25 January 2026 · Book Assembly Team · 5 min read
There's a particular thrill to finding a book you've been after for ages, spine-out in a charity shop, priced at £1.50. It's not quite the same as ordering it online. Something about the hunt.
If you spend enough time poking through Oxfam shelves and trestle tables at car boot sales, you develop systems. Little habits that make the whole thing more efficient and less likely to end with three copies of the same paperback.
Here's what works for me.
I keep a wishlist. Nothing fancy - just a list of books I'd like to own if I stumble across them. Authors I'm collecting, specific titles people have recommended, gaps in series I'm reading.
The key word is "stumble." I'm not hunting for rare first editions with a checklist and a loupe. I'm browsing. But having a mental shortlist means I recognise things when I see them, rather than getting home and thinking "wasn't there a book by someone I was meant to look out for?"
Some people keep this list on their phone. Some use a notes app. Some, apparently, use spreadsheets. I use Book Assembly's wishlist because I built it for exactly this reason, but use whatever works.
Here's the thing about scanning barcodes in charity shops: it can feel a bit weird. Like you're doing something transactional in a space that's meant to be about browsing.
But there are two good reasons to do it anyway.
One: Do I already own this?
My memory for books I've bought is genuinely terrible. Titles blur together. Authors I've definitely read merge with authors I've definitely meant to read. A quick scan tells me whether this exact edition is already on my shelf at home. No more accidental duplicates.
Two: Is this the right edition?
Series are chaos. Publishers repackage things, change the titles, split books differently. A barcode scan can confirm you're looking at book 3 and not a confusingly-titled omnibus of books 1 and 2.
You don't need to scan everything. Just the ones where you're not quite sure.
Not all charity shops are equal. Here's the rough hierarchy:
Oxfam Books (dedicated shops) Usually well-organised, often alphabetised, decent turnover of stock. Prices are higher than other charity shops but still cheap. Staff tend to know what they've got.
General charity shops (British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research, etc.) Hit and miss. Some have a good books section, some have three Dan Browns and a 2007 Lonely Planet guide to Prague. Worth a regular check if there's one on your route.
Hospice shops Often overlooked, often excellent. Tend to get quality donations from older estates. Good for finding hardbacks and slightly more obscure stuff.
Church sales and fêtes Seasonal, but can be gold. Pricing is usually "50p each or 3 for a pound" territory. Get there early.
Different beast entirely. You're working against time, mess, and the bloke who's there at 6am with a head torch buying anything valuable before the rest of us arrive.
Tips:
Secondhand hunting isn't only physical. A few places worth knowing:
World of Books / Awesome Books "Very good" condition usually means "fine." Prices are low, selection is huge. Delivery takes a while but it's often free.
Abebooks Owned by Amazon, annoyingly, but useful for finding specific editions. Good for older or out-of-print stuff.
eBay Obvious, but worth setting up saved searches for authors or titles you're after. The "buy it now" filter is your friend.
Facebook Marketplace People selling boxes of books for a fiver. Quality varies wildly. Good for bulk if you're not picky.
Library sales Many libraries sell off old stock. Check your local one.
You've got home with a bag of books. Now what?
This is where a book tracker earns its keep. Log them while you remember what you paid (or don't, if you'd rather not think about it). Check them off your wishlist. Add them to the right series. Make a note of where you found them if that's the sort of thing you're into.
The goal isn't obsessive cataloguing. It's just knowing what you've got, so next time you're standing in a charity shop wondering "do I own this?", you can check.
Summary version:
Happy hunting.
Book Assembly includes wishlist tracking and barcode scanning for exactly this sort of thing. Free while in beta at bookassembly.co.uk.
