Where to buy used books in Chatham-Kent

Updated 9/28/2026

Chatham-Kent, Ontario, is a single municipality that takes in Chatham itself along with towns such as Wallaceburg, Blenheim and Tilbury, yet its secondhand book trade is compact: four of the five stops below sit in downtown Chatham, no pair of them more than roughly 650 metres apart on the map, along King Street, Queen Street and Wellington Street West. The fifth is a charity shop in Wallaceburg, some 27 km to the northwest as measured in a straight line, and its entry opens by naming the town. All dollar amounts below are Canadian.

Only one of the five is a dedicated used bookstore. The Book Brothers on King Street East carries the general stock and has the one written trade-in policy among these five, settled in shop credit, not money. Around it you get a vintage comic dealer, a thrift store that marked all its books down to half price in July 2025, and the library's own sale shelves, which ran a bundle deal through the summer of 2026.

Two downtown names you may see in search results are left off on purpose. Turns & Tales on King Street West is a board game café paired with a new-book shop, and Game Master's Emporium on St. Clair Street sells current comics and games. Neither advertises secondhand books, and both appear in the tips instead.

Spot map

The best spots

Used bookstore

The Book Brothers

25 King St E, Unit C, Chatham, ON N7M 3M6

A used bookstore on King Street East that also sells online through an AbeBooks storefront. Its website lists pocket books at $3.99 and prices trade paperbacks and hardcovers individually between $4 and $9.99, so check the stickers in store before planning around those figures. Books brought in for trade are credited at 50% of their eventual shelf price when newer, less when older, and that balance may cover no more than a 50% share of whatever you buy next, according to the policy page, which also turns away condensed books, magazines, ex-library copies and anything smoke- or water-damaged and asks for an appointment before an estate or a large library comes in. On June 18, 2026, Chatham-Kent councillor Alysson Storey posted a Facebook video from the shop congratulating it on its 20th anniversary and thanking the owners for investing in the downtown.

Hours: Mon–Sat 9am–5pmWebsite
Library sale shelves

Chatham-Kent Public Library book sale shelves (Chatham Branch)

Chatham Branch, 120 Queen St, Chatham, ON N7M 2G6

The library keeps shelves of gently used books for sale, and its Instagram account pointed spring travellers to them on March 6, 2025. At the Chatham branch the summer of 2026 brought a bundle deal, set out in posts on June 24 and August 19: five children's books for $1, four adult paperbacks for $3, three hardcovers for $3, puzzles at $1 and video games at $10, with the takings funding library programs. Bigger clear-outs have taken over the Community Living Café inside the branch, the last one on record being a fall pop-up that the library's notice ran from Monday, November 17 to Saturday, November 22, 2025, open whenever the branch was and with buyers asked to bring their own bags.

Hours: Library hours: Mon–Thu 9:30am–8:30pm, Fri 9:30am–6pm, Sat 9:30am–5pmWebsite
Mission Thrift Store

Mission Thrift Store Chatham

26 Wellington St W, Chatham, ON N7M 4S3

The Chatham outlet of the Mission Thrift Store chain, a straight-line 230 metres or so south-southwest of The Book Brothers. Its own Facebook page announced 50% off all books on July 29, 2025, adding that the store had lots of them.

Hours: Mon–Fri 9am–5pm, Sat 10am–4pmWebsite

All spots by type

Used bookstores

Vintage comics shop

I Need That Comics and Games

199 King St W, Chatham, ON N7M 1E6

A comic book store and board game lounge on King Street West whose grand opening the Chatham Voice covered in June 2023, naming Mark and Karen Fleck as its owners and noting vintage comics from the 1960s to the 1980s on the walls, for sale as well as for show. In a Facebook post on November 24, 2025, the shop described a new layout and comics running from the 1960s to the present, heavy on Silver Age and Bronze Age issues, sold graded, raw or as graphic novels. The same post invited collectors to bring in collections of any size to buy, sell or trade. The Downtown Chatham BIA directory lists it as closed on Sundays and Mondays, and the other days are worth confirming before a special trip.

Thrift stores & charity shops

Charity thrift shop

Re:find Charity Thrift Shoppe

216 Nelson St, Wallaceburg, ON N8A 4H8

Up in Wallaceburg, a Nelson Street thrift shop established in 2013 and owned and operated by Wallaceburg Christian School, according to its website. A notice it placed in the Sydenham Current on March 9, 2025 announced a fresh batch of books on the sales rack, adventures, fantasies and mysteries included. Sponsored coverage in the same outlet on February 20, 2025 described its red-tag sales, said the proceeds go to the school and community nonprofits, and gave the same opening times as the shop's website.

Hours: Mon 10am–2pm, Tue–Fri 10am–4pm, Sat 10am–2pmWebsite

Scan before you buy

At every one of these spots, snap the shelf with BiblioScan: the AI identifies each book and shows its real resale price. Walk out with profitable books, not random boxes.

Try BiblioScan for free

Local sourcing tips

  • Ridgetown, in the municipality's east end about 25 km from downtown Chatham, has an IODE chapter, Ridgetown–Confederation, that runs a book sale it calls an annual event. A Facebook post from the chapter on March 16, 2026 asked residents to bring their book donations on June 4, ahead of that year's sale, so follow the chapter's page for the next round.
  • Turns & Tales at 213 King Street West is worth a coffee but not a sourcing stop. Its website describes a board game café with a bookstore holding upward of 5,000 titles in stock that can special-order anything missing and sells audiobooks too: a shop for fresh stock, in other words.
  • Game Master's Emporium at 55 St. Clair Street says it has served Chatham-Kent collectors and gamers since 1994, yet the comics on its web shop are distributor stock, recent issues alongside older unsold ones, and its buy list targets games, collectible cards, Warhammer-type minis and toys, not comic collections. Older runs and a buying counter are a few blocks away on King Street West.
  • The chain thrift stores are an unknown quantity for books. The Value Village page for the Keil Drive South store repeats, word for word, the product list on the chain's Leamington store page, and the Goodwill page for Grand Avenue West lists books and media only among the donations it takes, in the same row of icons as its donation-centre page, so neither says anything about what is on its own shelves.
  • From Tuesday to Saturday, downtown works as a loop on foot. Begin at I Need That Comics on King Street West, head east along King to The Book Brothers, about 600 metres on as the crow flies, then cut south to Mission Thrift Store on Wellington Street West and finish at the library on Queen Street, which stays open into the evening through Thursday.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find cheap used books in Chatham-Kent?

Start with the library's sale shelves at the Chatham branch: during the summer 2026 bundle offer, adult paperbacks went four for $3 and children's books five for $1. Mission Thrift Store is the next place to try; its Facebook page announced the July 2025 half-price book sale. At The Book Brothers, the site says a handful of trade paperbacks and hardcovers sell for as little as $1, below its $3.99 pocket-book price.

Where do I sell used books in Chatham-Kent?

The Book Brothers is the only shop on this page with written trade terms, and it pays in store credit that can cover part of your next purchase rather than in cash. Vintage comics go to I Need That Comics and Games, which says it will look at a collection whether it is big or small. Before either visit, shoot the shelf once in BiblioScan and let it put a secondhand price against each spine it recognizes; the handful that come back high are yours to list on Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, eBay.ca, Amazon.ca or AbeBooks. Whatever is left can be donated to Mission Thrift Store downtown or to Re:find in Wallaceburg.

Which day is best for book hunting in Chatham-Kent?

Any day from Monday to Saturday covers the four stops with confirmed hours: The Book Brothers, Mission Thrift Store, the library branch and Re:find all open on each of those days. From Monday to Thursday the branch keeps its doors open until 8:30pm, so it can close out a day that starts at the shops. On Saturday, go to Wallaceburg first, because Re:find closes at 2pm. None of the four lists Sunday hours.

When is the big library book sale in Chatham-Kent?

Chatham-Kent Public Library runs its pop-up sales in the Community Living Café at the Chatham branch rather than in a hall. The 2025 editions fell on May 12 to 17 and November 17 to 22, Monday to Saturday both times, during library hours. No later edition had been announced by September 28, 2026, the date of this update, so keep an eye on the library's news page.

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