Bismarck keeps its secondhand books within a few blocks of the Missouri, then sends you across it. Downtown carries three of the six entries below, in a triangle whose longest side is just over half a mile: The Novel Exchange on North 4th Street, the Veterans Memorial library a couple of blocks away on North 5th, and the Bismarck Antique Mall over on West Main Avenue. The Owl is a mile southeast on South 12th Street and the college store a mile and three quarters to the northwest on Schafer Street. The sixth is in a different county altogether — A Novel Idea, five and a half miles west inside the Morton Mandan Public Library, in Mandan and in Morton County rather than Burleigh.
Decide in advance which of these places will even look at a box, because only two will. The Owl buys and swaps, and posts the categories it is short of, so check those before hauling anything down. The Novel Exchange takes trades and outright gifts. Bismarck State College runs the one textbook buyback on this page, but it is a channel for its own students rather than for you, and the two library operations accept donations rather than paying — the Bismarck Friends collect all year during library hours, and the Friends of MMPL restock A Novel Idea the same way.
Two events make quick nonsense of an older Bismarck list. Ferguson Books on East Broadway closed for good on April 27, 2024, a date KX News confirmed nine days ahead of it, and the old fergusonbooks.com resolves to a parked GoDaddy page; KX was profiling The Novel Exchange three weeks after that. Across the river, Huntington Books on 3rd Avenue NW told its followers on February 20, 2025 that a burst pipe had flooded the shop and closed it until further notice, and the page has posted nothing since that May, though the address and phone number still circulate in business directories. There is also no chain to fall back on: Half Price Books lists no store in North Dakota and its own finder returns nothing within 300 miles of here.
Used bookstoresThe Owl Bookstore
1107 S 12th St, Bismarck, ND 58504
A small independent on South 12th Street, a mile southeast of downtown, whose Facebook bio states the business plainly: buy, sell and trade used books. Its Yelp listing calls it the only used bookstore in Bismarck and dates the operation to 1971. The counter is picky in a way that helps you — on September 2, 2026 it asked for newer romance and mystery paperbacks carrying a 2020 copyright or later, plus puzzles, and put the trade at 50 cents for a book once two have come in the other way. Pricing posts from the same summer put five shelves of cookbooks at $3 to $5 and children's books between 25 cents and $3 apiece.
Hours : Mon–Thu 10am–5:30pmWebsite Used bookstoresThe Novel Exchange
218 N 4th St, Bismarck, ND 58501
Downtown on North 4th Street, opened by Cassidy Rosene and written up by KX News in May 2024, which reported that the store carries new and used titles, accepts book donations and keeps used stock as its main business. KFYR-TV came back on February 7, 2026 for the Book Rescues she runs, taking in older novels from readers who have died and putting them back on the shelf cheaply. The trading week is where this listing gets thin: KX had the store on Saturdays only, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., with more promised; the shop's Facebook page reports whether the door is open without publishing the week behind it, and the single directory grid in circulation gives Wednesday as 4 to 7 p.m. against what the shop itself posts on Wednesdays. Phone 701-391-2014 before you set out.
Library book room run by the FriendsA Novel Idea
Morton Mandan Public Library, 609 W Main St, Mandan, ND 58554
Over the Missouri in Mandan, a book room the Friends of MMPL curate inside the town library, reached by turning left past the circulation desk. KFYR carried the announcement in March 2025 that the room would open that April, and the Friends' own page sets the tariff as suggested donations — 50 cents for kids' titles, $1 for teen and adult, $5 for a bagful — settled at that same desk. Everything on the shelves was given, so the mix swings: on August 10, 2026 the group posted that its children's and young adult sections had run low and asked for gently used copies. Takings go back to the Friends, who also accept DVDs and puzzles.
Hours : Mon–Thu 10am–7pm, Fri–Sat 10am–3pm; closed SunWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Bismarck?
Start with the volunteers. The library Friends sell by weight, a dollar for every pound of books, in the meeting rooms at 515 North 5th Street, in the opening week of March and again in October; the 2026 fall dates are October 1 to 3. When no sale is on, A Novel Idea inside the public library in Mandan works on suggested donations: half a dollar for children's titles, a dollar for teen and adult books, five for a bag, paid at the circulation desk. The Owl on South 12th Street covers the rest of the week, having posted children's books from 25 cents to $3 over the summer of 2026.
Where do I sell used books in Bismarck?
Two doors, two arrangements. The Owl both buys and swaps, and its September 2026 want list is narrow, so read it before you load the car. The Novel Exchange downtown trades and also accepts outright gifts, with the gifts the part KX News chose to mention in its May 2024 profile. Do not count the campus bookstore as a third: its buyback runs on a college address and a student number, and settles in account credit. Photograph the shelf before you box it. BiblioScan puts a live resale figure against every spine that reads clearly, and once that column exists the sorting turns into arithmetic — anything worth more than a counter would hand you stays home for your own listing, and the remainder rides downtown in a carton.
When is the Friends of the Library sale in Bismarck?
The Friends of the Bismarck Public Library go twice a year, inside the Bismarck Veterans Memorial Public Library, and their own page puts the two weeks in early March and early October. The fall 2026 edition runs Thursday, October 1 from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m., Friday, October 2 from 9 a.m. to 5:45 p.m. and Saturday, October 3 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., with books priced by weight at a dollar the pound. One-day events fill the space between those weeks: Central ND News carried an announcement dated January 14, 2026 for a vintage sale of rare classics, out-of-print titles and North Dakota history, staged on January 24 in meeting room A on the lower level. Over in Mandan the Friends group skipped the calendar altogether and opened A Novel Idea, a permanent book room in its library that KFYR announced in March 2025.
Which day is best for book hunting in Bismarck?
Thursday. It is the last day The Owl trades in any given week, with a 5:30 close, and A Novel Idea over in Mandan runs to 7 p.m. that day, four hours longer than it stays open on Friday or Saturday. The Bismarck Antique Mall and the campus store are open too, and the public library on North 5th holds on until nine. Sunday is the write-off: four of the six here are closed, and your one certainty is that library, from one until six. Whichever day you pick, The Novel Exchange stays the wildcard, because it publishes no dependable grid — phone 701-391-2014 ahead.