Colorado Springs packs three of its secondhand counters into a quarter-mile square downtown, then strings the rest up Academy Boulevard and past the city line. Hooked on Books on East Bijou Street, Poor Richard's on North Tejon and the library-Friends shop tucked inside Penrose Library all stand within 0.3 miles of each other, with Westside Stories 0.8 miles west along Colorado Avenue. After that you drive: Basecamp Books sits 4.3 miles east-northeast at Maizeland and Academy, and a northern run picks up $2 Buck Books, the Friends shop at East Library half a mile beyond it, Born Again Used Books a further 2.3 miles east-southeast, then Library 21c another 4.5 miles northwest of that. Two entries break the pattern entirely — the Goodwill outlet on South Academy Boulevard, and Mountain View Books, which has traded out in Fountain since July 2026.
Cheapest per volume are the two donated-stock circuits: the Goodwill outlet flat-prices print at 69 cents, and the library Friends run three permanent shops plus a clear-out twice a year. The Friends' bookstore page prices books, CDs, DVDs, Blu-rays, audiobooks, magazines and electronic games between 50 cents and $4, knocks 20 percent off most of that for members, and explains that volunteers restock several times weekly out of curated donations and library discards, leaving a self-serve honor box for the hours nobody is on shift. The group dates itself to a founding meeting on November 3, 1955, counts more than 750 member families, and reckons memberships plus shop takings have given the district close to two million dollars since 2004. Two weekends a year the East Library community room becomes the big sale, and the fall edition lands on October 8 to 11, 2026.
Three shifts sit between the older roundups of this city and what is on the ground. The Maizeland Road store that directories still index as Hooked on Books has traded as Basecamp Books and Adventure since Joseph and Mikayla Shearer took it over from Mary and Jim Ciletti, who held on to their downtown shop; the Gazette wrote that handover up in April 2023, and the listings that kept the old name kept the old phone number with it. Poor Richard's turned over too, Richard Skorman and Patricia Seator selling to Joe Cole and Sarah Gibeau-Cole after 51 years, as KRDO reported on April 2, 2026. Two addresses are simply gone: Books For You on South 8th Street told its followers its final open day was Saturday, March 23, 2024 after 34 years, and Mountain View Books cleared out of Cucharras Street in Old Colorado City on July 5, 2026.
Used bookstoresBasecamp Books and Adventure
3918 Maizeland Rd, Colorado Springs, CO 80909
Northeast corner of Maizeland and Academy, in the room a lot of listings still label with its former name, and, by its own account, one of the largest used inventories in the Pikes Peak Region. Its selling terms are spelled out on the store's Facebook page and worth a read before the trunk is full: trade credit seven days a week, spendable against as much as 50 percent of a used copy's ticket and pitched at roughly a quarter of what a paperback originally cost; cash on Saturday and Sunday only, typically an eighth of original cost; consignment held open for rare or expensive titles; two boxes maximum per visit; and in-home visits arranged inside fifteen miles for a large collection. The shop ran the first Basecamp Book Bash here on Sunday, August 16, 2026, from noon to close with dozens of local authors and vendors, and it was still posting on September 3, 2026.
Hours : Mon–Sun 10am–6pmWebsite Used bookstoresHooked On Books
12 E Bijou St, Colorado Springs, CO 80903
Downtown between Tejon and Cascade, and the store Mary and Jim Ciletti held on to when the Maizeland shop went to new owners in 2023. Its Bookshop.org storefront calls it a brick and mortar bookstore specializing in used, rare, collectible and new books, over 10,000 of them, while the shop's Instagram gave the week as 10am–6pm from Monday through Saturday and 10am–3pm on Sundays in a post of September 23, 2024. A post of August 30, 2026 shows the Facebook account still running, and the profile there sends arrivals to the city parking garage.
Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–6pm, Sun 10am–3pmWebsite Used bookstoresPoor Richard's Books & Gifts
320 N Tejon St, Colorado Springs, CO 80903
North Tejon Street, sharing a warren with a restaurant, a coffee bar and a toy store, and older than any of them: the business page traces the bookstore to 1975, when it opened under the name Poor Richard's Used Paperbacks. It advertises good-condition secondhand stock across more than 150 categories plus Colorado trail guides, state and local maps and wildlife titles, and states plainly that it buys used books. After 51 years its founder and his business partner handed the keys to a local couple, a transfer KRDO covered on April 2, 2026 and the incoming owners describe on their own About page as a new chapter. The site footer runs the bookstore on its own clock, separate from the restaurant next door, and pins the used-book buy-back counter to 10am–4pm daily with a note to call ahead.
Hours : Sun–Thu 9am–8pm, Fri–Sat 9am–9pmWebsite Used bookstoresWestside Stories
631 W Colorado Ave, Colorado Springs, CO 80905
A colorful, modern room on West Colorado Avenue shelving new alongside secondhand stock, next to gifts, games, journals, puzzles, pins, patches, art prints, candles and tarot decks. The predecessor page for The Bookman, which the store grew out of, dates the business to continuous trading since 1992, and a Facebook post of August 27, 2026 shows the account very much alive. One planning note: the shop's own Bookshop.org storefront says WestsideStories.co is under renovations, so the grid below comes off the operator's social profile rather than the domain.
Hours : Mon–Wed 11am–6pm, Thu 11am–7pm, Fri–Sat 10am–7pm, Sun noon–5pmWebsite Friends of the Library bookstoreFriends of PPLD Bookstore — East Library
5550 N Union Blvd, Colorado Springs, CO 80918
The flagship of three volunteer shops the district's library Friends keep inside branches, this one just off North Union Boulevard on the north side of town. It runs longer and more predictable hours than its siblings — the organization gives ten to four Monday through Saturday with midweek days stretching to six — and a Square checkout link takes card payment when no volunteer is around. The shelves live on donated stock and library discards, which is why the group asked for nothing to be dropped here between September 20 and October 19 while the October 8–11, 2026 sale was being built in the big room next door.
Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–4pmWebsite Library book salesFriends of PPLD BIG Fall Book Sale
East Library Community Room, 5550 N Union Blvd, Colorado Springs, CO 80918
The community room beside the East Library shop, handed to the volunteers twice a year for gently used books, DVDs and CDs. The organizers set the fall 2026 edition down for October 8 to 11: members first, 4:30 to 7:30 that Thursday evening and ten to noon on the Friday, then everybody from noon Friday, ten to four on Saturday and eleven to three on Sunday, with memberships sold on the spot. Sunday is bargain bag day, unlimited large grocery bags to fill at $6 for members and $7 for the rest, sales tax added unless you turn up with an exemption certificate. Spring 2027 is already posted for March 11 to 14.
Hours : Thu October 8, 2026 members 4:30pm–7:30pm; Fri October 9 members 10am–noon then noon–4pm; Sat October 10 10am–4pm; Sun October 11 11am–3pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Colorado Springs?
Head for donated stock first. The Goodwill outlet at 2855 South Academy Boulevard puts every book, DVD, CD and record at 69 cents flat under pricing that began on January 1, 2026, though the floor is closed to anyone under 16. The three volunteer shops the library Friends run — inside East Library, Penrose Library and Library 21c — price between 50 cents and $4 and take a fifth off that for members, and their fall sale finishes on October 11, 2026 with unlimited grocery bags at $7, or a dollar less once you have joined. If you would rather browse a real bookstore at a fixed price, $2 Buck Books on North Academy Boulevard holds paperbacks at $2 and hardcovers at $4 on almost everything it stocks.
Where do I sell used books in Colorado Springs?
Basecamp Books and Adventure at Maizeland and Academy is the serious option, and it published the numbers itself: trade credit any day, worth up to 50 percent off a used purchase and running around a quarter of a paperback's original price, with cash paid on Saturday and Sunday only at roughly an eighth, consignment available on rare or costly titles, a limit of two boxes a visit and house calls within fifteen miles for a real collection. The North Tejon warren also states that it buys used copies, with a buy-back window posted in the site footer as 10am to 4pm every day, and Born Again Used Books issues store credit every other month, restricted to homeschool curriculum and Christian and children's books. Before any of that, thin the pile where it stands. Do the sorting with a camera before you do it at a counter: BiblioScan reads a shelf photo and puts a resale figure against each title it can name, and the handful you would rather sell yourself separates itself from the boxful that is only ever trade fodder.
When is the Friends of the Library sale in Colorado Springs?
The Friends of the Pikes Peak Library District hold theirs twice a year in the East Library community room at 5550 North Union Boulevard, the fall 2026 dates falling Thursday, October 8 to Sunday, October 11. Members go first, on the Thursday evening between 4:30pm and 7:30pm and again between 10am and midday on the Friday; the public window is midday to 4pm that Friday, then 10am until 4pm on the Saturday and 11am until 3pm on Sunday, which is bargain bag day. Membership is sold at the sale itself, sales tax is charged unless you bring an exemption certificate, and the group has already published March 11 to 14 for spring 2027. Between sales the same volunteers staff year-round shops at Penrose, at Library 21c and inside East Library itself.
Which day is best for book hunting in Colorado Springs?
Saturday, comfortably. Every shop here that publishes a timetable trades that day. Sunday shuts all three library rooms in one stroke, since the branches housing them close, and leaves Basecamp, the Bijou Street store, the North Tejon warren, Westside Stories, the Fountain room, the flat-rate shop on North Academy and Goodwill's bin floor. Monday costs you Born Again and Mountain View instead. With only a couple of hours, take a weekday morning downtown: three of these addresses fall inside a quarter-mile square between Bijou and Cascade, and the Colorado Avenue store is 0.8 miles further west.