buy them.

A textbook that's been superseded by a newer edition is essentially worthless. Nobody's buying the 4th edition when the 5th is on the reading list. Check your university's current course pages or ask a student in the year below before listing.

Rough guide by subject:

• Medicine and nursing: £15–30 (high original price, always in demand)
• Law: £10–25 (new editions every few years, so timing matters)
• Engineering and computing: £10–20 (some classics hold value for years)
• Business and economics: £8–15 (lots of copies in circulation)
• Humanities and social sciences: £5–12 (cheaper to buy new, so lower secondhand ceiling)
• GCSE and A-Level revision guides: £3–8 (seasonal demand, huge volume)

When should I sell my textbooks?

Timing is everything with textbooks. The same book that fetches £20 in September might go for £5 in January.

August–September is the peak. First-year students are buying set texts before term starts, and they're looking for secondhand copies to save money. This is when you'll get the highest price with the fastest sale.

January sees a smaller spike for second-semester modules that have different reading lists.

May–June is the worst time to sell. Everyone's finishing exams and trying to offload their books simultaneously. Supply floods the market and prices drop.

If you've just finished your final exams and can bear to wait, hold your textbooks until August. The price difference is significant.

Where to sell textbooks in the UK

Trade-in services (Ziffit, WeBuyBooks)

They'll buy textbooks, but the offers are low — typically £1–3 for books that would sell for £10+ to another student. The convenience is the only selling point: scan the barcode, post them for free, get paid in a few days.

Best for: Textbooks you've already checked and know are outdated editions. Get something rather than nothing.

eBay

Good prices for textbooks — often £10–20 for current editions. But you're listing each book individually with photos, managing questions from buyers, and handling postage yourself. For one or two valuable textbooks it's worth it. For a stack of ten, it's a time sink.

Best for: High-value individual textbooks where the effort of a detailed listing is justified by the price.

Your university's buy/sell group

Most universities have a Facebook group or forum where students buy and sell textbooks directly. No fees, no postage (if you arrange campus collection), and buyers who know exactly which edition they need.

The downside: these groups are seasonal and disorganised. Your post gets buried within hours, and there's no pricing data to help you set a fair price.

Best for: Selling to students at your own university, especially for niche course texts.

Sell Your Shelf

Full disclosure — I built this. You film your shelf and the AI identifies each book, checks live market pricing, and creates the listings. When a book sells, you ship it for £2.50 and the buyer pays the shipping.

For textbooks specifically, the advantage is pricing accuracy. The app checks what each textbook is actually selling for right now, so you're not guessing. You can browse what's currently listed to get a feel for how it works.

Best for: Selling multiple textbooks at once without spending hours on individual listings.

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 large buyer pool outweighs the fees.

How to get the best price for your textbooks

Check the edition is current. This is the single most important thing. An outdated edition won't sell at any price. Check your university's reading list or ask a current student.

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 you advance warning.

Remove your highlighting and notes — or don't. This is debatable. Some buyers prefer clean copies. Others actively seek out annotated textbooks from students who did well. If your notes are genuinely useful (not just random highlighting), mention it in the description. It can be a selling point.

Bundle course packs. If you've got three or four books from the same course, listing them as a bundle can attract buyers who want the complete set. "First-year law bundle — Contract, Tort, and Public Law" is more appealing than three separate listings.

Include any extras. Access codes, companion workbooks, and supplementary materials add value — but only if they haven't been used. An expired online access code is worthless; mention that it's been redeemed so buyers aren't surprised.

Price slightly below the lowest current listing. If other copies of the same textbook are listed at £15, price yours at £13–14. For textbooks, buyers are comparing identical products and will pick the cheapest one in acceptable condition every time.

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.

Frequently asked questions

Can I sell textbooks with highlighting in them?

Yes. Light highlighting and marginal notes are generally accepted by buyers, especially for academic texts. Heavy highlighting throughout the book will knock the price down. Be honest about the extent of the annotations in your listing.

Should I sell textbooks back to my university bookshop?

If your university has a buyback scheme, check the offer before committing. Most institutional buyback programmes offer less than you'd get selling directly to another student. They're convenient but rarely the best deal.

How much does it cost to post a textbook?

A single textbook typically costs £2.50–3.50 to post with a tracked service in the UK. Heavier textbooks (medical, engineering) can push towards £4–5. Some platforms include shipping labels that reduce this cost.

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.