The short version
- Typical range: £3 – £15 — see the full cookbooks value guide
- What decides your price: condition, and how well you evidence it in photographs
- Cost to sell here: nothing, at any price
- Category: Books
Before you photograph it
Ten minutes here is worth more than anything else you will do. Buyers are deciding between your listing and someone else’s, and preparation is what visibly separates the two.
- Check the pages for cooking splashes, particularly around the popular recipes, and the spine for cracking.
- Note the author, edition and publication year, and whether it is signed.
- Sort by cuisine or author if you are bundling, since that is how buyers browse.
The photographs that sell cookbooks
Four photographs do almost all the work. Shoot in daylight, near a window, with the item against something plain — and do not use the flash, which flattens texture and hides exactly what buyers are trying to see.
- The cover face on, whole
- The spine, showing any cracking
- A representative page spread
- The title page with edition and year, plus any splash, tear or inscription
Photograph the flaws too. It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover. Buyers who can see the damage stop imagining something worse.
Writing the title and description
Author, title and edition: “Ottolenghi Simple, Hardback, First Edition” or “Bundle of 5 Italian Cookbooks”. Author name is the search and carries most of the value. Say hardback or paperback and whether it is signed, which matters on celebrity chef titles.
Then state these in the description, because a buyer who has to ask is a buyer who might not bother:
- Author, title, publisher and year
- Hardback or paperback, and edition
- Whether signed or inscribed
- Page and spine condition, including any cooking splashes
What buyers will actually ask
You will receive the same three messages about cookbooks. Answering them in the listing itself removes the back-and-forth, and answering them well when they do arrive is what turns an enquiry into a sale.
Check around the most-used recipes and say. Splashes are extremely common on cookbooks and buyers accept them; discovering them is the problem.
Photograph the title page. Signed copies from well-known chefs are worth considerably more and it is easily overlooked.
Check the copyright page. Recipes and photography change between editions and buyers often want a specific one.
Pricing it so it actually sells
Start from the honest condition grade rather than the price you hope for. WishThrift listings use five grades — New with Tags, Like New, Good, Fair and For Parts — and what each grade means is worth reading before you choose, because grading up is the most expensive mistake sellers make. It does not raise the price; it produces a buyer who arrives expecting something else.
The cookbooks value guide prices all five grades for this item. Pick your grade, take the figure, and if you sit between two grades price toward the lower one. Items priced honestly sell faster than items priced hopefully, and on a free platform there is no fee eating the difference anyway.
What you keep, compared
On a £9 sale — roughly the middle of the range for cookbooks — here is what the commission-charging platforms would take, and what you would keep on each:
| Where you sell it | Fee | You keep |
|---|---|---|
| WishThrift | £0 | £9 |
| Poshmark | −£2 | £7 |
| eBay | −£1 | £8 |
| Mercari | −£1 | £8 |
| Etsy | −£1 | £8 |
Seller-side rates verified 26 Jul 2026 — Poshmark: 20% commission on sales of $15 and above; eBay: 13.6% final value fee, plus a per-order fee; Mercari: flat 10% selling fee; Etsy: 6.5% transaction fee, plus a listing fee and payment processing. Percentages are applied to the sterling figure above; the fixed per-order and processing charges those platforms add are quoted in their own currency and are not included here, so the real deductions are slightly larger. Full breakdown: marketplace selling fees compared.
Timing and getting it to the buyer
Lifts before Christmas as gifts and in January. Named chef titles sell within a fortnight; general cookbooks do better bundled by cuisine.
Heavy for their size, so weigh before quoting. Post in a rigid book wrap; hardback cookbooks are prone to corner bumps.
WishThrift does not process payments or arrange delivery — you and the buyer agree both directly — so confirm payment has cleared before the item leaves your hands, and keep the conversation on the site so there is a record of what was agreed.
Ready to list it? It takes about two minutes, costs nothing, and there is no commission when it sells — create a free account or see how selling works.
Frequently asked questions
What are used cookbooks worth?
Typically £3 to £15, with signed and out-of-print titles well above. See the cookbooks value guide for the bands.
Do splashed pages ruin the value?
They reduce it, but a used cookbook with a few marks is entirely normal and sells fine when shown. Some buyers even take it as a sign the recipes are good.
Should I bundle cookbooks?
For general titles, yes, grouped by cuisine or type. Sell named chef and signed copies individually, where the author name does the work.
See also: what a used cookbooks is worth · browse live books listings · condition grades explained.