Secondhand books in Broward County follow two roads and a calendar. Federal Highway carries the trade north of downtown Fort Lauderdale, with Big Apple Books at the Commercial Boulevard end and Heartwood upstairs 1.6 miles down the same road; Andrews Avenue carries the rest, with Bob's News & Books a mile and a quarter below the Broward County Main Library. Everything else is a drive: southwest to Griffin Road and Dania Beach, west to Lauderhill, out to Pembroke Pines, or north up to Lighthouse Point and across the Palm Beach County line into Boca Raton. Anything in Miami-Dade belongs to the Miami page, so nothing south of the county line appears here, and any entry outside Fort Lauderdale carries its own town in the opening line.
Sort out the terms in advance, because the commercial shops here run on four different systems. Old Florida Book Shop takes everything from a single volume to a whole library, but by email or phone to William Chrisant rather than over the counter. Big Apple buys by appointment only, and what crosses its counter runs well past print into discs, vinyl, comics and games. Bob's stocks its secondhand shelves by taking trades and buying small lots, in its own words, while Bookwise up in Boca Raton keeps a straight retail floor and a student textbook operation, Booksmart, in the same building. The nonprofit rooms buy nothing at all: they price donated stock, and four of them publish exactly what they will and will not take.
An older Broward list goes stale in three places. The first is 1515 South Andrews Avenue, where a GoFundMe created on April 24, 2026 in the store's own name says eminent domain tied to a Broward Health expansion is forcing Bob's to move; the address is still trading, but call ahead rather than trusting a printed list. The second is the volunteer group behind the Main Library book fair, whose own website still shows copyright lines from 2021 and 2022 and still marks First Fridays as suspended for the coronavirus, while Broward County's own events calendar has been listing that book fair through 2026 monthly. The third is a warning worth reading twice: the county listing for the Stirling Road branch fairs prints "No scanners allowed", so leave the handheld in the car and price by eye there.
Antiquarian bookshopOld Florida Book Shop
3426 Griffin Rd, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33312
A Griffin Road shopping-center unit that mails from a Fort Lauderdale address but sits inside the city limits of Dania Beach, which is where the Census places it and where the shop's own About page puts it. William Chrisant & Sons date the business to 1978 and count over 50,000 items gathered across forty years, among them antique furniture, oriental rugs and Peter the cat; Chrisant built the stock in Akron, Ohio before moving the operation to Florida in 2009, his memberships take in the ABAA plus the ILAB, and he once served as president of Florida's antiquarian booksellers' group. Secret Miami, writing on November 10, 2025, described rolling ladders, Tiffany lamps and shelves of dollar books standing outside the door around the clock, payable by pushing your money through a slot when the shop is closed. Its own Visit page closes at 7pm on every day but Tuesday, an hour later than that article printed, and selling to it means emailing or calling William rather than turning up with boxes.
Hours : Mon, Wed–Sat 11am–7pm, Tue 11am–5pm, Sun 1pm–7pmWebsite Newsstand and bookstoreBob's News & Books
1515 S Andrews Ave, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33316
South Andrews Avenue, 1.3 miles south of the Main Library, trading since 1974 by its own account and unlocked from seven in the morning until eight at night every day of the year. A store post dated March 15, 2026 sets out how the used shelves fill: some titles arrive through trade-ins, some through small lot purchases, and the section turns over through the week across fiction, nonfiction, thrillers, memoir and classics. Around it sit the sections that make the place unusual for a newsstand, banned and challenged titles, occult, cannabis, tarot, vintage adult and collector magazines and back-issue National Geographic, plus a company timeline that puts the online store's launch in 2025. One caveat, and it is a serious one: the Tampa Bay Times reported on April 13, 2026 that the store is slated to be replaced by a medical office building developed by Broward Health, and a fundraiser the shop itself opened on GoFundMe eleven days later puts the same thing in its own words, an eminent domain claim forcing a move.
Hours : Daily 7am–8pmWebsite Used bookstoresBig Apple Books
5461 N Federal Hwy, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308
Five miles north of downtown on Federal Highway, half a mile above Commercial Boulevard, in a shop that opened in Oakland Park in 2005 and moved to this address in 2012 by its own telling. Fiction, mystery and romance are shelved alphabetically by author, and the rest spreads across westerns, science fiction and fantasy, children's picture and chapter books, self-help, psychology, religion, new age, art, history, science, biography, cookbooks, business, computers and medical. It buys books, CDs, DVDs, records, manga, comics and video games, but only by appointment: the website says to call and ask for Rob, and to call again for the dates of its $2 weekend sales, which it does not publish. The bookstagram account @arcfinalboss filmed a visit here on July 19, 2026, calling it a favorite and noting the buying and selling of books, DVDs and vinyl; its Contact page posts a single line for the entire week, 10am to 5pm from Monday right through Sunday.
Hours : Daily 10am–5pmWebsite Bookstore, record store and cafeMy Mama's Books Records & Cafe
218 E Dania Beach Blvd, Dania Beach, FL 33004
Down in Dania Beach, on the boulevard 4.8 miles due south of downtown Fort Lauderdale, a purple room that describes itself as books, records and cafe, used and new. Its own Facebook feed is the live source here: an April 24, 2026 post cut every used book by ten percent and threw in a tote at $100, a July 19, 2026 post opened a back-to-school supply drive, and posts on August 15 and 16, 2026 called off the Tuesday open mic on August 18 in favor of a game night. Vinyl and cassettes share the floor with the shelves, and coffee and pastry service means you can work through a stack without being moved along. No timetable is posted anywhere the shop controls, so dial 754-400-9275 before a trip instead of trusting a directory listing.
Friends of the Library book fairBook Fair & Attic Shop
Broward County Main Library, 100 S Andrews Ave, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33301
The second floor of the Main Library, seven hundred yards west of where this map centers, handed to the Friends of the Fort Lauderdale Libraries every first Friday between ten and two. Broward County's events calendar, which is the reliable source for it, carried the February 6 and September 4, 2026 editions and notes that payment is by cash or Zelle; the attic half of the table runs to artwork, jewelry, glassware, dolls, games and puzzles beside the print. The Friends' own site describes shelves of new and used books, magazines, videos, CDs, DVDs, audiotapes and art prints, kept on the same hours as the Main Library and with tables changed frequently, but that site is stamped 2021 and 2022 and still flags First Fridays as suspended, so treat the county calendar as current and the Friends' page as background. Donations go to the second floor or the loading dock boxed and marked for the Friends, and the group turns away anything mildewed, plus encyclopedias and textbooks past five years old and volumes of law cases, statutes or regulations.
Hours : First Friday of the month, 10am–2pmWebsite Friends of the Library bookstoreFriends of the Boca Raton Public Library Bookstore
400 NW 2nd Ave, Boca Raton, FL 33432
Sixteen miles north in Boca Raton, over the Palm Beach County line, in the lobby of the downtown library: a permanent room run by a volunteer group formed in 1990 and stocked entirely from community donations. The price list is published in full, which is rare enough to plan around: $4 to $6 for hardcover and softcover published in the last two years, $4 for other hardcovers, $3 for other softcovers, $3 and $2 for young adult, $1 for mass-market paperbacks, $2 or as marked for children's books and $5 for audiobooks on CD, with coffee-table volumes and jigsaws priced one by one. Sections run from children's and young adult through two dozen nonfiction headings to classics and vintage, and grab bags are sold through the group's online store for pickup at the front desk. Donations go through a dedicated door right of the library's glass entrance, Tuesday to Saturday until 3:30pm, with a call asked for ahead of anything past three boxes; the group was selling tickets to an October 2026 Antique Appraisal Show and listing a 2026-2027 Sunday Music Matinee series on its own home page.
Hours : Tue–Sat 10am–4pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Fort Lauderdale?
Start with the volunteer rooms and the sidewalk. Old Florida Book Shop keeps shelves of dollar books outside its Griffin Road door at all hours, and Secret Miami reported on November 10, 2025 that you can settle up outside hours by posting cash through a slot in the door. The Fort Lauderdale Friends take the Main Library's upstairs room every first Friday, 10am to 2pm, on cash or Zelle. The Stirling Road branch fair charges $5 for a bagful, cut to $3 for teachers and members, and hands you the bag. If you will drive to Boca Raton, the Friends bookstore in the downtown library lobby posts a full price list that bottoms out at $1 for mass-market paperbacks.
Where do I sell used books in Fort Lauderdale?
Three addresses, none of them a walk-up. Old Florida Book Shop asks you to email or call William Chrisant with what you have, from a single valuable book, map or magazine to an entire library. Big Apple Books on North Federal Highway will take discs, vinyl, comics, manga and games as well as print, but only once you have phoned to book a slot. Bob's News & Books says its secondhand shelves fill from trades and small lots, and Bookwise in Boca Raton runs as a retail floor. If you would rather price a shelf before driving anywhere, photograph it: BiblioScan puts a resale number on every spine it identifies, so the shelf splits itself in two, the handful you should be selling yourself and the rest that goes to a donation box.
When is the Friends of the Library sale in Fort Lauderdale?
No one date covers the county; every branch runs its own group on its own calendar. In the city itself the Fort Lauderdale Friends hold their Book Fair and Attic Shop one floor up inside the Broward County Main Library, 100 South Andrews Avenue, every first Friday from 10am to 2pm, with editions on February 6 and on September 4, 2026 both carried by the county calendar. Elsewhere in Broward the county calendar put the Stirling Road branch fair on two Sundays in 2026, March 8 and then May 31, the Lauderhill Towne Centre sale monthly on a Saturday from eleven to three, and the Southwest Regional Library fair in Pembroke Pines on October 10, 2026 from ten to four. Between dates, the Stirling Road Friends keep a book room open whenever their branch is, and north of the county line the Boca Raton Friends run a permanent bookstore, open Tuesday to Saturday from ten until four.
Which day is best for book hunting in Fort Lauderdale?
Friday, if you can pick the first one of the month. That is when the Main Library book fair is on from ten until two, and Bob's a mile and a quarter down Andrews Avenue unlocks at 7am and stays open until 8pm, as it does on every other day of the year. Old Florida Book Shop trades until seven that evening, so a first Friday takes in the downtown pair and the Griffin Road room without a single closed door. Saturday is the fallback and covers Bookwise and the Boca Raton lobby, both of which close on Sunday, and Sunday is the day both dated Stirling Road fairs have used. Tuesday buys you the least, since Old Florida closes at five rather than seven and every dated sale in this guide falls on a Friday, a Saturday or a Sunday.