What to Do with Old University Textbooks in the UK: Sell, Donate, or Recycle?

Quick answer: check whether the book is still wanted, then pick one of four routes. Sell current editions in decent condition, on a marketplace at your own price or to a buyback service for a quick quote. Donate clean older editions. Recycle books that are damaged beyond use. Most kerbside bins won't take hardback or glued books, so use a recycling centre.

Start by checking what your books are worth. Value one ISBN, or use Sell My Shelf to check up to 30 books at once. If a book is in demand, list it free, set the price and keep 100% of it when it sells.

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First, is your textbook worth selling?

The answer depends on the exact ISBN, so it's worth a 30-second check before you do anything else.

A textbook is worth selling if it is a current or recent edition, readable, and still on a reading list. Medicine, law, nursing, economics, engineering and professional exam titles are good places to start, but demand depends on the exact edition.

A textbook is worth donating if it is out of date but still clean. Recycle it if it is water-damaged, mouldy, falling apart or missing pages.

If you're not sure, run the ISBN through the free textbook value checker and compare copies on a few of the sites in our best second-hand textbook websites guide. No result doesn't prove a book is worthless. It means you need to look a bit further.

Option 1: Sell them

Selling is the only option that gets you money back. There are two routes.

Sell directly to other students

A student marketplace like UniBookTrade puts your book in front of people looking for that exact title, often because they're about to take the course you just finished.

• Free to list, no seller fees: you keep 100% of your asking price.
• You set the price, so you're not stuck with an automated low offer.
• Prepaid tracked postage: a sale creates an Evri booking with a printable label or a printerless ParcelShop QR code.
• Paid after delivery: money goes to your bank once delivery is confirmed.
• ISBN lookup: scan the barcode and the listing details fill in for you.

The trade-off is that you list each book and wait for a buyer, so good timing helps (see below). Buyers on UBT typically pay 40–60% below the publisher's RRP, which is why current editions sell.

Sell to a buyback service

WeBuyBooks and Sell Your Books by World of Books (formerly Ziffit) give instant quotes for books they accept and provide free postage. WeBuyBooks has a £7.50 minimum basket. World of Books pays by PayPal, bank transfer or cheque.

Buyback suits you if speed and certainty matter more than price. A buyback company has to resell at a profit, so its offer for a current textbook is usually below what a student would pay. Compare a quote for your exact ISBN with marketplace prices first: our where to sell textbooks guide sets the options side by side.

Check the market for your course

• Open University materials: record the module code, publication year and included volumes. Use the OU edition checklist.
• Professional exam books: a passed exam doesn't make a book current for the next sitting. Check ACCA editions, CIMA and AAT books or SQE books.
• Medical textbooks: make the edition and condition clear. Our medical textbook selling checklist covers photos and pricing.

How to get the best price

• Time it right. Demand rises before term starts (late August to early October) and before semester two (December to January). List before those windows, not during them. Our guide to the best time to sell textbooks covers the timing in more detail.
• Price with the market. Compare active listings and, where you can, recent sold prices for your exact ISBN. Condition and demand matter more than the original cover price.
• Tidy it up. Clean the cover, rub out pencil notes where you can, and be honest about highlighting or damage.
• Photograph it properly. Clear photos of the cover, spine, ISBN and any wear help buyers trust the listing.
• Get the edition right. International and revised editions have different ISBNs. State exactly which one you have.

For a full walkthrough, see how to sell your old uni textbooks online. Ready? List your books in a couple of minutes →

Option 2: Donate them

If a book isn't worth selling, donating keeps a usable copy in circulation.

• Oxfam shops take book donations at most branches, subject to local capacity, and offer a postal route.
• British Heart Foundation shops list quality books among the goods they accept.
• Campus reuse schemes at some universities collect textbooks at the end of the year or run book swaps.
• University libraries have collection criteria, so ask before turning up with a box.

Our UK textbook donation directory has current official links, regional campus contacts and a sell, donate or recycle decision guide. Don't assume a charity wants an outdated medical, law or exam text: those often can't be resold.

Option 3: Recycle them

Some books are finished: water-damaged, mouldy, falling apart or incomplete.

Recycle Now says books aren't usually accepted in kerbside paper recycling because of the glue in their bindings. Some recycling centres take them, so use its postcode finder through our donation and recycling directory and follow your local centre's rules.

University buyback schemes

Some universities have end-of-term buyback events where a bookshop or outside company makes an on-the-spot offer. They're convenient, with no listing or postage, but they often run for only a short time and accept only certain editions. If yours runs one, compare the offer for your ISBN with marketplace prices first.

Do you pay tax on selling old textbooks?

Selling a few of your own possessions doesn't automatically mean tax is due. It depends on why you bought the items, whether you're trading, and your wider circumstances. Clearing books you bought for your course is different from buying books in order to resell them at a profit.

HMRC has a short online-platform income checker and guidance on the trading allowance. Use the current official guidance, and keep records if you regularly buy and resell.

This is general information, not tax advice. Check your circumstances with HMRC or a qualified adviser.

The bottom line

Don't leave good textbooks in a box. Run the quick value check, then:

• Good condition and still in demand? Sell them on UniBookTrade. It's free to list and you keep 100% of your asking price.
• Want them gone today? Get a buyback quote and accept a lower price for speed.
• Not worth selling? Donate them to a charity shop, library or campus scheme.
• Beyond saving? Take them to a recycling centre that accepts books.
• Novels and manga on the same shelf? See selling your books that aren't for your course.

Buying for next term as well? See the cheapest ways to buy university textbooks before you pay full price.

Sell your old textbooks now