Simply Textbook collects unwanted academic books from staff at universities all around England, Scotland and Wales. This makes it a possibility for us to also collect from private addresses too, subject to our schedule and the ease of collecting from your location.
This page and the request form below is therefore for anybody that is NOT serving or recently retired* university staff.
(*Recently retired means within the last 2 years).
All non-university collections are subject to a fee to help Simply Textbook cover its costs.
Please note – it may not always be possible for Simply Textbook to collect from your location, especially true the further you are from the core motorway network, or if you have a very low quantity of books.
👇 IMPORTANT NOTES – PLEASE READ 👇
Starting January 2024, all non-university staff/location collections are subject to a standard £25 charge – regardless of quantity. Payment is required in advance of the agreed collection date, by online bank transfer or PayPal.
A discretionary surcharge on top of the £25 fee may be applied, if your request presents additional complexity (e.g. large quantity, hard to reach location, urgency of collection, etc).
For smaller quantities (below 50 books), please consider shipping the books to us by courier (address details on request). This will almost certainly be more economical for you, and faster too.
Please note, we are now only accepting published books that have a barcoded ISBN. If you have a significant quantity of books that pre-date ISBN barcoding, or pre-date ISBN itself, we can somewhat reluctantly collect, however a surcharge will apply. We would advise you to contact a book dealer specialising in rare or antique books in the first instance.
Schools – Simply Textbook is NOT currently accepting any requests from schools. This is due to significant challenges processing and redistributing large quantities of duplicate titles in generally poor resale condition.
If Simply Textbook is unable to offer you a collection in your location, or your quantity is too low to make a collection practical, you are welcome to ship the books to us at your own expense (address details on request). As a rough guide, most carriers charge roughly around £10 for up to 20kg in mainland Great Britain. To check prices of different carriers, click here (opens in a new window).
Alternatively, your local Oxfam and British Heart Foundation should usually be very happy to accept your donation, or at least advise you on local alternatives.
Please be aware – once a collection has taken place, Simply Textbook is not able to return any books if they have been presented for collection in error. Please be very careful to only present books that you are happy for Simply Textbook to collect and redistribute.
Please note – Simply Textbook DOES NOT come into your home to pack your books. You are required to pack all unwanted books yourself into boxes or bags in advance of our arrival.
It is not necessary for you to be home on the day of the collection – it is fine to leave the boxes/bags outside of your property ready to be collected, please just check that they are well covered to prevent any risk of rain damage.
Request form
If you have read and understood the above requirements and limitations, please complete the following form to request a paid collection of your unwanted books.
Click here to view Simply Textbook’s Privacy Policy (last refreshed 1st October 2023).