Fort Worth, the western anchor of the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex in north Texas, keeps almost nothing secondhand downtown. Barber's Book Store, three floors deep at Eighth and Throckmorton, is the one stop you can reach on foot from the courthouse; every other entry below needs a car, and most of them land in a suburb rather than in Fort Worth itself. The pattern runs in rings: Half Price Books at South Hulen and on Sherry Lane, then a belt of volunteer-run library rooms curving from White Settlement and Saginaw in the west through Haltom City, Watauga and Keller to the north-northeast, on to Hurst and Bedford in the east-northeast, and Arlington away to the east. Any entry outside the Fort Worth city limits says so in its opening words. This page stays inside Tarrant County; the Dallas-side warehouse and branch sales belong to a different guide.
Two things shape a buying run here. The first is Half Price Books, a Texas chain whose store finder returns seven branches inside the map above, and every one of their store pages publishes the same ten-to-eight grid, Sunday included, so the clock separates none of them. The second is that the bargain tier belongs almost entirely to library volunteers, who price against a posted list rather than a scanner. Bedford spells that out — the Bedford Library Friends set a suggested $2 donation for an adult book but write a mandated $2 per item into their terms for booksellers, which is as explicit as this county gets about the difference between a shopper and a trade buyer.
Older Fort Worth lists will send you to a door that is not there. The Friends of the Fort Worth Public Library shut their storefront at 5332 Trail Lake Drive on December 9, 2017, half-pricing the stock on the way out, as the Fort Worth Business Press reported that November, and the friendsfortworthlibrary.org address that once carried the group now resolves to a parked page of keyword links. Directories still put the Keller volunteers in Old Town at 137 Taylor Street, while the City of Keller gives 640-B Johnson Road beside the library. And the sale calendar itself is a trap in the other direction: Arlington and White Settlement overlap on September 24 and 25, 2026, twenty miles apart, so one of those two mornings has to give.
Used bookstoresBarber's Book Store
901 Throckmorton St, Fort Worth, TX 76102
Three floors of stock, four tenths of a mile down Throckmorton from the Tarrant County Courthouse, and the store's own history page dates the founding to 1925 under Bert Barber, on East Ninth Street in the Hell's Half Acre district, before a move to the corner of Eighth and Throckmorton and then, after that building burned in 1955, across Eighth to the present address. Shelves run to Texana, military history, nautical and exploration, Civil War, art, cookbooks, detective stories, science fiction, hunting, fishing, children's and rare, and the family says it buys libraries and does appraisals. Two 2026 write-ups disagree on the size: Secret Dallas counted 60,000 books in April, while the Fort Worth Report, which photographed the shop on June 1 and published on June 4, put it at roughly 80,000 volumes spread over a ground floor and the two levels above it that once held a hotel, and had the Perkins brothers covering all seven trading days between them. Two small traps before you set off: the front page still tells buyers to book an appointment to see stock in person even though the contact page publishes a walk-in week, and that contact page writes the number as 901 S Throckmorton where the Census, the press and the shop's own carousel all say 901 Throckmorton.
Hours : Mon–Fri 11am–3pm, Sat 11am–4pm, Sun 1pm–5pmWebsite Used bookstoresHalf Price Books Hulen
5417 S Hulen St, Fort Worth, TX 76132
Seven miles southwest of downtown on South Hulen Street, and one of the two branches carrying a Fort Worth address on the chain's Texas store list. Its store page runs a flat ten to eight across all seven days and describes the branch as somewhere to shop and sell used books, movies and music. The same card was pushing a company-wide Labor Day promotion, capped at 20 percent off, across the three days from Saturday, September 5, 2026 through the Monday, next to a standing note that D Magazine's editors had named Half Price Books the best used bookstore in DFW.
Hours : Mon–Sun 10am–8pmWebsite Library book salesFFAPL Fall Book Sale
First United Methodist Church, 313 N Center St, Arlington, TX 76011
Out in Arlington, thirteen miles east, where FFAPL — the Friends and Foundation group behind Arlington Public Library — moves its fall sale into First United Methodist Church on North Center Street downtown. The city put out its notice on August 24, 2026, setting the sale from Tuesday, September 22 to Friday, September 25, opening each day at ten and closing at seven, with the Tuesday reserved for FFAPL members, memberships sold at the door, most items at $2, and cash, checks or cards on a $5 minimum accepted. Friday goes half price for everybody, then turns into a teacher and nonprofit hour from five to seven — all you can carry for a suggested $5 donation, identification required. The same notice adds that FFAPL takes no book donations while the sale runs and resumes them on the third Thursday and Saturday from October, while the group's own page says the warehouse went in filled to capacity.
Hours : September 22–25, 2026, 10am–7pm dailyWebsite Friends of the Library bookstoreFriends of the Keller Library Bookstore
640-B Johnson Rd, Keller, TX 76248
Fourteen miles north-northeast in Keller, in a unit at 640-B Johnson Road sharing a parking lot with the public library. The City of Keller gives the volunteers' week as Wednesdays and Saturdays between ten and two, and routes book and media donations to that counter during those hours, since the library itself has no room for them. The Friends posted a business meeting held at the bookstore on Thursday, August 20, 2026 — they call that gathering quarterly while the city page calls it monthly, on the third Thursday — and it is the clearest available sign that the operation is still going. One caution before you drive: several directories still file this shop at 137 Taylor Street in Old Town Keller, an address the city no longer uses.
Hours : Wed, Sat 10am–2pmWebsite Friends of the Library bookstoreThe Nook, Bedford Public Library
2424 Forest Ridge Dr, Bedford, TX 76021
In Bedford, 12.5 miles east-northeast, immediately on your left before you walk into the library proper. The Bedford Library Friends keep it stocked what they call 365 days a year, on suggested donations of $2 for an adult book, $1 or 50 cents for a children's item and 25 cents for a DVD, dropped into a small metal box by the display cabinet or paid by card at the information desk — and the same page sets a mandated $2 per item for booksellers, worth a read before you start filling a crate. Their Big Book Sale is the larger event, held twice a year and described as about 10,000 books, DVDs, games and puzzles. The library's own event calendar put the 2026 edition over August 5 to 8, opening with a $10 preview evening for ages 13 and up on the Wednesday and repeating that flat $2 charge for anyone buying to sell on.
Hours : Library hours: Mon, Wed–Thu 10am–8pm, Tue, Fri 9am–5pm, Sat 10am–5pm, Sun 1pm–5pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Fort Worth?
Not in Fort Worth proper, mostly. The bargain layer around this city is a ring of library rooms run by volunteers: the Nook at the Bedford Public Library, which trades on the library's own clock and asks a suggested $2 for adult books, $1 or 50 cents for young readers and a quarter for DVDs; the Friends bookstore at 640-B Johnson Road in Keller, Wednesdays and Saturdays only, ten to two; the Friends Café inside the Hurst Public Library; and the Book Nook tucked into a corner of the Watauga library, where withdrawn stock goes for a donation. When the White Settlement Friends open their classroom, the city says most of it sells at 50 cents or less. Inside the city limits, Haltom Thrift on Altamesa Boulevard is the standing option, with one tag color dropping to half price each Monday and Thursday.
Where do I sell used books in Fort Worth?
The one name here with a buy counter you can walk up to is Half Price Books. Its store pages present each branch as somewhere to unload used books, movies and music as readily as to buy them, the chain's own Sell Us Your Stuff panel tells you to bring pre-loved items to that counter, and seven branches sit within reach — Hulen and Sherry Lane inside Fort Worth, then South Arlington, Bedford, Watauga, Mansfield and Burleson. Barber's takes on whole libraries and writes appraisals, which is a booked visit rather than a same-day quote. The library rooms and the thrift store work the other way round: they take donations, and Bedford even publishes a bookseller price of $2 an item, so a crate bought there costs the same whether you plan to read it or list it. Sort at home before the drive — photograph a shelf, and BiblioScan returns a resale number for every spine it can read, so the titles you should be selling yourself sort themselves out from the trade-counter fodder.
When is the Friends of the Library sale in Fort Worth?
Nothing on this page's calendar sits inside Fort Worth itself. The Fort Worth Public Library's own Friends gave up their storefront in December 2017 — Publishers Weekly filed it that month as a bookstore closing and moving online — and the web domain they used has since lapsed into a parking page. The dated rounds belong to the suburbs instead: FFAPL runs September 22 to 25, 2026 out of First United Methodist in downtown Arlington, with a members-only Tuesday and a Friday at half price, and the White Settlement Friends hold their library classroom over September 24 to 26. Earlier in 2026, Saginaw took Saturday, April 18, Haltom City had its turn on May 14 to 16 and Bedford took August 5 to 8; in 2025 Hurst had a late-September weekend and Watauga the week of November 15. Between those dates, Keller, Bedford, Hurst and Watauga each keep a room open year-round.
Which day is best for book hunting in Fort Worth?
Saturday carries this list. Every standing room in the guide opens on a Saturday, though three close early — Keller at two, Watauga at four, Barber's at four — and the Arlington sale is the exception, because its four days finish on the Friday before. Let the two chain branches, open until eight, soak up whatever is left of the day. On Sunday the field shrinks to Barber's, the pair of chain branches, the Bedford library room and Haltom Thrift; Keller, Hurst and Watauga are closed. Monday or Thursday is the call if you would rather chase half-price tags than shelves, since that is when Haltom Thrift cuts a color rotation across both of its stores.