How it works

Buying

Search for a book by title, author, or ISBN. Pick the edition you want, then choose from the copies real people are selling — every listing shows photos of the actual book, not a stock image, so you can see the condition you’re getting.

Choose delivery or local collection at checkout. Your payment is held by retale — the seller isn’t paid until you’ve got the book and confirmed you’re happy.

Selling

Scan the barcode or search for your book, add photos of the front and back, set your price, and tick which delivery options you can offer — posted, collected locally, or both. You don’t set postage prices; retale works those out so buyers pay what postage actually costs.

Once your book sells and the buyer confirms they’ve received it, the money lands in your retale wallet. Withdraw it to your bank whenever you like, or spend it on more books.

Posting a book

There are two ways to post. With standard post you buy a stamp and send it yourself — the postage is added to what you’re paid, so you’re not out of pocket. There’s no tracking, so we check in with the buyer after a few days to make sure it arrived.

With tracked delivery, retale buys the label for you — you pay nothing for postage. Print it, or show the QR code at a Post Office counter if you haven’t got a printer, and hand the parcel over. Tracking updates happen automatically, so there’s nothing to type in and nothing to chase.

Local collection

Collections work a little differently. Rather than paying up front, a buyer reserves the book and the two of you agree a time and place. Once that’s settled the buyer pays, and they’ll get a four-digit code.

At the meet-up, the buyer checks the book and gives the seller their code. Entering it confirms the handover and releases the payment straight away. If a collection doesn’t happen, the buyer is refunded automatically.