Augusta, Georgia keeps its secondhand paper in clusters that behave nothing alike. Downtown carries The Book Tavern at 978 Broad Street plus the volunteer shop the library Friends run inside headquarters on Telfair, a quarter of a mile apart and easy to do on foot in one morning. Washington Road, four and a half miles away to the west-northwest, holds 2nd & Charles and the Augusta/CSRA Habitat ReStore about a mile from one another. Two more want a car: a diocesan thrift floor straight west on Wrightsboro Road, and a twice-yearly sale that happens across the state line in North Augusta, South Carolina.
Settle what each counter will actually do before hauling anything through a door, because only two of the seven will so much as open your carton. The Book Tavern gives back house credit rather than cash, and that credit spends against used stock alone: the whole sticker on a title tagged USED, half of it on one tagged USED+++, zero on anything new. 2nd & Charles buys as well as sells, and its Augusta page carries the line that decides your timing, which is that the buyback desk shuts sixty minutes ahead of the store. The remaining five run on donations, so somebody else sets the price and a receipt is the most you take away.
One pair of library facts dates an older Augusta roundup faster than anything else does. Appleby Branch has been closed for renovations since June 1, 2026 and construction now sits on the James Brown and Telfair intersection outside headquarters, both announced on the banner across the top of arcpls.org, which tells drivers to leave the car along James Brown Boulevard or Greene Street when the lot cannot be reached. The trustees then recorded in June 2026 that Appleby regulars had started coming downtown to the Friends instead, which is why the volunteer room counts for more in 2026 than its four-hour afternoons make it look.
Used bookstoresThe Book Tavern
978 Broad St, Augusta, GA 30901
Started in 2005 on 8th Street, on Broad within the year, and beside Nacho Mama's since 2022 once the JB Whites Building got tight — the shop sets that sequence out on its About page and keeps new, used and rare on the same shelves. Trade-ins come back as house credit, with old textbooks, ex-library copies and jacketless hardbacks all refused at the door; step outside while staff are still assessing and whatever they pass on gets recycled together with the carton it arrived in. That credit then covers a whole ticket on a used title marked USED, half a ticket on one marked USED+++, and none of the price of a new one. Its calendar carries a Saturday author pop-up with John Doriot for September 12, 2026.
Hours : Sun–Wed 10am–6pm, Thu–Sat 10am–8pmWebsite Used-media chain store2nd & Charles Augusta
2834 Washington Rd, Augusta, GA 30909
A warehouse-scale secondhand media floor out on Washington Road, and the single chain address on this page. The store page prints a ten o'clock opening on six days, an eight o'clock close on those same six, and eleven until seven on a Sunday, then adds the detail that shapes an afternoon: the buyback counter closes sixty minutes before the doors do. This branch trailed a Penny A Page day for August 16 in a Facebook post of August 4, 2025, and its TikTok account pushed the same promotion toward Saturday, August 15, 2026, where two clips capped it at five used books at a cent for every printed page and a third, posted the night before, opened it to any used title.
Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–8pm, Sun 11am–7pmWebsite Friends of the Library bookstoreFriends of the Augusta Library Bookstore
Augusta-Richmond County Public Library headquarters, 823 Telfair St, Augusta, GA 30901
A room worked by volunteers inside library headquarters, a few minutes on foot south of The Book Tavern, and the year-round counterpart to the two sales the Friends stage in the same building. Trustee minutes of February 2026 record it trading Thursday through Saturday between noon and four, and the June 2026 set reports no change to that while Appleby patrons come downtown during their own branch's renovation. By July 2026 the Friends were telling the board the shop covers roughly half the hours the library itself keeps, that more volunteers were being chased to widen that, and that Rise Augusta was lined up to hand over children's titles. The same report has the group locating a firm that buys books and banking a first check from it.
Hours : Thu–Sat noon–4pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Augusta?
Work the nonprofits first. The volunteer room inside library headquarters at 823 Telfair Street opens Thursday to Saturday, noon until four, hours the trustees logged again in June 2026. Catholic Social Services on Wrightsboro Road gives books a section of the sales floor and keeps its doors unlocked every day but Sunday, eight in the morning to six at night. The Habitat ReStore out on Washington Road sold a $10 fill-a-bag over its October 29 to November 1 window in 2025, and the regional Goodwill prices tag-of-the-week books at $1.99 on Wednesdays. Across the state line, the Nancy Carson foundation keeps most of what it puts out at $2 and under.
Where do I sell used books in Augusta?
Two counters, one set of terms apiece. The Book Tavern deals in house credit and not in cash, refusing aged textbooks, anything a library has stamped and hardbacks missing a jacket, and its credit spends at full value against a USED sticker and half value against a USED+++ one. 2nd & Charles on Washington Road buys seven days a week though its buyback desk stops taking anything a whole hour before the store shuts, so make it a morning trip. Triage the pile at home before either trip: stand a shelf up, photograph it once, and BiblioScan prices each spine it can recognize, which inside a minute tells you which handful deserves your own listing and which carton belongs on a trade counter.
When is the Friends of the Library sale in Augusta?
The Friends of the Augusta Library run theirs at headquarters, 823 Telfair Street, and the trustee minutes are where dates surface first. The board heard in May 2026 that the spring sale at headquarters had gone well and that the fall pair was already fixed for November 6 and 7; the July 2026 meeting confirmed both days and noted volunteers being signed up to set up and break down. Times for November have not been printed, so 706-469-3356 is the number to try. Between events, the Friends bookstore in the same building does that job all year, Thursday, Friday and Saturday afternoons, twelve to four.
Which day is best for book hunting in Augusta?
Saturday, since five of the seven are trading on it. The volunteer room runs noon to four, The Book Tavern stays open until eight, 2nd & Charles matches that, the ReStore holds to six and Catholic Social Services unlocks at eight in the morning. Sunday cuts the list to two, The Book Tavern until six and 2nd & Charles until seven. Monday to Wednesday is the thinnest stretch, with the Friends room dark and the ReStore closed, which leaves the two shops and the diocesan thrift store.