Theme-less bulk orders are hitting secondhand bookshops, and the trade suspects AI buyers

Secondhand booksellers in the UK and Ireland have spent months filling large orders from buyers they cannot identify, and the Guardian reports that the trade's working assumption is that AI companies are acquiring the stock for its data ^[1]. The Guardian's account contains no confirmation from any buyer, so treat the motive as unproven; what is documented is a change in how books are being bought, and it runs through a channel that no rights or licensing desk monitors.

The tell is composition, not volume. Stuart Manley, co-owner of Barter Books in Alnwick, said orders began arriving three months ago and did not follow the usual pattern of grouping by theme such as sport or motoring ^[3]. "Normally a book order is on a theme but this is all over the place," he said ^[4]. One recent order asked for an Estonian translation of John le Carre's The Mission Song, a copy of Anne Bronte's Agnes Grey from a specific imprint, and the October 1983 edition of the monthly magazine Warship ^[5]. Manley said he had sold hundreds of random books to three buyers for about 4,000 pounds ^[6]. Jim Shaughnessy of MW Books in Claregalway has had large, varied orders since May, which he described as "sporadic, presumably machine-driven", running from books on agricultural implements in 18th century Africa to biographies of 1950s racing car drivers ^[7][8]. David Gower-Spence of BookLovers of Bath took a rush of orders for about 200 books between May and July, from buyers also cited by other sellers ^[10]. Manley's three-month window and both other accounts place the onset around May, on a report dated 15 August 2026 ^[24].

The commercial detail that matters: one UK bookseller, speaking anonymously, said buyers were paying "top whack" and were not seeking a discount despite ordering in bulk, and that the shop had taken orders for 6,000 books since January ^[15]. Volume buyers in this trade normally negotiate. These do not, which reads as a procurement budget rather than a resale margin. The same bookseller said aliases were "very opaque even to experienced booksellers", with orders from different buyers delivered to the same address ^[13]. One delivery postcode seen by the Guardian, used by different buyers, points to a group of freight warehouses near Heathrow ^[14]. One Canada-based buyer, Zoom Books, describes itself as North America's leading book recycling company and has been contacted for comment by the Guardian ^[11].

There is precedent for the destination. The Washington Post reported this year that Anthropic spent tens of millions of dollars acquiring books and slicing off their spines so the contents could be scanned before recycling ^[20]. Anthropic says sourcing books is a widely used approach across the industry and that none of its data acquisition programmes buy and destroy rare or antiquarian books ^[21]. Separately, 404 Media reported last month that the books database ISBNdb had told sellers "the world's best AI training data is sitting on a shelf", with pre-2022 titles preferred because their text predates chatbot output; ISBNdb said the page was a test of market interest ^[22][23].

Watch whether Zoom Books or any other named buyer explains itself, whether that Heathrow postcode resolves to an identifiable consolidator, and whether pre-2022 stock starts repricing. Shaughnessy's position is the one to note: he does not think sellers can dictate what a customer does with a purchase, but finds the selection more than curious ^[9].