Bills of sale may be used in a wide variety of transactions: to sell goods, exchange, give, or mortgage objects.

[1] The term "bill of sale" originally referred to any writing by which an absolute disposition of personalty for value was effected or evidenced.

A common feature of such dispositions is that the owner mortgagor remains in possession and exercises all the attendant rights of ownership, which may be so overwhelming as to induce a third party to accept the same chattel as security for a grant, albeit without notice of the first mortgagee.

Black's Law Dictionary on its part defines a bill of sale as "an instrument for the conveyance of title to personal property, absolutely or by way of security".

Bullen and Leake and Jacobs define a bill of sale as "a document transferring a proprietary interest in personal chattels from one individual (the 'grantor') to another (the 'grantee'), without possession being delivered to the grantee".

As the general population began to own more personal goods in the Victorian era, bills of sale came to be used as a form of consumer credit.

Lenders would extend credit on the security of: all and every the household goods, furniture, plate, linen, china, books, stock in trade, brewing utensils and all the effects.

Sometimes, bills of sale would transfer ownership outright, such as when a person sold their goods to another while retaining possession.

In both cases, the transaction was fraudulent, but the purchaser or lender had no way of discovering that the goods were already subject to a bill of sale.

It requires all bills of sale to be registered at the High Court so that interested third parties could check whether the person in possession has already transferred away ownership of goods.

Having entrapped a man into his office, the money-lender proceeded in this way – He produced a bill of sale containing a large number of clauses, which it was impossible for the borrower to read or understand in the time allowed ...In response, Parliament enacted the 1882 Act, adding registration and understandable terms as forms of consumer protection, which land had already enjoyed for decades in many counties due to its compulsory registration of deeds of sale.

Borrowers transfer ownership contingently of their car, van or motorcycle to the logbook lender as security for meeting their loan repayments.

Borrowers hand the logbook lender the V5C vehicle registration document or "logbook"; whilst if taken to the court for civil breach of the Act (which is usually prohibitively expensive and complex), the lender would swear the transfer were purely symbolic and has no legal effect as it warns on its face, in reality they may seize the vehicle amicably, or with menaces, and in either case effect its transfer at the DVLA if any repayment instalment is missed.