The short version
- Typical range: £5 – £35 — see the full textbooks 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.
- Find the ISBN on the back cover or copyright page, and note the edition number and year.
- Check for highlighting, annotations and missing pages, and be honest about the extent.
- Check whether any access code or online component was included, and whether it has been redeemed.
The photographs that sell textbooks
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 front cover straight on
- The copyright page showing edition and ISBN
- A typical interior page, showing any highlighting
- The spine and corners, plus any water damage or loose binding
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 It feels counterproductive, but a listing that shows the worst of an item gets fewer questions, fewer withdrawn offers and fewer arguments at handover.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
Title, author, edition and ISBN: “Campbell Biology, 12th Edition, Urry, ISBN 9780135188743”. Edition is critical because courses specify one. Include the ISBN — students search by it directly and it removes all ambiguity in one string.
Then state these in the description, because a buyer who has to ask is a buyer who might not bother:
- Title, author, edition number and ISBN
- Extent of highlighting or annotation, honestly described
- Whether any access code was included and whether it is unused
- Binding condition, and whether any pages are loose or missing
What buyers will actually ask
You will receive the same three messages about textbooks. 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 and answer honestly. Access codes are single-use and often worth more than the book; claiming an unused one that has been redeemed is a guaranteed dispute.
Flick through and photograph a representative page. Some students prefer annotated copies, so honesty here does not cost you the sale.
Read it from the copyright page. A course requiring the 12th edition has no use for the 11th, whatever the price.
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 textbooks 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 £20 sale — roughly the middle of the range for textbooks — 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 | £20 |
| Poshmark | −£4 | £16 |
| eBay | −£3 | £17 |
| Mercari | −£2 | £18 |
| Etsy | −£1 | £19 |
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
Sharply seasonal, peaking in late August, September and January as terms begin. Selling mid-term means waiting or discounting heavily.
Heavy for their size, so weigh before quoting postage. Media rates where available make textbooks much cheaper to send.
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
Where can I sell textbooks for free?
On WishThrift there is no listing fee and no commission, so a £30 textbook pays you £30. That matters more on low-value items, where a flat fee elsewhere can take a fifth of the sale.
Do old edition textbooks sell?
Some do, at much lower prices, to students who cannot afford the current edition. State the edition clearly and price it accordingly rather than hoping the difference goes unnoticed.
What are used textbooks worth?
Typically £5 to £35, with current-edition science and medical texts well above that. See the textbooks value guide for the range.
See also: what a used textbooks is worth · browse live books listings · condition grades explained.