The usual way to answer this is route by route: specialist buyers, eBay, scanning apps, antiquarian dealers. That comparison already exists — where to sell law books in the UK works through six routes with the arithmetic for each. This page turns the question the other way round and starts from what you actually have on the shelf, because that is usually what decides the answer.
Find the heading below that matches your shelf.
A single volume from a set
One book out of a run — volume 43 of something, or the 2014 edition of an annual.
The honest answer: almost nobody. An odd volume from a broken set has very little resale value on its own, because what a buyer needs is the unbroken sequence. Specialist buyers will not usually quote for one, and the fees on a general marketplace tend to eat whatever a single volume makes.
Two exceptions worth checking. If it is the current year of an annual — this year’s Archbold or White Book — it has real value, because that is what practitioners actually buy. And if somebody nearby has the rest of the run with your volume missing, they will want it, though finding them is the hard part.
Otherwise: a local law school, a chambers library, or responsible recycling, which we do free of charge even where there is nothing to pay for.
A part set with gaps
Most of a run, but not all of it. Fifty volumes out of eighty, or a law reports run with three years missing.
Worth sending to a specialist buyer, and worth doing before you decide anything. Part sets are genuinely bought — they fill gaps in other people’s runs, and a near-complete set is a usable reference in its own right. What you cannot do is work out from the outside how much the gaps cost you, because it depends which volumes are missing. Three gaps in the middle of a long chronological run matters far less than losing a quarter of an alphabetical encyclopaedia.
What counts as a complete set sets out, title by title, where the line between “minor gap” and “broken set” actually falls. Do not break a part set up into individual volumes to sell separately — that converts something saleable into several things that are not.
One complete set
A full run of a recognised title. Halsbury’s Laws, the All England Law Reports, the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents, a complete series of law reports.
This is the sweet spot for a specialist buyer, and it is most of what we are sent. A complete set normally fetches between £50 and £3,000 depending on the title, the edition and how scarce the run is, and occasionally more.
You could also sell it yourself — a complete set is the one holding where the private-sale route genuinely competes, because a buyer exists and the set is desirable enough to find them. The trade-off is time, packing and shipping a few hundred kilos of books. The route comparison has the arithmetic; the thing to know here is that the choice is real rather than obvious.
Several sets — a working shelf or two
A few complete or near-complete sets together. One or two bays, the kind of shelf a working solicitor or barrister accumulates over a career.
Specialist buyer, as one enquiry rather than several. This is the point where selling piecemeal stops making sense. Splitting a shelf across routes means several valuations, several collections and several sets of packing, and it loses the thing that makes a collection worth more than its parts: it can be cleared in one visit.
If this is a career’s shelf coming off the wall at retirement, retiring and clearing your library is written for exactly that.
A whole library, or a room
A firm’s library, a set of chambers, a department. Many sets, multiple bays, possibly a dedicated room.
A specialist buyer who collects, and almost nothing else. At this scale the limiting factor is not what the books are worth but who can physically get them out of the building — and that rules out every marketplace route. A substantial library cleared in one visit runs into five figures.
This is its own job with its own sequence: how to sell a complete law library covers the whole-library process, and library buyouts and office clearance covers it where the room has to be empty by a date. If the reason is a closure, a merger or an office move, that has its own page.
Books that are damp, mouldy or water-damaged
Still worth an enquiry, and do not assume the answer is no. Collections are usually partly affected rather than wholly — the bottom shelf of a basement store, the bay under the window that leaked. The sound part is often worth real money and the damaged part can go for recycling in the same visit.
What you should not do is throw the lot out on the assumption it is ruined, or try to dry anything out. Damaged law books sets out what can and cannot be priced around.
Something genuinely antiquarian
Leather binding with raised bands, a date before about 1900, marbled endpapers, perhaps a bookplate or an inscription.
An antiquarian bookseller, not us. That market runs on different rules — first editions, provenance, binding condition — and a dealer in it will pay you better than a buyer of working law books will. We say so rather than buying it cheaply. What are my old law books worth explains how to tell which category a shelf falls into.
Journals, bound periodicals and student textbooks
Bound runs of journals are a narrower market than law reports but a real one — see legal journals. Student textbooks are the hardest thing on this page to sell: they date fast, there are a great many of them, and superseded editions have almost no resale value. A local law school or a student society is a better destination than a marketplace listing.
Does where you are make a difference?
To the route, not much. To the practicality, quite a lot — the further a collection is from a buyer, the more a collection costs to collect, and a buyer who does not travel will simply decline. We collect free across the whole of the UK and the Republic of Ireland, including places that are a long way from anywhere: where we collect lists the cities with their own pages, and the answer in between them is yes.
One genuine geographical point: English law books in Scotland or Northern Ireland have a smaller local market and a full-sized national one, which is worth knowing before you try to sell locally. English law books in Scotland covers it.
The short version
- One volume: very little market unless it is the current year of an annual.
- Part set: worth a specialist valuation; do not break it up.
- One complete set: specialist buyer, or sell it yourself if you have the time.
- Several sets: one enquiry to a specialist buyer, not several.
- Whole library: a buyer who collects, and nothing else works.
- Damaged: enquire anyway; it is usually partly sound.
- Antiquarian: an antiquarian dealer.
If you are not sure which line you are on, that is fine and it is the normal position. Photograph the shelves and we will tell you — usually within 24 hours, free, and with no obligation either way.
One volume or a whole room, send a photograph of what you have and we will tell you what it is worth and whether we are the right buyer for it.
Get a valuation →FAQ
Where can I sell my law books in the UK?
It depends on what you have. A complete set can go to a specialist law book buyer or be sold privately. Several sets or a whole library need a specialist buyer who collects, because no marketplace route handles the weight. A single volume from a broken set has very little market anywhere. Genuinely antiquarian material belongs with an antiquarian bookseller rather than a buyer of working law books.
Can I sell just one law book?
Rarely for much. An odd volume out of a run has very little resale value because buyers want the unbroken sequence. The exception is the current year of an annual such as Archbold or the White Book, which does have real value. Otherwise a law school, a chambers library or free recycling is usually the realistic destination.
Will anyone buy an incomplete set of law books?
Yes. Part sets are genuinely bought, both to fill gaps in other runs and as usable references in their own right. What the gaps cost depends on which volumes are missing, so it is worth having valued rather than guessed at. Do not break a part set up into single volumes to sell separately.
Do you buy damaged or mouldy law books?
We buy the sound part and take the rest away for recycling in the same visit, free. Collections are usually partly affected rather than wholly, so it is worth asking before you throw anything out. Water damage and mould are the two condition problems that genuinely cannot be priced around.
Where can I sell a whole law library?
To a specialist buyer who collects. At that scale the constraint is getting several hundred kilos of books out of a building, which rules out every marketplace and consignment route. A substantial library cleared in one visit runs into five figures. We collect free across the UK and the Republic of Ireland.
Does it matter where in the UK I am?
Not to which route suits you, but it matters to whether a buyer will travel. Collection from us is free anywhere in the UK and the Republic of Ireland. If you hold English law books in Scotland or Northern Ireland the local market is smaller than the national one, which is worth knowing before you try to sell them locally.