How to Get a Law Book Valuation

"How much are my law books worth?" and "what is my law library worth?" are the two questions we're asked more than any other, and people often delay getting an answer because they assume a legal textbook valuation involves work — listing titles, checking editions, working out what things are. It doesn't. This is what our law library valuation service genuinely needs from you, and what it doesn't.

What you don't need to do

• Identify the books. Recognising a set from its spines is the buyer's job, not yours.
• Check editions. Helpful if you happen to know, but not expected.
• Make a list. A photograph carries more information than a typed inventory, and takes a fraction of the time.
• Move or box anything. Nothing should be lifted until a price is agreed.
• Clean or repair anything. Ordinary wear is expected and priced in. Nobody needs the shelves dusted.

Photographing the shelves

One photograph per shelf, taken straight on rather than at an angle, close enough that the spine lettering is legible when you zoom in. That's genuinely all that's required.

A couple of things that make the photographs more useful:

• Put a light on. Law libraries are usually in the darkest part of a room, and phone cameras struggle with dark spines against dark wood.
• If a set spans several shelves, photograph them in order so the run can be followed.
• If anything is boxed or stacked on the floor, include those too — they're easy to forget and often contain the supplements.

The four details that help

Beyond photographs, four things speed up a valuation considerably:

1. Rough volume count. "About eighty" is fine. Nobody expects precision.
2. Whether supplements are present. For sets like Halsbury's Laws, a current Cumulative Supplement or Noter-Up affects the figure. If you're not sure what those look like, don't worry — the photographs will show it.
3. Postcode and access. Collection is part of the offer, so where the books are, and whether there's a lift or four flights of stairs, is genuinely relevant.
4. Your timeline. If there's a lease break or a house sale driving it, say so. If there's no rush at all, say that too — it changes nothing about the price but everything about how we arrange things.

What a buyer is actually looking at

Knowing how to value a legal library yourself makes the whole process less opaque, even though we do the actual valuing. Three things, in order of weight:

Completeness does most of the work. An unbroken run is worth more than the same number of volumes with gaps, because gaps make a set less usable to whoever buys it next.

Edition or year comes next. For numbered editions the recent ones carry most value; for annuals like Archbold it's the latest year or two.

Condition matters least, which surprises people. Ordinary shelf wear from decades of use is normal. What genuinely affects the figure is water damage, mould, and missing spines — problems of storage rather than use.

We've covered this in more depth in are old law books worth anything?

What happens next

A figure, usually within 24 hours. If you accept it, collection is arranged free of charge at a time that suits you, and payment follows by cash on collection, cheque, or bank transfer.

If you decline, nothing happens — a valuation carries no obligation, and using it to compare against another offer is entirely reasonable. If you've already been quoted elsewhere, it's worth knowing we'll beat a genuine written quote by 10% on complete sets in good condition.

See the whole process, start to finish →