I’ve tried out CEX, Zapper, We Buy Books, Music Magpie, Ziffit, and MoMox to see which offer the best trade-in prices for unwanted books, DVDs and CDs.
Over the years I’ve accumulated hundreds of CDs, books and DVDs. Yet thanks to Spotify, Netflix and my Kindle I rarely use them.
Over the years I’ve been thinning out the collection – better to have some cash rather than media I’m not going to use.
That’s the theory at least. The amount I receive for each sale is a fraction of what I paid, and reduces all the time. It’s now just as likely you’ll get offers of pennies as you are pounds.
So is it worth it? Here’s everything you need to know.
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Websites to sell CDs, books, games and DVDs
I tried these six different companies which all promise to buy your unwanted physical media:
- CEX
- Momox
- Music Magpie
- We buy books
- Zapper
- Ziffit
How these websites work
Enter or scan the barcode or ISBN number
Above or below every barcode is a 13 digit number. You type this into the websites to find out if the title is accepted and if so, how much you’ll get.
All the companies I tested also offered an app which allowed me to scan the barcodes. A much quicker process.
Reach the minimum amount
One of the frustrations with these companies is you can’t trade in until you reach a minimum amount. This figure ranges from an achievable £5 through to a massive £15.
Package and post
Once you’ve accepted the figures for trade, you need to box the titles up. Most allow you to drop the box off, though some will collect by courier. There isn’t usually a charge for this.
Wait for payment
You only get paid once the items have been received and checked. With CDs, DVDs and games in particular this involves a condition check. If they aren’t of the desired quality you might get less cash, or even none at all. Most allow you to be paid to your bank account or PayPal.
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How the sites fared
I had around two dozen paperbacks, a few cookbooks, 10 DVDs and a handful of CDs. I don’t play computer games but you can sell them too. I’ve ranked them from the highest value offered to the lowest, though it really does depend on what you’re selling – any of them could come out top for you.
We Buy Books
We Buy Books accepted a few more things than the others but offered slightly lower prices. You can get a 5% top-up if you add £25 worth of items.
Minimum trade: £5
Music Magpie
Music Magpie took a wide range of books and DVDs but at low prices. It offered just 1p for quite a few titles, which really is pointless.
However you can get a £5 bonus on your first trade if you sign up via this link.
Minimum trade: £5
CEX
CEX, or Computer Exchange, doesn’t take books, which had a big impact on the amount offered to me – so it’s only halfway down the list.
However it did offer me money for everything else, even if it was just a penny in some cases and was the top price for the blu-ray box set. You can also hand over items in one of the many CEX high street shops (when they reopen).
You can get a bit more for your trade in if you take the cash as credit to spend with them. If you choose this option there’s a £1.50 postage charge per item you buy, though you can use it in-store.
Minimum trade: None
Ziffit
My previous top pick has fallen down the rankings as prices were lower than elsewhere and it rejected most of the titles. It’s worth signing up and then holding out for a promo code that tops up your offer. I often get emailed ones for 15% extra.
Minimum trade: £5 or 10 items
MoMox
It rejected most of the items I scanned but can up tops for a blu-ray boxset and old textbook. Plus, there’s a £5 bonus (when you sell £20 of items) for signing up to the newsletter.
Minimum trade: £10
Zapper
On previous tries Zapper offered the lowest prices, but this time it was paused due to the pandemic and not taking any new orders.
Minimum trade: £5
Are these trade-in sites worth it?
Andy’s analysis
From my test the answer is generally no. This kind of physical media just doesn’t hold its value, and with people also not really buying items second hand these websites can’t offer prices which make it worthwhile.
The vast bulk of companies refused to take most titles I had. Those that did take a wider selection offered such little money it hardly made the time taken to scan, package and post worthwhile. Why they even bother offering 1p is beyond me.
I really don’t think you’ll make much money with these websites with your standard collection. Which means you’re stuck with that Dan Brown novel, Spice Girls CD or Lord of the Rings DVD.
But you will get larger amounts for special editions, rare items, recent releases or textbooks. Though you’ll probably get more for these via eBay, it’s far more convenient to use these apps and websites than faffing about with eBay postage and fees.
And if you’re struggling for extra cash and don’t think you can put the time to better and more profitable use (such as switching your energy or bank), then I’d say go for CEX, Ziffit or We Buy Books.
Though the sites rejected most of the titles I had, some did offer decent prices on the books they did want, and those with a £5 minimum makes it easier to cash out. And CEX is a good option if there’s something you want to buy as the extra credit can really help.
I ended up selling five of the 20 titles for £8 via Ziffit and taking the rest to a charity shop. Better than nothing, but I’m not sure worth the time it took.
I volunteer with a small anima[ charity in Devon. We have loads of DVDs and CDs and limited storage for them so, I have started selling them on Music Magpie and Ziffit with some success. They don’t pay much and the rejection rate is high but, as we are currently selling DVDs and CDs for 20p each, we are making some money. Also get a good barcode scanner to make things easier and quicker. The free postage is also a good feature. So, if you have the time, a lot of boxes and some sticky tape, I recommend this.
I tried we buy books, it would give me values then seem to stop after adding 5 or 6 books. Yet if I removed them they would scan and be accepted.
I finally rang them and it’s an incentive where they’ve buy anything for your first few books at 50p to get you started. After that the only ones that’ll come up are the ones they actually want.
I couldn’t see this anywhere are drove me mad before I rang them, so hopefully this helps someone
The second time I scanned and boxed up some cds through Ziffit ended up definitely not worth the £9 I got in return. The drop off location in my town had closed, which I knew, but decided to still do it as there were two drop off sites in the next town listed which I visit often only to discover they had both closed. In the end it was a 16 mile round trip to unload it. What a faff. I did complain to Ziffit about them not keeping their website up to date.
Claire
This would appear to be one waste of time, bearing that you have to scan them, take the barcode number (which I could not find) and box them up. I tried a couple of bookshops in South West London who are not taking second hand books on. This is because sales have plummeted since the pandemic , shops are stocked, there is not enough footfall and one of the shops I contacted has just had an energy bill of £1,200 which they didn’t expect (though with energy prices high that should not have been so surprising).
We buy books also do not answer their emails or phone while Ziffit is difficult to use. This is a dying industry which endangers the pleasure of reading for millions and is no good if you need to raise emergency cash.
When I was at Uni the Blackwell’s campus bookshops ran a deal where they’d buy back from you at 1/3 of the RRP & sell it on used at 2/3 RRP – taking the middle slice – but the used ones would go quick at the start of a module. An enterprising student would be better to befriend others on the same course in the year above and below. Even if you bought at 40% retail & sold at 60% (more if the bookshop had run out of used ones) you could offer a better deal to anyone than Blackwell’s; effectively getting your reading list free & even make a bit in the middle. As with everything in life it pays to learn how to be a bit entrepreneurial. I would also do the same with any Student Union night where it would be a guaranteed sellout, such as Boy George, where you could charge 150% on top and people would still bite your hand off on the day not to miss out. The Uni campus also didn’t sell cigarettes & although I didn’t smoke I always stocked up in duty-free or abroad in the summers & sold on campus – as most were happy just not to walk 10 mins to a newsagent. Back to books & the present; if you have a giant amount eg. 150kg+ you can give them to World of Books & they will collect from you (at ground level, pre-boxed or bagged up to 20kg each) and give a blanket 5p/kg to a charity of your choice. Since time is money, doing this suits me better. You can of course cherry-pick the most valuable items to sell on Amazon or eBay. A couple of those is probably better to do than a whole load to unscrupulous resellers, who may take advantage as described above – ie. exaggerating the condition to get the items free and almost undoubtedly still selling them. My last tip would be to bundle things up to sell. A popular novel even selling it for £5 is not worth it after the time cost; also eBay fees & postage & wrapping it. I’m too old to with for minimum wage. BUT if you have a load by the same author and can use a cheap courier like Hermes <15kg you might get £50 back on a boxful and make someone happy, as I tend to buy this way too as it's much quicker for me & a saving. Don't forget there's also the honesty charity tables in supermarkets, although I prefer to choose my charity than have it chosen and don't give to most charities with poor ethics and/or questionable links to industry as many heart-tugging medical charities do. Lastly if you're busy why not do a human profit-share with someone who's happy to make 50% to get free stock while you getting 50% of a bigger pie is a win-win; as opposed to the 1% to 15% you're getting from the above services. I'm too lazy to do boot-sales but you can do well if you've got enough; are generously cheap with prices and are happy getting up early on a weekend. But if you have children, you can reframe it as a free activity to teach them about value, raising cash and how selling works – also for them to buy the books they like for 10p rather than £7 in Waterstones, because then you really can afford to give it away & not feel cheated when Zippit offer you 1p – or more but pay nothing just because it's creased. I hope all my waffling here sparks some ideas and helps someone!
They all seem to accept the first 5 items that you upload and then no more (and not enough for them to make it worth sending to them). I assume unless you offer something valuable for resale, they don’t want the rest of the dreck !
Curiously, this happened on Webuybooks, Ziffit AND MusicMagpie, so I suspect they are all using the same back end.
I had a decent amount of books bought from me twice by Ziffit, and they paid out a fair amount. This time though, I sorted all the books they accepted, boxed them up… went to complete the trade… and it kept saying ‘network error’ . It’s been doing this for a week now ?. So annoying, the books are ready to go
I have used ziffit in the past for both books and movies however they scammed me as everything was in practically brand new condition however they claimed on half the items things weren’t and refused to pay me and then just took my items.
I just sold books on ziffit and found it was the best on the market at the moment for the books I had available – one box got me £25 and a courier will collect them, assuming it all goes through ok I would highly recommend them. Hope this helps!
My experience is that charity shops take all books and then sort them out themselves. If they aren’t saleable they have links to all sorts of recycling options as they work in bulk. Oxfam even has some dedicated bookshops. Please dont chuck them in the bin!
My experence has varied to be honest. Music CD’s seem to sell very well on Discogs which is a US based site. I have sold many CD’s to folks all over the world. The key is honesty over postage I find. Sadly they do not sell DVD’s or games but I have sold a lot of my old CD’s and some vinyl. Still searching for the best site to sell DVD’s and games, ebay aside. Sold a lot of good quality university text books on Amazon, although you have to be careful of their charges and postal costs as they are not always current.
Interesting about selling outside the UK! Will have to take a look. Thanks Steve!
Nice article. I was just deciding it’s time to clean out probably 100s of books and DVDs, as my shelves are full to over-flowing. I started looking into these sites, and was coming to my own conclusion that it wasn’t worth it financially when I came across this article.
But I don’t want to simply take them to the tip or recycle them; it seems like a complete waste considering how much they cost; they must have some value to someone! Charity shop donations would be great, but I doubt they’d accept even a small fraction of the items I have.
But on they other hand, if the only other option is to get even a small amount back from one of these sites, they’d effectively be paying for me to have a tidier house! Looking at it in that way, it might be the best option.
Thanks Phil. Yes it’s such a shame to see so much money invested essentially worthless! Try a few different apps, focusing on the rarer items and see what you can get is the best way.
Some libraries accept book donations too
Hi Andy
I have been using Ziffit the last 2 or 3 months and made about £30 so far, which is fine by me… I have noticed as well that if you keep the items rejected and scan them again a couple weeks later or a month later, they are more often than not accepted eventually. So maybe worth being patient. Also, I regularly get bonus codes, so I can get an extra 10% or whatever is offered…
The only problem I have at the minute is that the app has stopped working properly and can’t figure out why…
Yes, it’s all better than having unused media at home! I had an email saying they’d changed the app, so maybe check there’s not an update waiting?
MusicMagpie rejected a lot of dvds and for other they paid maximum 10p.
CEX could be a bettter option, but again, a lot of dvds were rejected.
No, not worthless. You have gained knowledge that you did not have before reading the books. Knowledge is power. Not everything is about money.
It is if you can’t afford to eat or by detergent for your clothes
I would like to know where the sites you have mentioned sell the items they buy from us.
Hi Ray, Some sell them on their sites (CEX, Music Magpie). Don’t know about the others but I imagine places like Amazon and eBay.
Ok thank you ,i would never sell to them because there prices are insulting.4 pence for a £20 book.8o pence for a £15 cd..not good
My Partner is a prison officer and musicmagpie send CDs and DVDs etc. there and the inmates recycle them.
Hi, I was wondering whether Ziffit is still operational, given the health situation. Thanks.
Yes, they seem to still be operating
eBay
On donations to libraries – I do not think they are allowed to accept donations under any circumstances – it is a royalties issue – the same that allows you to lend a DVD/CD to a friend but if you play it in public the lawyers will crawl out of the woodwork
In our area of East London there is a scheme called the “Little Free Library”,where people put a small wooden cupboard on a stand in their front garden and fill it with books. These are then free for people to take, or to put their own books into. They can keep them or return, most people seem to put more in than they take. We also have scheme where you can contact through the local authority recycling service, a charity that will come a collect a box of books to resell and support those in need.
Sounds great!
Hi, Graham. If allowed to comment on this, I must say…yes, they are. Under fair dealing and law exceptions for Libraries. Not only are libraries allowed to accept donations of copyrighted works but also, in specific cases (depending on the type of Library and the nature of their collection and of the material donated as well as that of their user base and the intended use of the material), to reproduce portions of copyrighted works without the written permission of the copyright holder if done for purposes of preservation or replacement of such works, and for the use of persons with disabilities. They do not sell, you see, they lend for public benefit or academic development–so, no-for-profit. The donations accepted tend to vary depending on the type of Library and collection in question and of its readership, so public libraries tend to take in mainly popular works for leisure/general interest reading, perhaps local or family history if they hold a relevant collection and if text books, mainly foundation items that would be of use across the widest possible range of the educational spectrum (e.g. from grade school through further/vocational education to first degree level). Academic, research or specialist libraries may accept more advanced items, perhaps rare or antique books, etc. Some academic libraries may not accept donations at all for their own set of reasons far removed from IP law. So do feel free to donate to your local library but be ready for them to decline some of your items depending on what they are and the type of library you approach. Some libraries take bulk donations, choose a selection for their own collections and pass the rest on to charitable foundations for distribution to communities in need.
Useful article, thanks. The return is so little and the ?scam factor puts me off. I read elsewhere that most of these sites often reject claiming e.g. damage on as new dvds and don’t return so who knows what they’re doing really. We have a lot of stuff to clear so I’ll give the kids an option to do it but I think we’ll probably donate. We have quite a few titles that we bought because the local libraries didn’t have them so it would be quite nice if other people could borrow them. Anyone tried to see if libraries take donations?
So true. Ziffit claimed my books were dirty – as if I would embarrass myself that way.
I have used Ziffit and WeBuyBooks and Fatbrain. I have probably made about £70 altogether over the years but we buy a lot of books including textbooks. Totally agree with this article and would add that it’s the first one I’ve read which is honest – have seen so many of those “How to make money quickly” type articles suggesting that it’s easy to find a few old books lying about and make a decent amount of money from these places. Just not true! Also agree that Ziffit and WeBuyBooks probably the best ones if you have the time, patience and a decent amount of books/CDs etc to go through.
Oh that’s interesting about text books. Back in my day the local uni bookshop would buy second hand copies and sell on for a decent price. I wonder if they’d beat these sites or not?
I once listened to a really interesting podcast where two guys in America set up an enormous business by just spotting the seasonality of the textbook market. Everyone was trying to offload theirs in spring and summer and others were trying to buy them in autumn. It only worked on expensive university textbooks but they could make over $100 profit on one purchase and sale.
Helpful article, Andy. The concept isn’t new to me; I just wanted a bit of experience and wisdom, which you’ve amply provided.
I have used both ziffit and music magpie. It was not worth it in my opinion I had over 50 dvds and was only offer £15 for all of them.
Yeah, it’s so frustrating. Especially when you think about how much you spent on those in the first place!!!