There is a general answer to where to sell law books in the UK, and it lists six routes honestly, including the ones that will serve you better than we will. This page is narrower. The Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents has three characteristics that knock most of those routes out before you start, and it is worth knowing which and why rather than discovering it a fortnight in.
What makes this set awkward to sell
It is a comprehensive multi-volume work covering precedents and drafting guidance across a wide range of practice areas, published by LexisNexis. Alongside Atkin’s Court Forms, it is one of the two major precedent encyclopaedias found in well-stocked chambers and firm libraries. Three things follow from that.
It only works whole. The value of a precedent encyclopaedia is coverage — being the thing you reach for whatever the drafting problem is. Split into volumes, it stops being that and becomes a shelf of books about particular topics, worth a fraction of the set.
It is heavy, and there is a lot of it. Enough to make postage the deciding factor in any route that involves posting, and enough that “collection only” means a stranger with a van rather than someone in a car.
It is held in both bound and loose-leaf form depending on the part. This is the one people do not expect, and it is why this set gets split or part-cleared more often than almost anything else we see. Half of it looks like books and half looks like binders, so the two halves end up on different shelves, in different rooms, or sold at different times.
What happens down each route
Taking the routes in the order the general guide sets them out.
ISBN buyback and scanning services
These price per book against a trade-book database. A set gets valued as a stack of separate second-hand books rather than as one reference work, which is a fraction of what it is worth whole — the exact failure this set is most exposed to. The format compounds it: a work kept current by an updating service does not reduce neatly to one scannable code. Not a realistic route.
eBay, Facebook Marketplace and Gumtree
Demand is not the problem; weight is. Posting a multi-volume encyclopaedia costs more than most buyers will pay, and a collection-only listing shrinks your buyer pool to people prepared to drive to you for something this size. Workable for a single volume. Poor for a set.
Specialist consignment marketplaces
A genuine route, and worth understanding before choosing it. You list the set yourself, a typical commission sits around 7.5% of the eventual sale price, and collection is often the buyer’s responsibility rather than the platform’s. For a set this size that means arranging access for a stranger to carry forty-odd volumes out of your office. The deeper issue is that a set is one listing that one buyer has to want entirely, so the wait can be long and there is no date on it. Suits a seller with time and a complete, current set; poor for a deadline.
Antiquarian and rare book dealers
Wrong market rather than a bad one. This is a working practitioner set, not an antiquarian one — it is valued for being usable, not for being old or scarce. A dealer in rare books is not the buyer for it. Not a realistic route.
Selling direct to a smaller firm or a student
Plausible for one volume on a specific topic. A full encyclopaedia is beyond what an individual buyer will take on, both in money and in moving it, and the firms most likely to want one are generally the firms that already have one. Narrow.
A specialist law book buyer
The distinguishing feature is that the set gets valued as a set, which is the whole problem the other routes create. Collection is absorbed, which for this title is not a small point. The trade-off is the honest one that applies to any trade sale: the price reflects that the buyer then has to store, list and resell it, so a patient seller with a complete current set may realise more going it alone.
What that leaves
Two routes, really, and the choice between them is about time rather than money.
If you have a complete, reasonably current set, no deadline, somewhere to keep it meanwhile and the patience to arrange collection with whoever eventually buys it, a consignment marketplace can return more. That is a real option and we would rather say so.
If the set is partial, the service lapsed years ago, the room is needed, or there is a date attached — a lease ending, a merger or closure, an estate to settle — then a specialist buyer is the route that actually completes. We buy complete and partial sets of the current 5th edition as well as older editions, with or without the updating service.
What we would steer you away from is the middle: listing a large set casually, waiting, and then clearing it under time pressure anyway, having lost the months in between.
What to do before you ask anyone
- Find both halves. Bound volumes and binders, wherever they have ended up. A set valued as two part-sets is worth less than the same material valued as one.
- Photograph the spines, end to end, close enough to read. Nobody needs a catalogue, and we would rather you did not make one.
- Leave unfiled releases where they are. Filing a backlog takes hours and does not change the figure enough to be worth it — see clearing a loose-leaf set.
- Count roughly. “About forty volumes and six binders” is all the detail anyone needs to start.
Tell us roughly what you have and we will price it as a set, usually within 24 hours. Complete or partial, current edition or older, with or without the updating service.
Get a valuation →FAQ
Can I sell the Encyclopaedia of Forms and Precedents on eBay?
You can list it, but weight is the problem rather than demand. A multi-volume encyclopaedia costs more to post than most buyers will pay, and the alternative — a collection-only listing — shrinks your buyer pool to people willing to drive to you for a set this size. It is a workable route for one volume and a poor one for a run.
Will an ISBN buyback service take it?
Not usefully. Those services price per book against a trade-book database, so a set gets valued as a stack of separate second-hand books rather than as one reference work — which is a fraction of what it is worth whole. The format defeats them too: a work kept current by an updating service does not reduce to one scannable code.
Do I need the complete set to sell it?
No. We buy complete and partial sets of the current 5th edition and older editions alike. A fuller run is worth most, but partial sets are genuinely still worth valuing — tell us roughly how many volumes you have and we will price what is there.
Does it matter that the updating service lapsed?
It affects the figure and does not rule the set out. A set with recent updating service issues included is worth more, but currency is not essential. Leave any unfiled releases with the volumes rather than filing them first.
Half of ours is bound and half is in binders. Is that a problem?
It is normal. The Encyclopaedia is held in both bound and loose-leaf form depending on the part, which is exactly why sets get split or part-cleared more often than most. Photograph both halves together and we will value the whole thing as one set.
Is it worth selling separately from Atkin's Court Forms?
They are comparable but separate works and we buy both, together or separately. If you have both, say so — a library clearing one precedent encyclopaedia usually has the other somewhere, and they are easier to collect in one visit than two.