Used Books Online — Cheap Pre-Owned Books | Hamelyn US

Frequently asked questions

Everything you need to know about Hamelyn and our second-hand cultural products.

You can search by ISBN-13 (without hyphens or spaces), by title, by author or by keywords in the search bar at the top of the website. If we have the book, it will appear with its exact edition, condition and price.

Yes, and it's one of our biggest strengths. We carry thousands of out-of-print titles that are no longer available new and can only be found on the second-hand market. The most reliable way to find them is to search by ISBN or by title and author.

Every book is manually inspected and classified into one of four conditions: Like new (no signs of use), Very good (minimal, barely noticeable marks), Good (clearly used but intact and complete) and Acceptable (heavily used, all pages readable and complete).

Every book goes through a four-step internal process in our warehouse: ISBN-13 identification, manual physical inspection, classification into one of the four conditions, and cataloguing with its actual state. Only then is it listed for sale.

The average saving is 70% compared to the retail price of a new book. On academic textbooks and course books the saving can reach 80%.

For mainland UK, the usual delivery time is 4-7 working days from order confirmation. We work with trusted international and UK-based carriers. Delivery times to Northern Ireland, the Scottish Highlands and islands may vary slightly. Standard: Free · 4-7 working days. Express: 3-5 working days, with the cost shown at checkout.

Yes. All orders to mainland UK include free delivery with no minimum order value.

Yes. You have 30 days from receipt to return any book, no questions asked. If the return is due to our error, we will refund the full amount of your order.

Yes. We have a dedicated section for academic and school textbooks from leading publishers. Every book is identified by ISBN to ensure it matches the exact edition required for your course.

Not yet in the United Kingdom. Our buy-back platform for selling used books is currently available only in mainland Spain, France, Portugal and Italy. We hope to expand to more markets soon.

Yes. Hamelyn is a European company with its own warehouse, operating since 2020. Payments are processed through certified gateways (Stripe, PayPal) that comply with PCI-DSS security standards — we never store your card details. Every purchase is backed by our 30-day return policy and a pre-shipment stock check of the book.

Yes. Buying a used book instead of a new one avoids the printing, binding and transport of an additional copy, reducing paper, water and energy consumption and the associated CO₂ emissions. Every book we buy back and resell is a book that doesn't end up in landfill.