Published 13 November 2026.
The question we hear first is often “what’s it worth?” A webpage cannot answer that, and neither can a two-minute enquiry form. What we can do is be honest about the things that tend to make a difference, and point you to published figures that are not ours.
You pay nothing to ask us. Our introduction fee is paid by the buyer. How we’re paid.
There is no price list
Two firms in the same trade, with a similar headcount, can hold very different archives. One has twelve years of email, quotes and finished-job files that still link together. The other has a set of PDFs with the attachments missing. Talking about a typical price as if those were the same thing would be misleading, so we don’t.
Within a week of a short description, we can tell you whether it looks like a fit for the buyers we know. That is not a valuation.
What tends to matter
- Years and continuity. A run of real work, over several years, is usually more useful than a snapshot.
- Linkage. The quote, the emails and the final invoice for the same job, sitting together, tell a fuller story than any one of them alone.
- How specialist the work is. Narrow, skilled work can be harder for a buyer to find elsewhere. That can matter. It is not a guarantee.
- What you’re free to license. Rights, confidentiality, client terms and professional rules can take whole categories out of scope. What’s left is what a buyer can actually discuss. See are you free to license these records?.
- How personal and confidential details are handled. What has to come out, and who does that work, affects both usefulness and cost. That is agreed between you and the buyer. See preparing records.
- What a buyer needs at the time. Demand moves. Our homepage note on what is wanted right now is a snapshot, not a forecast.
Published figures, with their limits
We keep a sourced page of market evidence: third-party figures reported by named providers, converted and dated, and labelled as not McKays deals. They are self-reported, they are not independently confirmed by us, and we have not seen published prices for UK or Irish deals. They are useful as a sense of scale, and they are not a quote for your archive.
There is a longer note on the same theme in our earlier guide, how much is your company data worth?.
What we will not do
We will not put a calculator on this page that returns a pound figure. We will not tell you that records like yours “usually” sell for a range we cannot evidence. And we will not treat a first look as a valuation. If that sounds cautious, it is meant to.
This page is general information, not legal advice. It isn’t a ruling on any case. Please speak to your own adviser about your situation.
Sellers pay nothing. The first look is free. How we’re paid.