About Booksort

Booksort has been selling books on the internet since 2003. We sell old books, new books, popular books, rare books, used books, unused books, cheap boooks, expensive books, fiction, non-fiction, children's books – in fact books of every kind. We pride ourselves on offering the best service we possibly can. We are known for speed, good communication, and attention to detail.

Many customers come to this web site after first buying from us through Amazon (where we have a lifetime 100% positive 5/5 feedback rating), or one of the other bookselling web sites. We can offer an even smoother service when you buy direct, and you will often save money because we only charge the actual cost of shipping. And you can buy more than one book without being charged a separate flat fee on each one.

Our online payment system is fully secure. Our stock is in the United Kingdom and we despatch books all over the world every working day of the year.    Close this section

 Help with searching

How we try to find what you are looking for

A normal search tries to match your search input (the text you type in the search box) against titles, authors' names, publishers' names, our description, and any keywords we have attached to the item. If it looks as though you have typed an ISBN or a stock number this will also be matched if possible. The search checks our entire stock.

(We plan to add other options so you will be able to limit your search, for example to authors' names).

All searches ignore letter case. The results will be the same whether you type card or Card or CARD .

Search for individual words

Find items that contain one or more of your words:

• Search input card finds all items that contain card (but not items that contain cards).
• Search input card tricks finds all items that contain card plus all items that contain tricks.

Find items that contain all of your words:

• Search input +card +tricks finds all items that contain both the words. (Do not put a space between the symbol and the word).
• You can put the + before or after a word: card+ tricks+ finds the same results.
• Both + signs are needed in the above example. Search input card +tricks will only find items that contain tricks, regardless of whether they contain card.
• & can be used as an alternative to +.

Find items that contain a word, but leave out items that contain another word:

• Search input +card -trick finds all items that contain card provided they do not contain trick. (Do not put a space between the symbol and the word).
• ! can be used as an alternative to -.

Search for part words

Use a wildcard to stand for one character:

• Search input card? finds all items that contain cards (but not items that contain card).
• _ can be used as an alternative to ?.

Use a wildcard to stand for zero or more characters:

• Search input card* finds all items that contain card plus all items that contain cards plus all items that contain cardinal, etc.
• Search input car*d finds all items that contain card plus all items that contain Cartland.
• % can be used as an alternative to *.

Search for a phrase

Use single or double quotation marks to group words in a sequence. If the phrase you want to search for already contains quotation marks of one type, simply use the other type to surround your search input. (For search purposes an apostrophe is the same thing as a single quotation mark).

• Search input "card tricks" (with the quotes) finds all items that contain that phrase.
• Search input "shakespeare's sonnets" finds items that contain a phrase which includes a single quotation mark (or apostrophe).
• Search input 'papers from "the spectator"' finds items that contain a phrase which includes double quotation marks.

Search for ISBNs

You can search for 10- or 13-digit ISBNs. It does not matter whether you include hyphens.

• Search input 0582331927 finds all items with that ISBN.

You can search for multiple ISBNs separated by spaces or commas.

• Search input 978-0192813275 0582331927,9780563522119 finds all items with any of those ISBNs.

Some (but not all) 13-digit ISBNs can be converted to 10-digit, and at the moment we show them as 10-digit where possible.

Search for our stock numbers

You can search for these just as if they were words. But they must be 5 or 6 digits long, so add zeros on the left if necessary.

• Search input 22503 00435 finds the items with those stock numbers.

There is another way to do this, avoiding the extra zeros. Use i: with a comma-separated list, leaving no spaces.

• Search input i:22503,435 finds the same items as the previous example.

Search for accented letters

Our stock database uses the Latin-1 (ISO 8859-1) alphabet. When searching you can type characters in this alphabet with or without accents.

• Search input poem* finds all items that contain poem plus all items that contain poèmes.
• Search input poèm* finds the same results.
• Search input casar finds all items that contain cæsar. It does not at present find items that contain caesar.
• Search input cæsar finds the same results.

When listing books we use whatever spelling is used on the title page (provided it can be represented in the Latin-1 alphabet). So some words could be spelt two ways.

• Search input *pa*dia* finds all items that contain encyclopaedia plus all items that contain encyclopædia.

The French oe ligature is missing from Latin-1 so our database always uses two characters.

• Search input oe* finds all items that contain oeuvre plus all items that contain Oedipus.

ð and þ can both be searched for as t .

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 How to place an order with Booksort

All books and other items we list are available immediately from our own stock in the UK. We also sell books through other web sites (such as Amazon), so it happens occasionally that a book you order has just been sold. If so we will tell you quickly and refund any money that has already been charged.

If you might want to buy a book, click on the button to add it to your 'shopping cart'. Don't be afraid of doing this – you can always remove items later, and you will have plenty of opportunites to change your mind before any money is taken!

Your shopping cart will appear near the top of the page once it has something in it. You can click a button to hide it if you wish – you will then see another button to show it again. The cart lists each book you have ordered on a separate line, showing the price in GB pounds excluding shipping charges. If we have more than one of the book in stock you can change the entry in the Quantity column; you will be limited automatically to the number available. Near the start of each line is a button you can click to remove a book from your cart.

The next line shows the total that would be charged including shipping to the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe, and the rest of the world. Two prices are shown for each destination: the first is for faster delivery (first class or airmail), and the second is for the cheapest method. You can choose which currency these values are shown in using the box at the top of the page. At the end of the line are the total number of items in your cart and the total cost excluding shipping (always in GB pounds).

The last line of the cart shows the grand total you would pay for the current destination and delivery option. All the cart details are updated immediately if you change something or choose a different destination or delivery option later. We also show how many working days the delivery should take. By placing an order you agree that our quoted maximum delivery time takes precedence over any statutory performance period.

At any time you can click the Checkout button at the end of the shopping cart to enter your personal details. This does not commit you to buying and you will not be asked for your card details yet. You may just want to change the destination and delivery option used for the grand total mentioned above, and you can still add things to your cart or remove them after you have started the checkout. We hope the instructions on the form are self-explanatory but please do read them to avoid possible delays in processing your order. There is a place for a message you might want to include with an order (but use the Contact menu option instead if you want to ask something before you order).

Your shopping cart and other details may be remembered for a little while if you are interrupted or close your browser. After that you would need to start again.

When you are ready to complete your order, have your card ready and click the button to go on to the secure payment form. After a few moments you will be able to enter your card details. We never even see these at Booksort – they are encrypted and handled by Protx, a major secure payment service provider. You have about fifteen minutes to complete this stage. If you need to go back and change something you entered earlier, press the Cancel button (don't close the browser window or use the back button). When you confirm that you want to proceed your card details will be processed. If this succeeds Protx will send you an email straight away confirming the amount you were charged. If the card processing fails you will receive a different email.

You should always be brought back automatically to the Booksort web site. In the process your browser might warn you about redirection to a connection that is not secure. Don't worry – no card details or insecure information will be transmitted.

Once payment has been made successfully we will take your goods from stock and check them. Within a short period of time we will send you an email confirming what you have bought. Please look out for this email and check it promptly in case any detail is wrong or a problem has arisen. Your order is confirmed only when we send you this email (this is in case, for example, the goods have just been sold or no longer match the description). We despatch goods every working day and will send you another email to advise when this has been done.

If you do not wish to pay online please telephone or write to us. But the online method is much safer for you and for us and less prone to errors (the banks actually charge us extra fees if we process a card payment by hand because of the increased risk!). Whatever you do, never put card details in an email.    Close this section  Top

 Booksort's terms of business

We want you to be pleased with our service. If there is anything on this web site or in these terms you don't like, please tell us. We guarantee a personal service and will respond to our customers' wishes.

These terms apply if you are buying from us as an individual consumer. If you are buying as a business or profession please ask to see our commercial terms.

Some of the main terms will be included in the email we send you to confirm you order. We will rely on you to have read this page and/or the confirmation email before we send your goods. We like you to reply to the email before we send goods because this sometimes prevents errors, but we do not insist on this because we realise that many customers do not check their email every day.

Statutory rights

Our terms do not affect your statutory rights.

Legal contract and applicable law

When you buy goods on the internet you enter into a legally binding contract. United Kingdom law applies to purchases from this web site.

Ownership and risk

Ownership of the goods is yours when we have accepted your order (by sending you an acknowledgment) and received your cleared payment. In most cases the risk becomes yours when the goods reach your address. But if the delivery address is in a place where we are unable to insure the goods while in transit, the risk becomes yours when they enter that place. If we agree to accept a return the goods become ours again, but you still have a duty to take care of them and send them back to us.    Close this section  Top

 Pricing and currencies

Booksort prices are set in GB Pounds (GBP). The first price shown excludes postage and packing costs. Then we show prices including shipping to the United Kingdom, the rest of Europe, and the rest of the world. These prices allow for the actual weight of each individual item.

We do not add any VAT, card processing fees or other taxes to the price. Buyers outside the UK are responsible for any taxes which might be charged when the book arrives in your country.

Postage and packing are charged at cost, so you can often save money by buying several books at once. But you still get good value when buying a single book, because we do not impose a minimum charge. For more valuable orders we may add the cost of insurance. You can choose a method of carriage (cheapest or faster).

Prices may change without notice, but not after we have accepted your order. We reserve the right not to accept an order if we have made a mistake when setting a price, in which case we will refund the full amount you have paid.

We provide an option to view our prices in various currencies. These prices are approximate, because we cannot know the exact exchange rate the banks will use. We will charge you our GB Pounds price and the banks will convert it to your currency. We use a pessimistic rate when showing other currencies, so we hope you will actually pay a little less.    Close this section  Top

 Booksort payment options

The quickest and safest method is via the internet by credit or debit card. This is safe: your card details are not seen or stored by Booksort but are handled by our payment service provider, Protx, which meets strict international security standards. Your bank may also ask you to confirm your identity as part of the payment process.

You should use only your own card details to place an order. You must always give us the billing address as known to your card issuer, though we may agree to send goods to a different delivery address.

You can also pay by international money order or with a cheque drawn in GB pounds on a UK bank. We may wait for cheques to clear before sending goods. Please do not send cheques in other currencies or drawn on non-UK banks - they are too slow and expensive to clear. We can accept payment through PayPal by special arrangement but the high cost of this means we may need to add 8% to the total price.    Close this section  Top

 Booksort returns policy

We work hard to examine and describe all our goods honestly. If a particular aspect of a book or its appearance is especially important to you please check with us before you order.

We may link a book to a picture. If the picture is shown in the main part of our list (next to the prices), it will be of our own stock. But if it does not appear until you click on a title to open a pop-up, it may be from another source and might not match our stock. This is because book covers vary and can change without us knowing as new editions are published. So in this case, if you need to be certain what the cover looks like, please ask us to check before you order.

We will accept your cancellation of an order at any time before we have despatched the goods, but please note that sometimes this may only be minutes!

Once goods have reached you, if you feel that our description of a book was inaccurate, or if we have sent the wrong book altogether, please send an email or telephone first of all. If we've got it wrong we'll put things right at no cost to you.

If an item has been lost or damaged in transit we will also put this right at no cost to you. Please keep all packaging and any other evidence.

We want you to be happy with our goods. If a book is not faulty but you are not satisfied with it please contact us to request a return. You have seven working days from receipt of the goods to contact us. In this case we will ask you to pay the postage costs both ways and will also need to pass on fees charged by the banks for making a refund. You must make sure returned goods are packed adequately and reach us in the same condition as when we sent them.

Always contact us before sending anything back. We will reply promptly.

We may make refunds using your original payment method, or by sending you a cheque if you are UK-based.

Our liability for any refund shall not exceed the amount you originally paid.    Close this section  Top

 Booksort privacy policy

We are registered under the Data Protection Act 1998 (registration number Z9235616).

We will collect information from you in order to provide the service you have asked for. You do not have to tell us anything we don't need to know.

We will only share this information with other people in order to process your order, or if we are compelled to do so by law, or in order to combat fraud or deception.

When you place an order we will try to check the details you give to help prevent fraud.

We will not sell or give any of your personal details to anyone else unless we have asked you first in a clear way (no tiny tick boxes you might miss). For example, you might tell us about books you are looking for. We would not give your details to another seller without asking first.

If you order via our own web site your card details will be processed by a secure system. We will not see the details or store them on our system.

We may send you occasional emails about the goods we sell on our web site. You can ask us to stop sending these by replying with 'unsubscribe' in the message.

We will take strict precautions to prevent your email address or other details being discovered by anyone else while they are on our system.

If you ask us, we will remove from our system all information about you except what we have to keep for legal or accounting purposes.

Our ordering and payment system may store very small cookie files on your computer. They do not spy on you or collect extra information. When used by a reputable web site cookies can make things easier for you and improve security, but you should find our site works fine even if you do not allow them.

Our web site may contain links to other web sites which might interest you. Their privacy policies may be different from ours.    Close this section  Top