Wide-ranging stock of second-hand books in large shop in the town centre.
A fairly average Oxfam bookshop on the main pedestrian precinct, with a WH Smith new bookshop next door. Chris K 18.06.12
Not a bad bookshop with some quite good modern fiction and a large crime fiction section. Standard Oxfam prices. Other charity shops in the same street, none to get excited about book-wise! Jon Morgan 13.11.17
Large bookshop. Fiction and nonfiction. Hardback and paperback. Not many bargains. A bit pricey for me. We came away with a few books. Jayne 23.05.22
A well stocked Oxfam bookshop. Includes an odd ‘Academic’ section which contains many of the serious non-fiction books. Prices are purely based on Abebooks. So there are no bargains to be had. Talking to the manager and a volunteer they systematically search the value of each donation before pricing and putting them on the shelves. This policy is now common in many Oxfam shops where they use volunteers to do the online searching. I explained to the manager that these policies meant that commercial bookshops are going out of business - but they couldn’t see that this may be a problem. A more sinister policy is the pulping of books which have not sold after 8-12 weeks which is now also common in Oxfam bookshops. I explained that this surely was not in the best interests of the charity as a customer may have bought it at a slightly less aggressive price. Again the staff in this shop were indifferent to my views. PeterD 06.09.22
Another visit to this Beverley Oxfam. This time I bought 5 books for £20. These were not terribly cheap but they were nonfiction (history/architecture) books I had not come across before. So - to soften my view from an earlier visit (above) - I would say it’s a shop well worth checking out as they do get some good donations from the wealthy, well-read townsfolk. But be aware that these books are not necessarily very cheap. PeterD 03.06.23
A good selection of books, especially fiction, history and biog. Obviously every book is checked on the internet, I overheard a comment from a volunteer that he had checked a pile of books, had priced one at £25, a few at £15 and more at £5. One was going to We Buy Books for 27p. Perhaps they could have put it in the shop for 50p? Or would that mean a customer would have got a bargain? Whatever they would have made more money, surely that is what the donor would have preferred? Companies such as We Buy Books are continuing to undermine bookshops, do people who donate to charity bookshops realise where their donations end up? We did find a couple of interesting, reasonably priced topography books, possibly because neither had ISBN numbers so hadn’t been checked HB 20.09.23
A large bookshop, and well above the general Oxfam calibre in its quality of stock, although prices for some of the better books are on the high side. A good selection of novels, especially classics and literary fiction, although more lowbrow titles are also here in abundance. Lots of sci-fi/horror and a reasonable choice of crime fiction too. Prices for paperbacks in all genres are mostly £2.49/£2.99 (a few are £3.49). Quite good also for poetry and drama. The non-fiction stock is of a high standard. Very good for biographies (many £2.99 or less) and for literary criticism. A large sports section (half a dozen shelves), including some high-quality books on angling. Strong for books on the local area and indeed Yorkshire in general, although some of these are unduly pricey. A large and excellent stock in history, including some uncommon titles, and also for travel. A huge number of Ordnance Survey maps (£1.99/£2.49). Quite good for transport, true crime, art, theatre, cinema and music, with a fine selection of (steeply priced) scores. Large sections for social sciences, religion, natural history, gardening, food and drink, and crafts/DIY. The vintage section is more interesting than in most Oxfams and is, in the main, reasonably priced, unlike the shelf of Folio Society volumes. A very good choice of children's books, including quite a lot of older paperbacks. Vintage children's books include some unexciting annuals (1960s onwards), about a dozen Ladybirds (£3.49 to £4.99) and a few bound annual volumes of 'The Boy's Own Paper' from the 1920s (£14.99 each). Also dozens of copies of 'The Beano' (late 1980s), at 99p each and hundreds of '2000 AD' comics, also 99p. The shop has level access and wide aisles. It is in the heart of the town centre, half a mile from Beverley railway station. Beverley is a very attractive and historic town, with two of the finest churches in England, and is certainly WAD. And, while here, leaving this shop unvisited would be a mistake. Booker T 07.09.24
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