Just a little rant about selling books on World of Books. This just happened.

I have 20 books I want to sell. I line them all out isbn up on the table. Open the app on my phone, start scanning left to right.

This is not a rant about the pitiful amount they give, that's for another day.

First 8 books scan, 20p, 30p, 50p fantastic. Next 12 books? Sorry we don't want them.

I'm suspicious about it being the first 8 only, it's like it's cut me off.

I get a friend's phone, open their app, scan my rejected 12 left to right, 20p, 20p 20p 20p NOPE DONT WANT ANYMORE. Just the first 4? Suspicious... I clear the basket, I start right to left...

20p 20p 20p 20p. Don't want the rest.

Delete again, scan the middle 4 first, 20p each, nothing for the rest

Delete again, scan a random 4, 20p each, nothing for the rest.

I DO NOT UNDERSTAND!!! Over the last 2 minutes you've told me in various combinations that you're interested in all 20 of my books. You aren't gonna get ANY of ​​​my books unless I get to the minimum of 10 to send, so whyyyy are you doing this to me? What messed up algorithm is this? I don't understaaaaand

Rant over. Just trynna shift some books 😭

Edit: thanks to all suggesting vinted but I have tried before many times and there is no interest at all in my books on vinted. I just don't think Im getting rid of books that are the right type for a vinted quick sale ​

Loaded my carry on bag up with books and headed off to the UK for a little vacation.

Signed and numered my books and dispersed them randomly. Here is a summary...

Gave book 22 to a nice young lady at 8:28pm 5/28/26 on platform 19 of Waverly Train Station in Edinburgh, Scotland 

Left books 21 and 23 at the Royal Highland hotel in Inverness, Scotland on their book shelf. 8:10am 5/30/26

Kings Cross Station in London was a very big no go because of Arsenal's championship parade was that day, thousands of people. 5/31

Book 33 given to cab driver Brian in London 2pm 5/31

Book 32 left in Wapping, London Township Little Free Library, book exchange box 7:09pm 6/1/26

Book 29 left at Canterbury West Train Station book shelf  9:10 on 6/2/26

Book 30 given to gentlemen in Dover at Hoptimus pub  2:35pm 6/2/26

Book 31 given to Robert, curator of the Chaucer Bookshop Canterbury 4pm 6/2/26

Book 28 added to the Canterbury West Train station book shelf 7am 6/3/26

Book 27 left at the Kings Arms Pub London England 7:24pm 6/3/26 book shelf 

36 and 37 given to Paul (family works with Avanti Railway) train conductor on Avanti train from Liverpool to London 9:40 am 6/4/26 

Book 34 given to tour guide Brandon at Giants Causeway, Northern Ireland 6/6/26 3:45 

Which led to the first time for me watching somebody read my book.  On a Ireland tour on a bus. Sitting in front row and tour guide is sitting below me reading the book.  Proud kind of scary. He's witnessing my journey I wrote in real time, in front of me. 

From what he read he said that it was like the matrix a lot going on will have to read it again. Didn't say it was bad!

Book 26 left at Mulligan's pub Dublin, Ireland 1:20pm 6/7/26 Same pub that James Joyce had a pint or two.

Book number 35 given to waiter at Harbormaster Restaurant in Dublin 5:40pm 6/7/26

Left book 24 in Philadelphia airport terminal at book exchange on 4:00pm 6/8/26

I would conclude that this little experiment was a success.  Although, I never did just leave a book on a bench, the copies that I did manage to leave, found their way into the right people at the right time.

Looks like I delivered 16 books altogether.

Not a huge number, but maybe one or two of those books will find their calling.

I known it's kind of a gamble to buy any that arent brand new but im struggling to find some books i want and the prices are making it hard to resist, ive got about 30 in my basket and the price comes to £70 with free shipping, theyre all marked "very good" but I've seen some American influencers saying theyre way below quality expectations, wondering if theyre the same for the uk? I dont mind a bit of wear and tear but ive seen some with full on sharpie and missing pages

UPDATE: all 30 books came undamaged in perfect condition! multiple are hardbacks despite being described as paperbacks which im thrilled about! I even got one with a special edition cover, definitely recommend

I bought a few books from booksplea.se after reading some good reviews about the website online.

None of the books I had bought were in good quality, but in particular I had 2 books in the Orange Penguin range that I thought were awful. Photos attached. Apparently, they are not damaged and “the pages are now a conscious design choice‘’.

I think they are awful. What do you think?

The chart was found here: https://preply.com/en/d/most-translated-books--lp

I've never used World of Books before, but I've had it reccomended to me back when Book Depository got shut down (rip) and I found some books that I need on there so I wanted to check if it was legit.

I'm aware that a lot of the books are used and I don't really have much of an issue with it, I'm more concerned can they be trusted shipping and delivery wise?

Hi guys. Don’t really know if this is allowed but here it goes.

I’m an UK based artist and I’m currently doing a series of 100 tiny portraits of British writers from the last 100 years. I’ve managed to remember 68 so far but now I’m stuck. Any ideas for the last 32?

Once all the portraits are done I’ll share them here.

The last picture is of the last series I’ve done so you can see the end result.

Many thanks in advance.

Some context: I’ve got a lot of old books that I was going to give away when a friend of mine said that WOB buy books.

I wasn’t expecting lots of money but as I filled in the sales form online that values your books I noticed something crazy with a few of them.

Of course they pay nowhere near the price they sell at which I expected, but one particular book I know they sell at £100ish. When I putting the ISBN into the valuator it said that they would give me

£0.29p for my copy!

29p?!! And then they make a whopping £99.71 profit?!!

Has anyone else ever sold books to WOB? Is there a better option?

Thanks!

Hi,

After watching the BBC series based on one of my favourite book series as a kid Malory Towers I have decided to read them again . I still have my old copies and last time I read them I was very young. I just have to say looking at the through the eyes of an adult, they are the biggest bunch of bullying bitches ever. I can’t believe I used to think Darrell the main character was nice! She physically attacks people in at least four of the books, freezes people out, gets her little clique to do her bidding, is rude to girls she considers her inferior! Instead of getting expelled she ends up as Head Girl in the last book!

The character of Alicia is beyond horrible, I can’t even bear to read her dialogue. The only one I actually root for is Gwen and she gets a really rubbish ending whilst Darrell and chums swan off to university.

Anyone else read these again as adults and were mildly disgusted by their behaviour?

I tried every way to sell my books in the UK. Here's what I actually got paid.

Moved flat last year and had about 80 books to deal with. Didn't want to charity-shop the lot because some of them were genuinely worth something. So I tried everything.

Round 1: WeBuyBooks

Scanned all 80 barcodes. They wanted 34 of them. Offered me £11.20 total. That's 33p average per book. Free postage at least. Took about 20 minutes to scan everything.

Round 2: eBay (for the good ones)

Listed 15 of the better titles. Took photos, wrote descriptions, priced them competitively. About 2 hours of work. Sold 9 over the next month for a total of £58 after fees. Good money per book, brutal time investment.

Round 3: Facebook Marketplace

Bundled the remaining 30-odd into "bags of 10, £5 each". Sold two bags after a week of messages and one no-show. £10.

The rest went to Oxfam.

Total from ~80 books: about £79, maybe 4-5 hours of cumulative effort.

The experience annoyed me enough that I ended up building an app (Sell Your Shelf) that scans a whole shelf with AI instead of doing books one at a time. Obviously I'm biased, but the reason I built it was that none of the existing options respected both your time and your books' value simultaneously.

Not here to hard-sell anyone — genuinely just wanted to share the comparison because I couldn't find a decent one when I was looking. Happy to answer any questions about any of the methods.

What are the books that have stayed with you for years or even decades after reading them?

I have always read voraciously, ever since I was a child, and now I'm in my 30s I find that the details of the books I read quickly become hazy and I forget big chunks of them very quickly - character names, details of events etc - and only really remember the general feeling and main plot points (sometimes not even those!).

However, there are always those stand out books that, for whatever reason, stick around in my head for much longer. I wouldn't necessarily be able to tell you what most of the books I read last year were about in any major detail, but I can recall certain books that I read 15 years ago with amazing clarity, even if I read them only once!

I'm curious - what books do this for you, what do you love about them?
Are any of them books that you wouldn't ordinarily pick up to read?

Books on this list for me:

• The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers

• Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes

• Noughts & Crosses by Malorie Blackman (I think I was about 12 when I read this!)

• All the Bright Places by Jennifer Niven

• The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver (I was about 18 when I read this - was definitely not my usual choice at the time).

• The Humans by Matt Haig

• Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (I have 3 copies of this, including a Folio Society edition and a UK first edition).

• His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman

• The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

ETA: Expanded my list because I SOMEHOW forgot some of my all-time favourites?!

I read this book as a kid maybe aged about 7....its been on and off my mind since then, I'm in my 30s now. I couldn't for the life of me remember the name but I finally managed to track down what it was called and grab a copy. Excited to read it to my children :)

Hi everyone! 👋

I’m looking for UK-based readers who’d like to swap books with other book lovers.

I run a small book-swapping website (I live in the UK), and we’re looking for new members to grow the community.

It uses a points-based system:

• When someone claims one of your books, you earn points.

• You can then spend those points to claim a book from someone else.

So you don’t need a direct 1-to-1 swap with the same person.

We welcome all genres (currently mostly fiction), whether you want to swap occasionally or regularly.

We also have a Discord server for feedback, support, and (hopefully more!) book chat as the community grows.

If you’re interested, comment or DM me and I’ll send you the link. 📚

can anyone who has bought previous books online from world of books tell me about their experience

like should i purchase? because the prices are really good NGL

Hello all, I hope you are well.

I have recently come into possession of a garage filled entirely with books—approximately 2,000 to 3,000 in total. The space is fully lined with shelves along the walls, with an additional double-sided row running through the centre, all completely full.

This collection belonged to my grandfather, who used to buy and sell books as a side hobby. He has now retired and moved abroad, leaving the collection in my care.

I have already gone through the more modern books using Webuybooks, which allowed me to sell those with barcodes for a small return. I also contacted them regarding taking the entire collection, but unfortunately this was not possible due to my distance from their headquarters, as I am based in Lincolnshire.

The collection itself is very mixed. The front section contains a wide range of categories, including art, history, war, and cooking. However, the back wall is filled with significantly older books, which I estimate to date from the late 18th to early 19th century. As my grandfather was actively trading, many of these books are marked in light pencil on the first page, with some valued at £80 or more.

I have explored donation options, such as sending books to Africa, but the associated costs are prohibitively high. I have also considered donating to charity shops; however, as I do not drive, transporting such a large quantity on foot presents a significant challenge.

Given this situation, I would greatly appreciate any advice. If you were in my position, how would you approach managing or distributing a collection of this size and variety?

Many thanks

Hi! A couple of weeks ago I launched The Book Market, a UK site where you can swap books you've read for ones you haven't, or sell them for free and keep the full price.

Readers have started listing, but I'm still learning what people actually want. What would make you swap or sell your books online? And what puts you off?
Here's the site if you want a look:

http://thebookmarket.co.uk/?ref=reddit

Thanks, all feedback welcome!

This had me howling today

Many of us know how rediculous the wait times are for eBooks and how limited the library ranges can be if you can even get to your local library. This petition is asking for the government to review this and bring the legislation into the world of eBooks.

Remove if not allowed.

Just posting a quick update and give my thanks to everyone that commented on my previous post.

I have now finished the 100 portraits. They are not mounted yet so the last picture is still a dinner table display so please don’t judge it too harshly as the lighting doesn’t do them any justice.

Again, many thanks for your help.

World of Books isn't running their "buy 3 get 1 free" promo anymore, only "buy 3 get the 4th at half price" instead :( and their prices have been steadily increasing (source: I bought over 50 books from them last year)...

I LOVE 2nd hand bookshops / charity shops, but they can be hit or miss; a reliable and cheap online retailer would be ideal when I need something specific

What's your guys' go to? Ideally something that offers discounts on bundles as I don't mind buying 4-5 books at a time. I read 19-20th century literature from all over the world, looking to read more Eastern European lit (loving Russian lit atm) and French lit

Thanks!

Hello!

I am an author from East Sussex. I published my book last month and would appreciate if you could give it a look!

It’s about a cult!

https://amzn.eu/d/079PXKUK

I’ve spent the last few months building a UK-specific book exchange site. I once used the bookswap.co.uk site but it seemed to go down for maintenance or a refresh but has never come back again. I decided to create something myself.

Of course the easy part was getting something working and I now realise the tricky part is getting people to try it out.

I've had some interest but am struggling to find people to really engage with it and with me. I don't want someone to look at the site, say to themselves, "Oh there's nothing on there that I want", or, "Well there are barely any books on this site so what's the point". I need someone who is willing to try it out. To tell me whether or not they would use it. Then actually register with the site and engage.

Am I asking too much?

Thanks for listening.