How to place an order with Booksort

• Use the search box at the top
• Click a or button
• Click the button
• Type your address details
• Click the button
• Type your card details and confirm your order

It's our own stock

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.

Your shopping cart and delivery choices

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 opportunities 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. Your chosen delivery speed and destination are shown at the top of the cart, together with your chosen currency if not GBP. You can change all these using the buttons at the top of the page – new amounts will appear immediately. 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.

The cart lists each book you have ordered and its cost including shipping. 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 you can click a or button to remove a book from your cart.

Save money with a multiple order

If there is more than one item in your cart, there will be a line showing how much you are saving by placing a multiple order. Royal Mail's interesting pricing means that sending two items in one package within the UK sometimes costs more than sending two packages! You will see when this is the case, and can decide whether to order the items separately.

The next line of the cart shows the grand total you will pay.

Checking out – no commitment yet

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 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.

Safe payment

When you are ready to complete your order, have your card ready and click the Pay 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 Sage Pay, 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 Sage Pay 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.

We confirm and despatch promptly

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.

Can we accept other payment methods?

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.

 Booksort payment options

The quickest and safest method is online by credit or debit card.

– Safe, because your card details are never stored or even seen by Booksort;

– Safe, because it's harder for someone to use your card details fraudulently.

The transaction is handled by our payment service provider, Sage Pay, which meets the stringent Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS). Booksort is also certified as compliant with the Standard. Your bank may 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 an extra charge to the total price.

 How to browse subjects

When you move your mouse to Subjects in the main menu, a list of main subjects will appear. Some items on the list are ready to be clicked straight away. Others have a small arrow and will open another clickable list when the mouse is over them.

When you click a subject the display will change to show relevant books. They will be sorted according to the settings in the SORTED box in the left panel.

We are working to improve subject browsing. It's not guaranteed to show every appropriate book, so please try Easy search if you don't find what you're looking for.

The subjects feature does not interact with the search features. Subjects are always picked from our full stock list. We may add a 'search within subject' option in future.

 Help with searching – Easy search

Two ways of searching

A quick search is often all you need, but the easy search facility is more flexible. Quick search has only one input box. Easy search has lots, so you can narrow your search down without having to use special symbols like + and -. You may find easy search simpler to use. The two types work independently, so you could use both at once and switch quickly between two sets of results.

Less is more

It is often more efficient to keep your search text short, especially if you're not sure of the exact title. Pick the most unusual word: if a book is called The Secret Diary Of A Lord Gnome Aged 73¾, just search for gnome.

How the easy search form works

The form has two main parts: five text boxes, and a set of options which can limit the results if you wish.

You can type into just one of the five text boxes, or any combination of them. If you use more than one, everything you type is added together: you will only see results that satisfy ALL the conditions you specify. (Logically, the search terms are anded together).

You can also leave all five text boxes unused, but choose one or more options lower down. This way you can easily list, say, all books that have dustjackets and are in fine or better condition.

(Don't worry about the green messages that appear in the text boxes – they won't affect your results).

All searches ignore letter case. The results will be the same whether you type history or History or HISTORY.

We hope you find this form intuitive, but please let us know if you can think of any improvements. If it ever says there are no results when there should be, there might be an option set to restrict them. You can click to start again.

Find results with any of these ISBNs or stock numbers

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

• Input 0582331927 finds items with that ISBN.

You can search for multiple ISBNs and stock numbers. Separate them with spaces or commas (or almost any non-digit).

• Input 978-0192813275 13/21440 0582331927,9780563522119 finds results with any of those ISBNs or stock numbers.

AND with all these words

• Input British history finds results that contain both those words, even if the words are not together. It will not find results that contain only one of the words.

You can include several words. Just pick some of the main words you need, such as open university arts. They don't all have to be in the title (unless you choose that option further down).

AND with this exact phrase

• Input British history finds results that contain that complete phrase. It will not find results that contain only part of it.

If you are just searching for one word, it doesn't make a big difference whether you use this box or the one above or below. Except that a phrase can be within a word, so in this box

• input Churchill could find The Early Churchills and Churchill's Triumph.

The other boxes might not find those.

AND with at least one of these words

• Input British history finds results that contain British plus results that contain history, even if the words are not together. It will not find results that contain neither of the words.

You can include several words.

AND with none of these words

• Input Churchill in the box above, together with input Winston in this box, could find results that contain Sarah Churchill while leaving out any results for Winston Churchill.

You can include several words.

Search for words in

Choose an option to restrict the results.

• Input Churchill with authors chosen finds books written by a Churchill while leaving out most books about a Churchill.

When the options have square boxes you can choose more than one. When they have round 'boxes' you can only choose one.

• Input Churchill with titles and authors chosen finds books by or about a Churchill while leaving out books with Churchill in the publisher's name.

Choosing everything means the search will look in titles, authors' names, publishers' names, our description, and any keywords we have attached to the book. You get the same result if you leave all the boxes unchosen for this option.

This option, like the others below, starts with the results that come from any conditions you specify in the text boxes above. If you don't specify any conditions, it starts with our full stock list. Then it narrows down the results according to the option settings.

Binding

Choose the type of binding. non-paperbacks include hardbacks, leather-bound books and some other types.

Choosing with dustjacket only limits the results to hardbacks with jackets. It will not include paperbacks with jackets.

Publication year

You can restrict the publication date for your results to the range you enter here. The range includes the dates you give. Books with an unknown publication date are always included in results.

Edition / Signed / Quantity

You can choose to see only first editions. For some time we have used either First edition & printing or First edition & printing in this form (often called "first thus") in our book descriptions. Older descriptions may just say First edition, which could mean either type, but still implies a first printing as far as we know.

Books may be signed by the author or another contributor, or by the book's subject. Always read the description, which will say if we think the signature may be printed.

Tick more than 1 in stock if you need multiple copies. This finds books with more than one copy under the same stock number. We sometimes have copies under different stock numbers, which would not be found this way.

Condition

Choose one of the options, which we hope are self-explanatory!

Main language

This option allows you to restrict results to books using certain main languages. The main language is shown in our descriptions. It might be the only language in a book, or it might be the language of the main text even if the book is published in a different country. A French grammar written for English learners would usually have English as the main language. Some books have more than one main language.

Leave this option set to ANY if you wish to see results for all languages. Or choose one or more other languages instead. If you choose French and German, the results will be limited to books that have at least one of those as a main language.

You need to hold Ctrl (or Command) while choosing a second or subsequent language. You also need to do this to 'unchoose' a single language, or to unchoose one of a group without affecting the rest. If you ever get more languages than you expected in your result, make sure ANY was not set.

(We know that Opera 11.50 does not handle the drop-down list properly. Perhaps a later version will.)

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 casar plus all items that contain cæsar plus all items that contain cäsar.
• Search input cæsar finds all items that contain cæsar plus all items that contain caesar.

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 in more than one way.

• Search input *pa*dia* finds all items that contain encyclopaedia plus all items that contain encyclopædia.
• Search input *che*hov finds all items that contain Chekhov plus all items that contain Tchehov plus all items that contain Tchekhov plus all items that contain Tschekhov.
• Search input *che*ho? finds the same results plus all items that contain Tschekhow.

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.

 Help with searching – Quick search

Two ways of searching

A quick search is often all you need, but the easy search facility is more flexible. Quick search has only one input box. Easy search has lots, so you can narrow your search down without having to use special symbols like + and -. You may find easy search simpler to use. The two types work independently, so you could use both at once and switch quickly between two sets of results.

How quick search tries to find what you are looking for

Just try typing something! Then press Enter or Tab or click the button to the right of the search box.

A quick 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.

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

Less is more

It is often more efficient to keep your search text short, especially if you're not sure of the exact title. Pick the most unusual word: if a book is called The Secret Diary Of A Lord Gnome Aged 73¾, just search for gnome.

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 such as "shakespeare's sonnets" finds items that contain a phrase which includes a single quotation mark (or apostrophe).
• Search input such as '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.

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 00949 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:22503,949 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 casar plus all items that contain cæsar plus all items that contain cäsar.
• Search input cæsar finds all items that contain cæsar plus all items that contain caesar.

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 in more than one way.

• Search input *pa*dia* finds all items that contain encyclopaedia plus all items that contain encyclopædia.
• Search input *che*hov finds all items that contain Chekhov plus all items that contain Tchehov plus all items that contain Tchekhov plus all items that contain Tschekhov.
• Search input *che*ho? finds the same results plus all items that contain Tschekhow.

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.

 How to sort the display

When you first come to our web site the display will usually be sorted so that our most recent stock additions come first. (This is the default sort order). The display is usually arranged in two columns, reading across and then down.

You can quickly change the order in which books are displayed using the SORTED box in the left panel. The box tells you what criterion the display is sorted by at the moment, and whether it is in ascending or descending order (eg A-Z or Z-A).

Below that is a list of criteria you can sort by. If the list is hidden, just move your mouse over the box to show it. Then click one of the options.

Your sorting preference will usually apply until you change it, and will be used for any searches and subject choices you make. When you click an option, sorting starts straight away, but the display may take a few moments to change depending on your connection speed.

After sorting, the display will still show the same set of books. The results of any search you made earlier are preserved.

You can change the sort order even while you in the middle of filling in the Easy search form. The existing display will be sorted, but an actual search will not start unless you click the button in the search form.

You can click Home in the main menu to go back to the default sort order.

Reversing the order

If the box says SORTED by author A-Z, clicking Author in the list of options will change this to SORTED by author Z-A. A new sort is done every time you click. All the sorting criteria have ascending and descending options.

Sorting by two criteria

When the display is only sorted by one criterion, clicking a different option (such as Year) will add that as a second criterion. The box might say SORTED by author A-Z and then by year of publication, oldest first.

If you then click Year again the second criterion will be reversed. The box would say SORTED by author A-Z and then by year of publication, newest first.

If you click Year a third time, that criterion will be 'promoted' from second position to first, and the box will say SORTED by year of publication, oldest first.

Don't worry if that sounds complicated! Just click the options you want until you get the right combination.

Notes on the criteria

Title  The main title of the book as on the title page (rather than the book cover, which sometimes differs). 'A' and 'the' (and their foreign language equivalents) at the start of a title are ignored for sorting purposes.

Author  The first-named author of the book as on the title page (rather than the book cover, which sometimes differs). We usually sort by the author's last name followed by the forename(s) or initials. We follow whatever spelling is used in a book so some names may appear in various sort positions, for example Chekhov / Tchekhov / Tschekhov / Tschekhow. A Russian version of a book by Harris will have the author listed as Kharris, following recognised transliteration rules. Different versions of names can occur, so you sometimes find Cervantes listed under Saavedra.

If there is no obvious author we may use the name of an editor or other contributor. Note that you can often use Quick search or Easy search to find other contributors, such as illustrators. Books with no author will be listed before A (the order within that group is undefined unless you choose a second criterion).

Price  The price of the book including postage (shipping) for the destination and speed you choose elsewhere.

Year  The latest year of publication or printing shown in the book. Books with no date will be listed before the earliest known dates (the order within that group is undefined unless you choose a second criterion).

Time  The length of time a book has been in our list. Books in the list for the longest time have the lowest stock numbers.

If Time is the first criterion adding a second would not be very useful, so clicking a different option will promote it to first position straight away.

 Pricing and currencies

The price shown with each item includes everything. It applies to your chosen destination and delivery speed. You can change these, and the display currency, using the buttons at the top of the page – a new price will appear immediately. The price has already taken weight and size into account. When you order more than one item you will usually see a reduced grand total in your shopping cart because it allows for the combined weight and size*. You can make big savings in comparison with some online sites which charge a large flat fee for each book.

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.

If you think the price is too high for one of our more expensive items, please feel free to contact us with an offer!

You can view our prices in various currencies. These converted prices are approximate: we use an up-to-the-minute exchange rate, but the banks may use a slightly different one. Booksort prices are set in GB Pounds (GBP); we will charge you in GBP and the banks will convert the total to your currency. We use pessimistic rates when showing other currencies, so we hope you will actually pay a little less. If a refund is made at a later date bank rates may have changed so the amount may be slightly higher or lower than your original payment; unfortunately there is no way we can adjust for this.

*Royal Mail's interesting pricing means that sending two books in one package within the UK sometimes costs more than sending two packages! Your shopping cart will warn you if this happens and you can decide whether to order the books separately.

 About Booksort

Booksort is based in the UK and 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. Our customers see us as fair and trustworthy – please browse through their comments to the right of the page.

Some 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 all our prices reflect the actual cost of shipping – lightweight books cost less. And you can buy more than one book without being charged a separate flat fee on each one.

Your consumer rights are fully guaranteed when you buy online from Booksort, and our payment system obeys the latest security regulations. For your reassurance we publish our full contact details on this site. Our stock is in our own hands and we despatch books all over the world every working day of the year.

 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 appears in our list, next to the title, it will show the actual copy we are offering. A larger copy of the same picture will appear in a pop-up if you click on the title. If the picture does not appear in the list, but only in 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 (there's a first time for everything!), 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 and is subject to a book's safe return to us if we request this.

 Booksort privacy policy

We are registered with the UK Information Commissioner's Office under the Data Protection Act 1998 (registration number Z9235616).

We are certified as compliant with the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS).

We will only 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.

We may store very small cookie files on your computer. They do not spy on you or collect any information you have not given us, but allow us to process orders more securely. Please click here for some general information about cookies.

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

 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 your 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.