‘Vintage’ Books Of Knowledge.

We still have a complete set of sixteen Caxton encyclopaedias that we bought in 1968, when our son was almost a year old. It came with two huge Oxford Dictionaries which have been well thumbed over the years. The children did get some use out of them, I have to say, pre computers, and they look very handsome in the book case to this day, even though they are now totally redundant. They’ll have to go one day, but not just yet, and when the time comes, I won’t know quite how to get rid of them either.

Put them on eBay and see if it’s worth selling them, otherwise put them into the loft and forget about them for now.

Set of 8 on eBay £59.99

You have an emotional attachment to those books Calendargirl. Many lovely memories.

I’d photograph them, individually, also on the book shelf, some shots of open pages as a tangible reminder. Then get rid.

Callander girl I am in exactly the same position I have a set 10 (or is it 12) of Arthur Mees encyclopaedia that my Dad took such great pride in I believe my gran and grandad also paid a weekly salesman and they were not at all well off had five children in a two up two down that now looks like a dolls house
Selling on eBay is one thing but the price of posting them would be beyond what they are worth I think I know you can collect only but then it brings it down to just your area

You could contact a second hand book seller to see if they are of any value. We ditched a load of my dad’s books after he died, although I do not remember ever having seen them while he was alive so where he kept them, I do not know.

I have a set of those too, Calendargirl, a present for passing the 11+ plus a bicycle so I could get to my new school!

If you have an Oxfam shop near you, you could ask if they will send them to one of their bookshops, I think they have sets for sale for about £50.

I used to delve into them a lot and read all the stories.
Of course, they are no use to a modern child but have a vintage appeal.

The Red Cross etc will just bin them - I think it's only Oxfam who deal in vintage books.

I was just going to suggest Oxfam myself, Callistemon. We’ve taken things to the Oxfam bookshop in Bradford before now and they’ve several floors absolutely packed with all sorts of newish and old books and magazines (and they always had lots of customers browsing). I wouldn’t drop them off at any old Oxfam store though - the staff at ours hadn’t even heard of the bookshop and I got the impression that if I’d left my old annuals with them they’d have just ended up in the bin, even though I knew some of them were worth a few quid.

we had some of the big red books . i kept them for a while years really ,.but when pcs came out they got made redundant. so i think i gave them away or someone bought them ,anyway they not here now .bit old fashioned really ..

There are also some online sites like webuybooks.co.uk, where you just enter the ISBN and they’ll give you a price if it’s something they’re interested in. They never seem to want my old tat vintage collectibles though.

Maggiemaybe our local Oxfam store was rather sniffy about books - only the latest paperbacks, please!! And for anything worth any money they did a deal with a local vintage bookshop where I wouldn't send any books anyway.

Blubelle buyer pays the postage on EBay not the seller

there are specialist oxfam bookshops.
they attract eccentrics, collectors who might like those.

onlineshop.oxfam.org.uk/shop/books

Just an update on my past request for advice.

The books have sat in a corner of the spare bedroom in a box for the past four months.

Yesterday, I took them to a charity shop, not in our town, that I knew had a dedicated book room. To my delight, they accepted them, said they would try and sell them, but if not, would be ‘recycled’ in some way. Would not go to landfill.

Felt a bit sad, daft I know, but quite liberated .