Where to buy used books in Hay-on-Wye

Updated 01/10/2026

Hay-on-Wye sits on the Welsh bank of the River Wye in Powys, with the English border and the Herefordshire parish of Cusop pressed against its south-eastern edge. Fourteen of the sixteen stops below share a walk of a few hundred yards through Lion Street, High Town, Market Street, Castle Street and Broad Street, the castle's honesty shelves included. The other two need a short trip: C. Arden down Forest Road to the south, and the Children's Bookshop out along the Clifford road, which is the single entry here standing in England. All prices quoted are in pounds sterling.

The town's printed roll call is the booksellers' leaflet for 2026 to 2027, downloadable from the town website and published with Addyman Books, whose map bills Hay as the Town of Books, established 1962 by Richard Booth. The same leaflet is candid about who is not in the secondhand game: it notes that North Books on Castle Street neither buys nor sells used copies, and it describes the Old Electric Shop on Broad Street as a seller of current titles. Headline totals in travel pieces drift: WalesOnline wrote of more than 20 bookshops in October 2025 and of around 26 in September 2026, so treat any single figure loosely.

Most of the shops below say they buy as well as sell, but each wants something different from a seller. Booth's asks sellers to book ahead, the Children's Bookshop publishes flat bulk rates, and the poetry, natural history and crime specialists stick to their own subjects. Read the individual entries before loading the car.

Spot map

The best spots

Second-hand bookshops

Richard Booth's Bookshop

44 Lion St, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford HR3 5AA

Three floors behind a red-and-white frontage on Lion Street, mixing new titles with secondhand and antiquarian stock: the shop's visit page puts literature, theology, science and art upstairs, new fiction, nature and children's books at street level, and romance, comics and manga in the basement. WalesOnline's feature of 20 September 2026 repeats the description of it as one of Europe's largest second-hand bookshops. Sellers must book by email so the relevant department head is free; most purchases are settled by BACS within seven business days, and rejected books have to be fetched within 30 days. The FAQ offers fellow dealers a 10% trade discount, and students and teachers the same with ID.

Hours: Mon–Sat 9:30am–5:30pm, Sun 11am–5pmWebsite

Second-hand bookshops

Hay Cinema Bookshop

Castle St, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford HR3 5DF

A converted cinema at the lower end of Castle Street, a fifth of a mile south-west of the centre, credited by the 2026–2027 booksellers' leaflet with around 200,000 remaindered, secondhand and antiquarian books, plus bargain shelves in the sculpture garden outside. WalesOnline, in a piece published on 31 October 2025, found the stock spread over two floors with a guide posted at the end of each aisle. Upstairs is Francis Edwards, an antiquarian name founded in London's West End in 1855 and, according to its own site, a division of Hay Cinema Bookshop Ltd, with four showrooms leaning to travel, natural history, art, military history and literature. The cinema's own advertisement in Hay's 2026 guide mentions a customer car park and a buying centre on the premises.

Hours: Mon–Sat 9am–6pm, Sun 10am–5:30pmWebsite

Second-hand bookshops

Addyman Books

39 Lion St, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford HR3 5AA

The first of a cluster of Lion Street shops: Derek Addyman and Anne Brichto began in 1987 in a ten-foot room at the Blue Boar Inn and moved here six months later, as their About page tells it. The 2026–2027 leaflet describes rooms set aside for children's books and for science fiction and fantasy, with vintage Penguins, rock music, paperbacks and occult titles in two rooms fitted with the interior of a Transylvanian church. That leaflet lists six-day opening with Sundays added in season, and WalesOnline's round-up of 20 September 2026 still traces the business to 1987. Anyone selling is asked to email a list of titles and authors, or photographs, first.

Website

Second-hand bookshops

Green Ink Booksellers

Grove House, High Town, Hay-on-Wye HR3 5AE

Grove House on High Town, a light secondhand shop whose owners, Joshua and Ellen Boyd Green, write that they sold online for several years before opening to the public in October 2018. Modern first editions, literature, poetry, art, history, philosophy, Folio Society and children's books fill the room, and the contact page asks people with books to sell to get in touch. WalesOnline was still calling it Hay's newest secondhand bookshop in September 2025, and in April 2026 the Brecon & Radnor Express reported that the same team had launched Bookshop 451 on the same street. The leaflet promises seven-day opening in summer and warns that hours change with the season.

Website

Honesty bookshop

Hay Castle Honesty Bookshop

Hay Castle, Oxford Rd, Hay-on-Wye HR3 5DG

Open-air shelves among the castle ruins, paid for on trust: WalesOnline, writing on 31 October 2025, put the books at roughly £1 to £6 each, with the money left in a payment box. Hay Castle Trust posted on 2 May 2025 that a further honesty shelf, the Book Nook, had appeared on the castle cobbles. Between April and October, Hay Markets takes over the honesty bookshop area for a vintage and flea market, always on a month's opening Saturday; the last 2026 date is 3 October.

All spots by type

Second-hand bookshops

Crime and horror specialist

Murder and Mayhem

5 Lion St, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford HR3 5AA

Opposite Addyman Books on Lion Street, the crime shop the same owners opened in 1997: detective fiction, true crime and horror filed A to Z, with deep shelves of green Penguins, Agatha Christie and Sherlock Holmes. WalesOnline sent true-crime readers here in a feature published on 3 September 2025. The 2026–2027 leaflet says it gladly buys crime paperbacks, some hardbacks, horror and true crime, and opens Monday to Saturday with some Sundays in season.

Website

Golden Age crime shop

Christie & Doyle

4 Lion St, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford HR3 5AA

Next door to Murder and Mayhem on Lion Street, billed in the 2026–2027 booksellers' leaflet as the fourth episode in the Addyman story and a sequel to its crime shop; BBC Hereford & Worcester ran a short piece on it on 13 January 2026, describing it as a shop given over to Agatha Christie. The shelves keep to Golden Age detection, with Agatha Christie and Arthur Conan Doyle at the centre and a large cosy crime section. The leaflet prints no opening hours for this one, and enquiries go through the shared Addyman email address.

Second-hand bookshops

The Addyman Annexe

27 Castle St, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford HR3 5DF

Castle Street, roughly 200 yards west of the centre, and the third Addyman shop, which the owners say followed Murder and Mayhem by five years and covers beat, art, modern firsts, poetry, philosophy and left-wing history. The 2026–2027 leaflet adds travel and topography, history, military, a children's corner selling new books at half price, and a paperback room it ranks among the country's strongest. The leaflet credits the Antiquarian Book Review with naming it the jewel in the crown of the book town, a phrase WalesOnline repeated without attribution on 20 September 2026.

Website

Science fiction and fantasy specialist

Bookshop 451

10 High Town, Hay-on-Wye HR3 5AE

Named after the Bradbury novel, and reported as newly opened by the Green Ink team in the Brecon & Radnor Express on 21 April 2026. Science fiction and fantasy take most of the room, with romantasy, horror, graphic novels, YA, and first editions and collectable copies alongside. Would-be sellers are asked to email the number of books, subjects and condition, ideally with a picture or two showing the spines.

Website

Second-hand bookshops

Hay-on-Wye Booksellers

13-14 High Town, Hay-on-Wye HR3 5AE

A general shop at 13–14 High Town whose stock, as listed in the 2026–2027 leaflet, runs from antiquarian and secondhand to new books at half price or less, with a large clearance section. Its advert in the town's 2026 visitor guide promises cash for quality antiquarian and secondhand books and a willingness to travel anywhere for a library. The leaflet gives every day from 10:30am to 4pm as its hours, and the firm runs a separate trade warehouse on Gypsy Castle Lane for dealers.

Website

Multi-dealer book centre

Broad Street Book Centre

6 Broad St, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford HR3 5DB

A building of rented units on Broad Street, where the 2026–2027 leaflet lists separate dealers for railways, military history, science fiction, modern firsts, books about books and Herefordshire history from the local publisher Logaston Press, among others. In a Facebook post of 14 April 2026 the centre was looking for booksellers to take a large area coming free, noting that its doors open daily and that it handles all internet sales for its tenants. One of those tenants, Bedlam Books and Music, also sells CDs at two for £5 according to the leaflet.

Website

Second-hand bookshops

Clock Tower Books

5 Market St, Hay-on-Wye, Hereford HR3 5AF

Market Street, with stock pooled from several booksellers and summed up on its Instagram profile as secondhand, antiquarian and some new books on most subjects. An Instagram post of 6 February 2026 showed off its white shelving with a caption asking who said secondhand bookshops should be dark and dull, and the County Times placed it in a top five of Hay bookshops by Google reviews on 7 May 2025. The leaflet points to Ladybird books, annuals, Folio Society, railways, beekeeping and country life among its sections.

Website

Poetry specialist

The Poetry Bookshop

Cranbourne House, The Pavement, Lion St, Hay-on-Wye HR3 5BU

Devoted to poetry since 1979 by its own account, and housed in Cranbourne House on The Pavement, which its advert in the 2026 visitor guide places next to the clocktower. Antiquarian, secondhand and out-of-print poetry makes up most of the shelves, new poetry has been added for the first time since the founders' day, and the shop buys good-quality secondhand poetry once it has seen the books. Its website posted a tribute on 9 March 2026 to Glenn Storhaug of Five Seasons Press, linked to the shop since its foundation. Confirm the days before you go: the site's banner reads Monday to Saturday, 11am to 1pm and 2pm to 5pm, while the 2026–2027 leaflet says Wednesday to Saturday, 11am to 5pm.

Website

Natural history specialist

C. Arden, Bookseller

The Nursery, Forest Rd, Hay-on-Wye HR3 5DT

A bookroom at The Nursery on Forest Road, about a quarter-mile south of the town centre and, by its own advert, 150 metres from the main car park, holding roughly 15,000 books on the shop's count. Natural history leads, with Collins' New Naturalist series, entomology, ornithology, botany, gardening and beekeeping, and forthcoming New Naturalist titles sold by subscription at 25% off the cover price. The 2026 visitor guide and the 2026–2027 leaflet agree with the website on weekday opening plus Saturday mornings, and the shop says it is happy to view and buy within its specialisms.

Hours: Mon–Fri 9:30am–5pm, Sat 9:30am–noonWebsite

Children's books specialist

The Children's Bookshop

Toll Cottage, Pontvaen, Hay-on-Wye HR3 5EW

Over the border in Clifford parish, Herefordshire, three-quarters of a mile north-north-east of the centre on the B4350 past the Co-op: a cottage with its own parking that has specialised in children's literature since 1978 and reports a stock above 20,000 titles. Its selling page is precise: it buys secondhand children's and young adult books but not adult titles, and pays £1 per hardback and 50p per paperback for bulk lots arriving without an appointment or a list. It wants a plain-text email with title, author, publisher and date ahead of a visit, and it does not usually collect. WalesOnline named it among Hay's specialist shops on 20 September 2026.

Hours: Tue–Sat 10:30am–5:30pmWebsite

Comic shop

Hay-on-Wye Comics

23 Castle St, Hay-on-Wye HR3 5DF

A comics and graphic-novel shop selling new, secondhand and independent titles, from back issues and manga to children's graphic novels. It began as a concession inside the Broad Street Book Centre, which welcomed it on Facebook in May 2024, before moving into its own premises, and WalesOnline listed it among Hay's specialists on 20 September 2026. Its website keeps Monday and Tuesday closed, while the booksellers' leaflet for 2026–2027 says the doors open every day in season.

Hours: Wed–Sat 10:30am–5pm, Sun 10:30am–4pmWebsite

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.

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Local sourcing tips

Hay Festival is a programme of talks and new books, not a secondhand source. The 2026 edition ran from 21 to 31 May, the Winter Weekend follows from 26 to 29 November 2026, and the 2027 festival is billed for 27 May to 6 June. The booksellers' leaflet says Hay Cinema Bookshop stays open later into the evening during the main festival.
The Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association held its Hay fair at the castle on Saturday 4 July 2026, with antiquarian and secondhand books, maps and ephemera and free entry. At 1 October 2026 its fairs page carried no date for 2027, so keep an eye on pbfa.org, where Green Ink is one of the listed contacts for the Hay event.
Thursday is market day. Hay Markets says some forty traders fill the square every week of the year, with a flea market around the clock tower, though its published trader list names no bookseller. Dave the Book, who keeps units 8 and 11 inside Hay Antique Market on Market Street, writes in the booksellers' leaflet that he also trades at the Thursday market with books, maps, prints, vintage magazines and comics.
A Shop Called Alice, an Alice in Wonderland bookshop on Bear Street, opened in August 2026 according to a local blog, with Lewis Carroll's books as its speciality. It arrived too late for the town's 2026–2027 leaflet, so it has no printed entry or hours there.
The British Red Cross keeps a dedicated charity bookshop at 1B Pavement House on The Pavement, and its shop page lists rare and collectable books, children's books and fiction alongside stamps, maps, postcards, sheet music and vinyl. The same page says it takes donations of goods as well as selling them.
Several names on Hay's maps are not used-book counters. North Books sells new titles only, Mostly Maps deals in antique maps and prints, and Haystacks Music & More and Tom's Record Shop lead with vinyl, though the leaflet credits both with some books on the shelves. The dealers-only warehouse off Gypsy Castle Lane opens on weekdays, and the leaflet's two out-of-town entries, Brecon Books and the New Strand at Eardisley, lie 16 and 8 miles away.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find cheap used books in Hay-on-Wye?

The castle comes first: its honesty shelves ask somewhere between a pound and six pounds a book, going by WalesOnline's October 2025 write-up, and you drop the money in a box. After that, the 2026–2027 leaflet points to the bargain books in Hay Cinema Bookshop's sculpture garden, the clearance section and half-price new stock at Hay-on-Wye Booksellers, and half-price new children's books at the Addyman Annexe. At the Broad Street Book Centre, the Bedlam Books and Music stall sells its CDs two for £5.

Where do I sell used books in Hay-on-Wye?

Match the books to the counter. Richard Booth's takes most subjects by appointment and pays by bank transfer; the Children's Bookshop wants children's and teenage titles, rarely adult ones, and pays a pound a hardback, fifty pence a paperback, on unlisted bulk; the Poetry Bookshop, C. Arden and Murder and Mayhem buy poetry, natural history and crime respectively. Hay-on-Wye Booksellers advertises cash, and Hay Cinema Bookshop a buying centre on site. Before you drive in, run the bookcase past BiblioScan: one photo comes back with an estimated resale price beside each recognised spine, so the keepers for eBay.co.uk or Amazon.co.uk separate themselves from the box bound for Hay.

Which day is best for book hunting in Hay-on-Wye?

Saturday, ideally before noon. All the shops here with published Saturday times are open late that morning, while C. Arden shuts at midday and stays closed until Monday. Sunday thins the field: the Children's Bookshop, C. Arden and the Poetry Bookshop are closed in every published version of their hours, and Addyman Books and Murder and Mayhem open on Sundays only in season, though Richard Booth's, Hay Cinema Bookshop, Hay-on-Wye Booksellers and Hay-on-Wye Comics all list Sunday trading. Thursday brings the weekly market to the square, and Monday is weak for children's books and comics: the Children's Bookshop stays shut, and the comic shop opens on Mondays only in season, by the leaflet's account.

Are there any used book fairs in Hay-on-Wye?

The Provincial Booksellers Fairs Association runs a fair at Hay Castle, and its 2026 edition was on Saturday 4 July, free to enter, with no 2027 edition announced by 1 October 2026. Hay Festival and its Winter Weekend are about talks and new books rather than secondhand stock. The castle's monthly Saturday markets are billed by Hay Markets as vintage and flea markets, with no mention of book stalls.

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