Where to buy used books in Columbus

Updated 9/2/2026

Start with the correction, because two American cities carry this name and the other one is in Georgia. This page covers Columbus, Ohio, and its secondhand trade is not downtown at all — it runs for roughly a mile along North High Street through Clintonville, where three shops sit inside a single mile. Clintonville Books opened at 3286 in late 2024 and buys over the counter seven days a week; Karen Wickliff has been dealing a quarter-mile further up the same side for more than forty years, cash or check only; Hoffman's Bookshop, further north again, opens by appointment and nothing else. Nowhere else in the metro puts that much used stock inside one postcode.

The famous address is a trap, and it is worth saying plainly before anyone drives to German Village. The Book Loft has 32 rooms, opened in 1977, has expanded eight times, and discounts its bargain stock 50 to 90 percent off list — but its own tour page ends the paragraph about those bargains with a flat sentence in bold: all books are new, never used. It is a genuine destination and a poor sourcing stop, and no amount of remainder pricing turns a new book into a secondhand one.

After Clintonville the trail leaves the city outright. Upper Arlington, Bexley, Worthington, Westerville, Hilliard and Powell all run their own councils and their own libraries, and eight of the stops on this page sit inside one of those, each flagging it in its opening line. Plan the autumn around the calendar rather than the map: the Friends of the Library sell at Main Library from October 15 to 18, 2026, then four suburban sales stack up between November 5 and November 15, three of them overlapping on a single Saturday.

Spot map

The best spots

Used bookstores

Clintonville Books

3286 N High St, Columbus, OH 43202

The anchor of the North High Street row, shelving new, used, vintage and rare on one floor and running the most explicit buy counter in the metro. Its own page states the terms without hedging: books taken in every day between 10am and 6pm, 30 to 50 percent of a book's resale value paid in store credit, or 10 to 25 percent of it in cash, with cash on offer Monday through Friday and credit alone at the weekend. Anything signed, antiquarian or valued above $100 goes to Columbus Rare Books, the shop's in-house rare division, which will travel to a house holding more than 100 volumes once you text or email photographs of the spines. Magazines, textbooks, encyclopedias, mystery, self-help, humor and incomplete sets are refused flat, and the store calendar carried a 20 percent discount across the Labor Day weekend of September 5 to 7, 2026.

Hours : Daily 10am–6pmWebsite

Used-book chain

Half Price Books Carriage Place

2642 Bethel Rd, Columbus, OH 43220

The branch in the Carriage Place center where Bethel meets Sawmill, trading a flat 10am to 8pm on all seven days and staffing a buy desk on every one of them. Any Half Price Books outside the outlets takes books, music and selected electronics off the public with no appointment and settles at the counter, which makes this the fallback for whatever the independents turn down. Its own store feed is genuinely maintained, carrying the chain-wide Labor Day promotion of up to 20 percent across September 5, 6 and 7, 2026 alongside a signing with local author Marilyn Jeffers Walton on that Saturday afternoon.

Hours : Daily 10am–8pmWebsite

Friends of the Library sale

Friends of the Library Big Book Sale

Main Library, 96 S Grant Ave, Columbus, OH 43215

Twice a year the Friends of the Library tip withdrawn stock into the Auditorium and Meeting Room 1A at Main Library, and the autumn edition takes Thursday October 15 through Sunday October 18, 2026. Thursday from 4pm to 7pm belongs to members, Friday and Saturday run 10am to 5pm for anyone, and Sunday is 1pm to 4pm at bag prices: $5 for a sturdy bag you bring yourself, $12 for one of their canvas totes. Children's books, comics and vinyl open at $1, adult fiction and nonfiction at $2, discs and audiobooks at $3, and there is a ceiling every reseller should note — no household or membership may spend above $400 across the whole sale. Volunteers get in ahead of the queue and take five free books per shift, which is the cheapest way past that Thursday door if you have not joined.

Hours : October 15–18, 2026Website

Permanent Friends bookstore

Friends of the UAPL Bookstore, Tremont Road

2800 Tremont Rd, Upper Arlington, OH 43221

Over the line in Upper Arlington, its own city west of the Olentangy, the Friends keep a permanent shop inside the Tremont Road branch and open it whenever the library is. The price list is published and flat: adult hardbacks from $3 and paperbacks from $1, young adult at $1, children's at 50 cents, discs and audiobooks at $1 per case, vinyl from 50 cents an album, magazines at 50 cents. Cash and check are fine; the self-service card reader lives here and nowhere else, adds 2.9 percent, and comes with a warning that neither volunteers nor library staff may help you operate it. The 2026 Atrium Sale dates were August 2 to 9 and November 8 to 15, with drive-up donation days on October 16 and November 21.

Hours : Mon–Thu 10am–8pm, Fri 10am–6pm, Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 1–5pmWebsite

Nonprofit thrift outlet

Goodwill Columbus Outlet

2675 Brice Rd Ste B, Columbus, OH 43232

On Brice Road out on the far east side, the pay-by-weight end of Goodwill Columbus, where books cross the scale at 59 cents a pound against $2.29 for clothing and $1.99 for everything else. Stock gets tipped out and churned through the day instead of shelved, so a bin can be bare at ten and worth an hour at four; the doors open at 9am and run to 9pm Monday through Saturday, with Sunday shortened to 10am until 6pm. Those figures come off the operator's own outlet page, which the Internet Archive captured on May 16, 2026. One thing to weigh before you build a circuit around it: 614Now reported on February 11, 2026 that the nonprofit was running twelve Central Ohio locations and preparing a 13,000-square-foot store on East Schrock Road in Westerville.

Hours : Mon–Sat 9am–9pm, Sun 10am–6pmWebsite

All spots by type

Used bookstores

Karen Wickliff - Books

3527 N High St, Columbus, OH 43214

A quarter-mile north, a shop whose owner has been in the trade over forty years and has held an AbeBooks seller account since May 18, 2005. The storefront text the Internet Archive captured on August 20, 2026 lists deep runs in fiction, mysteries, science fiction, ancient through modern history, natural science, religion, art, poetry, drama, music, folklore, linguistics, philosophy, travel and military, plus old decorative bindings, postcards and loose pamphlets. Two warnings sit in that same paragraph: payment is cash or check and never a card, and somebody is normally on the premises on weekdays from 10am to 2pm, with Saturdays and everything else by chance or arrangement. Local directories publish a longer walk-in grid that the seller's own wording does not support, so no hours are listed here and a phone call is the honest advice.

Website

Out-of-print and rare dealer

Hoffman's Bookshop

4167 N High St, Columbus, OH 43214

Half a mile further north again, an out-of-print and rare dealer whose entire website is one screen: a catalog search, an address, and the words BY APPOINTMENT ONLY set in capitals. The Internet Archive last took a copy on May 16, 2025 and the wording has not shifted since; payment covers the usual cards plus PayPal, money order and personal check. Third-party listings advertise a weekday shop grid that the dealer's own page flatly contradicts, so treat this as a call-first stop and not something to fold into a walking route.

Website

Used-book chain

Half Price Books West Lane Avenue

1389 W Lane Ave, Columbus, OH 43221

Closer in, on West Lane Avenue a short way west of the Ohio State campus, the branch Columbus Navigator reported reopening on March 15, 2024 after three years with no store on that street. It keeps the same seven-day 10am to 8pm week and the same sell-to-us desk as Carriage Place, and was posting the identical September 5 to 7, 2026 Labor Day notice when read. Take whichever of the pair your route already passes, because nothing separates them except what happens to be on the shelf that morning.

Hours : Daily 10am–8pmWebsite

Used-book chain

Half Price Books Westerville

561 S State St, Westerville, OH 43081

Out in Westerville, a city with its own council north-east of Columbus and 9.1 miles from Carriage Place on the chain's own map, the last branch inside this page's radius, on South State Street. Same flat 10am to 8pm week, same walk-in buy desk, same September 5 to 7, 2026 discount notice on its own store page, so it earns the drive only when the Uptown Westerville end of the county is already on your list.

Hours : Daily 10am–8pmWebsite

Used bookstores

Dragonfly Bookshop

4055 Main St Ste 300, Hilliard, OH 43026

Out in Hilliard, a separate city on the western edge of the metro, a mother-and-daughter operation in the old downtown whose secondhand shelf is vouched for by Destination Hilliard, the municipal visitor bureau, which describes browsing new and used books there. Fiction is the house specialty, the children's end takes a serious share of the floor, and the lot out front costs nothing. Get the entrance right before you set off: the postal address reads Main Street, but the door faces Norwich Street and Suite 300 sits inside the building. Two conflicting weekday grids appear on the shop's own site, one opening at 10am and one at 11am, so no hours are listed here; both versions agree on Saturday 10am to 8pm and Sunday 11am to 5pm, and its September 2026 book club nights were set for the 24th and the 28th.

Website

Used bookstores

The Bibliophile Candle Co.

5454 N Hamilton Rd Ste B, Columbus, OH 43230

On North Hamilton Road between Gahanna and New Albany, a family-run bookshop and candle studio where Kylie pours the wax and Justin works the recommendations. What Should We Do Today Columbus, in a bookstore roundup dated July 14, 2026, is explicit about the part that matters here: the shop carries new and secondhand titles side by side, and the secondhand ones go at half their marked price. The operator's site publishes no opening times at all, just the address and a map link, so message ahead rather than driving east on spec.

Website

Library book sales

Permanent Friends bookstore

Friends of the UAPL Bookstore, Lane Road

1945 Lane Rd, Upper Arlington, OH 43220

The second Friends shop, a little over two miles north of Tremont at the Lane Road branch of the same Upper Arlington system, working off the same 2026 price list and identical library hours. One difference matters at the till: there is no card machine on this side, so bring notes or a checkbook. Donations for both shops go to Tremont only, onto the carts behind the panels beside the bookstore, and the guidelines rule out Britannica sets, textbooks more than five years old and any National Geographic over a year past.

Hours : Mon–Thu 10am–8pm, Fri 10am–6pm, Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 1–5pmWebsite

Friends of the Library sale

Friends Foundation of Worthington Libraries Book Sale

Old Worthington Library, 820 High St, Worthington, OH 43085

Up in Worthington, an incorporated city of its own along the northern stretch of High Street, the Friends Foundation sells donated stock out of the Owl Meeting Room at the Old Worthington Library. The 2026 autumn run is four sessions: a members-only preview on Thursday November 5 from 6pm to 7:30pm, then Friday November 6 and Saturday November 7 from 9am to 5pm, closing on Sunday November 8 between 1pm and 4pm. All four sit on the library's own calendar, which is the listing to trust when the parallel sales in Bexley and Upper Arlington land in the same fortnight.

Hours : November 5–8, 2026Website

Friends of the Library sale

Friends of Bexley Public Library Fall Book Sale

Bexley Public Library, 2411 E Main St, Bexley, OH 43209

Bexley is a small city ringed entirely by Columbus, and its library gives the auditorium over to the Friends each autumn for a roomful of used books, films and music. The 2026 edition runs Thursday November 12 from 5pm to 8pm, Friday November 13 and Saturday November 14 both 10am to 5pm, then Sunday November 15 between 1pm and 4pm, all four sessions carried on the library's events calendar. In 2025 the equivalent Thursday evening was split — members from 5pm, open to all from 7pm, with memberships sold at the door and through friendsbexlib.org — and the 2026 listing does not repeat that note, so check before you turn up early.

Hours : November 12–15, 2026Website

Friends of the Library sale

Friends of the DCDL Bargain Book Sale, Liberty Branch

Liberty Branch Library, 7468 Steitz Rd, Powell, OH 43065

Twenty miles north in Powell, over the county line into Delaware County, the Friends of the Delaware County District Library work out of a room of their own downstairs at the Liberty Branch rather than a hall. Their published Saturdays at Liberty fall on January 31, April 11, June 13, August 8 and November 14, 2026, each running 9am to 2pm, with books and media priced singly or by the Friends bag. This is the smallest room on the page and the longest drive, so treat it as a bolt-on to a north-county circuit and not as the reason for one.

Hours : November 14, 2026, 9am–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

Cash is available in this town, but always on somebody else's terms, and no two desks run the same way. Clintonville Books quotes against resale value — 30 to 50 percent of it in store credit, 10 to 25 percent in cash — takes stock in from 10am to 6pm every day, and switches to credit-only on Saturday and Sunday, with a house call available above 100 volumes. The three Half Price branches quote at the desk instead, no appointment, any hour the doors are unlocked, which makes them the place to dump whatever Clintonville declines. Karen Wickliff buys too, but pays in cash or check and keeps a narrow weekday window, and Hoffman's wants a phone call first. Nobody at the Friends shops buys anything: those rooms run on donations, and yours goes on a cart.
The autumn is dense and one Saturday is double-booked. Main Library opens the run from October 15 to 18, 2026, members first on the Thursday and bag prices on the closing Sunday. Worthington follows on November 5 to 8, Upper Arlington's Atrium Sale spans November 8 to 15, and Bexley takes November 12 to 15. That leaves Saturday November 14 carrying three things at once — the Bexley auditorium, the Upper Arlington atrium, and the Liberty Branch room up in Powell, which shuts at 2pm and should therefore go first on that day's list.
The Book Loft is the question every visitor asks, so here is the answer in the store's own words. Its tour page describes bargain stock cut 50 to 90 percent off original prices across 32 themed rooms, then closes the paragraph with a bolded line saying all books are new, never used. Deep discounting on new stock is not the same trade as secondhand, and a scanner walking those rooms is reading retail against retail. Go for the labyrinth, the pre-Civil War buildings and the courtyard tables, and do your sourcing on North High Street.
Two closed shops and a row of new-book stores in older Columbus guides will burn an afternoon. Acorn Bookshop, the two-floor secondhand house on West Fifth Avenue in Grandview, announced its closure in January 2018 and shut at the end of that March after 25 years. Village Bookshop, the discount store in the old Linworth church, went the same way in 2018 after six decades. And several of the city's best-loved shops — Gramercy in Bexley, Prologue in the Short North, Storyline and Cover to Cover in Upper Arlington, Two Dollar Radio on Parsons, Birdie Books in Westerville — carry new stock only, which is what their own listings say.
Build the day around North High Street and let the suburbs be a second trip. Clintonville puts three used shops inside a mile, two of which need a call before you leave the house, and the two Half Price branches sit 4.7 miles apart by the chain's own reckoning. Upper Arlington pairs neatly: the Tremont Road shop, the Lane Road shop and the Lane Avenue chain store make a three-stop loop inside twenty minutes of driving. The east side is the outlier — North Hamilton Road for the candle shop, Brice Road for the Goodwill scales — and that pairing only works by car.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find cheap used books in Columbus?

The floor is a scale, not a shelf. Goodwill's Brice Road outlet sells books by weight at 59 cents a pound, which no priced shelf in the metro comes close to, and the trade-off is that you sort standing over a bin. After that the Friends rooms set the price: children's titles at 50 cents and adult paperbacks from $1 at the two Upper Arlington shops all year round, and $5 for a bag you bring yourself on the closing Sunday of the Main Library sale, October 18, 2026. Among the shops, The Bibliophile Candle Co. runs its secondhand copies at half the marked price, and Dragonfly keeps its used selection discounted against the new stock beside it. Watch the $400 household ceiling at Main Library if you were planning to fill a car.

Where do I sell used books in Columbus?

Two real counters and a chain. Clintonville Books pays the better rate and publishes it: store credit worth 30 to 50 percent of what a title resells for, or cash at 10 to 25 percent, the cash on weekdays only, and it will send someone to a collection above 100 volumes if you text photographs of the spines first. Half Price Books takes the rest at any of its three branches here, any day, quoted at the desk with nothing valued from a photo or a list. Karen Wickliff buys as well, in cash or check, inside a short weekday window. Triage first, because the gap between those routes is where the margin hides. Point a camera at one loaded shelf and BiblioScan pulls each spine out of the picture, putting the day's resale number beside every title it recognizes. The pile then sorts itself: a handful of copies that deserve your own marketplace listing, and a crate whose only value is its weight at a trade desk.

Which day is best for book hunting in Columbus?

Saturday, with one caveat. Every Half Price branch runs its full 10am to 8pm day and its buy desk, Clintonville Books is open 10am to 6pm, both Upper Arlington shops trade 10am to 5pm, and the Goodwill outlet runs its full 9am to 9pm. The caveat is that Clintonville stops paying cash at the weekend and settles in store credit only, so if money is the point, come on a weekday between 10am and 6pm. Weekdays also unlock the two appointment shops: Karen Wickliff is usually there from 10am to 2pm, Hoffman's opens for whoever has called ahead. Sunday looks thinner than it is: Half Price keeps the identical grid, but the two Friends shops stay shut until 1pm and Clintonville still refuses cash. Any sale here that runs into a Sunday finishes that day at bag prices.

When is the big library book sale in Columbus?

October 15 to 18, 2026, at Main Library on South Grant Avenue, and the Friends of the Library hold it twice a year. Thursday from 4pm is members-only, Friday and Saturday run 10am to 5pm open to all, and Sunday closes 1pm to 4pm on bag pricing, $5 for your own bag or $12 for one of their totes. Children's books, comics and vinyl start at $1, adult titles at $2, discs and audiobooks at $3, and no single household or membership may spend more than $400 over the four days. If you miss it, the suburbs cover November: Worthington on the 5th to the 8th, Upper Arlington from the 8th to the 15th, Bexley from the 12th to the 15th, and the Liberty Branch room in Powell on Saturday the 14th.

Do you run a store here?

Bookstore, thrift store or consignment shop in Columbus: get listed in this guide for free, or tell us what to fix.

Nearby cities

Indianapolis Detroit Louisville

← Used books by city The guide: how to source books for resale →