Bulk CEX price check from a spreadsheet of barcodes
Upload a list of barcodes and get the CEX cash, voucher and sell price for every one. A catalogue of 9,000 DVDs takes two or three minutes, the results sort themselves by what they are worth, and you download a spreadsheet with your own columns still in it.
Bulk import is part of Power Seller. Single scans are free, no signup.
Why this is awkward without a tool
CEX prices one item at a time. That is fine at the counter and hopeless for a stock list: at ten seconds a look-up, 9,000 barcodes is about 25 hours of typing. The barcode scanner apps have the same shape of problem, because they are built for pointing a phone at a case you are holding rather than for a catalogue you already have in a spreadsheet.
The alternative people reach for is code. There are scrapers and Python scripts that will pull CEX prices into Google Sheets, and they work, but only if writing and maintaining one is something you want to do. This page is for the other case: you have the barcodes already, and you want the prices next to them.
How the lookup works
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Export your barcodes
CSV or Excel, whichever your stock list already is. It needs one column of barcodes. Any other columns you keep, such as what you paid or when you bought it, come back exactly as they went in.
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Drop the file in
The file is read by your browser and never uploaded. Only the barcodes themselves go anywhere, and only to look up a price.
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Confirm the barcode column
Every column is scored on how much of it reads as a barcode, preferring the 12 to 14 digit lengths that are actually printed on a case, so a column of stock numbers does not get mistaken for one of EANs. You see the guess and the first few rows, and can change it.
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Each barcode is matched on its exact CEX id
A barcode lookup is an exact match against the product id in the live CEX UK catalogue, not a fuzzy search on the title. Either that barcode is the item or it is not, so there is no guessing about which edition or which box set you have.
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Read the results, then download them
Prices fill in as they arrive, sorted with the most valuable first. Filter to just the ones worth over a pound, search for a title, then export the lot as Excel.
What the results look like
Sorted by cash value, so the few items worth real money are at the top rather than buried in a list of the ones worth 20p. These are live CEX prices at the time of writing.
| Barcode | Title | Category | Cash | Voucher | Sell | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5051892235211 | Harry Potter Complete Steelbook Col. (12) 4K UHD+BR (17 Disc) | Blu-Ray 4K | £156.00 | £189.00 | £275.00 | On CEX |
| 8717418566128 | Star Wars: Skywalker Saga Ltd Ed. Complete Box Set (12) 4K UHD | Blu-Ray 4K | £96.00 | £117.00 | £170.00 | On CEX |
| 5051561002427 | Doctor Who: Complete Box Set 1-7 | Blu-Ray TV & Documentary | £55.00 | £78.00 | £120.00 | On CEX |
| 5056453203500 | Star Trek: The Movies 1-6 Boxset (12) 4K UHD+BR (15 Disc) | Blu-Ray 4K | £41.00 | £58.00 | £90.00 | On CEX |
| 5051892216364 | Harry Potter - Complete Collection (12) 4K UHD+BR (16 Discs) | Blu-Ray 4K | £37.00 | £44.00 | £65.00 | On CEX |
| 5039036082228 | 007, James Bond Col. (15) (24 Movies) 24 Disc | Blu-Ray Movies | £22.00 | £31.00 | £48.00 | On CEX |
| 5051892189859 | Wire, The - Complete Season 1-5 (18) | Blu-Ray TV & Documentary | £19.00 | £27.00 | £42.00 | On CEX |
| 5060000000000 | — | — | — | — | — | Not listed |
A representation of the results screen, using real CEX prices. Cash is what they pay you, voucher is store credit, sell is what CEX charges for the same disc.
What comes back in the download
Your original sheet, with these columns added on the end. It is an Excel file rather than a CSV, so barcodes arrive as text instead of being turned into something like 8.71742E+12, and the prices arrive as numbers you can total.
| Column | What it is |
|---|---|
| cex_title | The product name as CEX lists it, including edition and disc count. |
| cex_category | CEX's own category, such as Blu-Ray 4K or DVD Kids. |
| cex_cash | What CEX pays you in money. |
| cex_voucher | What CEX pays in store credit, usually around 40% more than cash. |
| cex_sell | What CEX charges customers for it, a useful sense of the item's ceiling. |
| cex_buying | Whether CEX is currently buying it online, or in store only. |
| cex_status | Matched, not listed, or replaced by a newer barcode. |
| cex_previous_cash cex_change | On a re-price, last run's cash price and the difference, so you can sort by what has gone up. |
Pricing the same list again next month
CEX moves prices constantly, so a valuation has a shelf life. You can save your barcode list after a run, which makes re-pricing one click with no re-uploading, and adding the week's new stock a small file rather than the whole catalogue again.
A re-price also shows what moved. Each row carries its previous cash price and the difference, so you can sort by biggest riser and see what has become worth selling since last time. That is the part you cannot get from CEX itself, and on a large collection it is usually more useful than the total.
Two things worth knowing before you run one
Most second-hand DVDs are worth pennies. In a sample of 291 CEX film and TV titles the middle of the range was about 70p, and roughly one in five was something CEX would buy online rather than in store only. The top tenth were £6 and up. A bulk price check is for finding those, not for the total at the bottom of the sheet.
CEX retires barcodes without deleting them. When a disc gets a new barcode, the old record is renamed to point at the replacement and its prices are set to zero. On a list built up over years there will be a fair number of these, and read literally they look worthless. Pricesweep spots them, follows the replacement, and prices that instead.
Who uses it
- Resellers working out a buying price for a job lot, by pricing the barcodes before committing.
- Charity shops deciding which donations are worth listing online rather than putting on the shelf at £1.
- House clearance and probate, where a collection needs a defensible number attached to it quickly.
- Collectors valuing a catalogue they already keep in a spreadsheet, and watching what changes.
- Anyone with the discs but not the list, who is better served by the barcode scanner or a photo of the pile.
Limits
- Up to 25,000 barcodes per file and 10,000 a day per account.
- Prices are CEX UK. We are not affiliated with CEX, and a price here is their standing offer, not a guaranteed quote.
- Barcode matching is exact, which is its strength on media and its weakness on phones and tablets, where the price depends on storage size and condition rather than the barcode.
- CEX will not always buy in the quantity you have, and store managers can decline stock. Check before you drive anywhere with 400 discs.
Questions
Can I check CEX prices in bulk?
Yes. Upload a spreadsheet containing a column of barcodes and you get the CEX cash, voucher and sell price for every one. A list of 9,000 takes two to three minutes. CEX's own site prices one item at a time, and scanner apps are built for a case in your hand, so neither is practical for a stock list.
What file formats can I upload?
CSV, TSV and Excel (.xlsx and .xls). Semicolon-separated exports from European versions of Excel work too. The file is read in your browser, so nothing is uploaded.
How many barcodes can I price at once?
Up to 25,000 in a single file, and 10,000 a day per account. A typical charity shop or reseller catalogue of 5,000 to 10,000 fits in one run.
Which prices do I get?
Three. Cash is what CEX pays you in money. Voucher is what they pay in store credit, usually around 40% more. Sell is what CEX charges customers for the same item, which helps you judge whether it is worth listing yourself instead. You also get a flag for whether CEX is buying it online or in store only.
Are the prices live?
Yes. Every barcode is matched against the CEX UK catalogue at the moment you run it, not against a stored copy. CEX changes prices frequently, which is why re-pricing a saved list and seeing what has moved is more useful than a one-off valuation.
What happens to barcodes CEX does not stock?
They come back marked "not listed" with empty price columns, and they stay in their original row so your sheet keeps its shape. Roughly a quarter to a third of a typical second-hand DVD list falls into this category.
Why do some barcodes show a price of zero?
CEX retires a barcode by renaming the record to point at a replacement for the same disc and zeroing its prices, rather than deleting it. Pricesweep spots those, follows the replacement and prices that instead, so they do not read as worthless.
Do I have to send you my stock list?
No. The file is read by your browser and never uploaded. Only the barcodes are looked up, in batches, while the run is going. You can choose to save your list so it can be re-priced later, and delete it again whenever you like. See the privacy notice for what that stores.
Does it work for games, CDs and books as well as DVDs?
Yes, for anything CEX lists against a barcode: DVDs, Blu-rays, 4K discs, video games on every format, CDs, vinyl and books. Phones and tablets vary by exact model and condition, so a barcode match is less reliable there than on media.
What does it cost?
Bulk barcode import is part of Power Seller at £14.99 a month. Photo and single-barcode scanning is free for the first 10 items each month, with no signup.
Price your list
Bring a spreadsheet of barcodes and get CEX prices next to every one of them.