This page covers Kamloops, British Columbia, and every stop listed sits inside the City of Kamloops itself; any price quoted is in Canadian dollars. Four of the six are downtown, no more than about 550 m apart: The Book Place on 3rd Avenue, the hospital auxiliary's Thrift Seller on Victoria Street, the United Church thrift shop on St. Paul Street, and St. Andrew's on the Square on Seymour Street, which hosts the symphony book sale in the second half of October 2026. The other two sit southwest of the core: Andrena's Book Company on Columbia Street West, about 1.6 km from The Book Place, and Legends Used Books on Hillside Drive, roughly 3.9 km out, which calls for a separate drive.
Expect a short list. The Salvation Army announced in September 2020 that its Kamloops thrift store, shut since March, would not reopen, as CFJC Today reported at the time, and Station 10, the thrift store at 533 Tranquille Road on the North Shore, lists clothing, toys and media as accepted donations but says nothing about books. The date to circle is Barb's Used Book & Music Sale, a Kamloops Symphony Orchestra fundraiser that the orchestra says runs every spring and fall, and that CFJC Today described in April 2026 as being in its 29th year.
Used bookstoresLegends Used Books
6-1415 Hillside Dr, Kamloops, BC V2E 1A9
Up on Hillside Drive in the Dufferin neighbourhood, about 3.6 km southwest of downtown, in unit 6; the shop's Instagram bio bills it as "the biggest little bookstore in Kamloops." A January 2020 profile carried by Castanet, written when the store changed hands, named mystery and thrillers as the best sellers and listed romance, classics, a local-authors shelf, a large Canadian section and a children's corner, and it said the trade-credit system was unchanged. A July 2022 Facebook post repeated that the store trades books for credit and asked people not to leave boxes of donations at the door, and a February 23, 2026 post had the store selling $25 tickets for a Thrash Wrestling card on March 14.
Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–5pmWebsite Used bookstoresThe Book Place
248 3rd Ave, Kamloops, BC V2C 3M3
Downtown on 3rd Avenue, next to High Octane Comics at number 250, a secondhand shop whose own YellowPages text claims "the best variety of sci-fi / fantasy in town" and mentions contacts among dealers in antique and rare out-of-print titles. The owner posts to a Facebook group under the store's name: on February 7, 2026 it offered a second version of the store's gothic bookmark free with any purchase, and on July 8, 2026 it announced that a load of classic science fiction had just come in. The shop's own posts cover holiday closures but never spell out its regular week, and the directories disagree: YellowPages has weekdays at 10am–5pm with Saturday running an hour later, while Loc8NearMe lists no Monday opening and a 6pm finish on both Friday and Saturday.
Symphony fundraiser saleBarb's Used Book & Music Sale
St. Andrew's on the Square, 159 Seymour St, Kamloops, BC V2C 2E3
The fall edition of the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra's book and music sale fills St. Andrew's on the Square from Saturday, October 17 to Saturday, October 31, 2026, dates Castanet reported on September 11 and that match the orchestra's own page. Board member Barb Corbishley started it in 1997 and it was renamed for her after her death; the orchestra describes it as a semi-annual sale with a spring edition too, and in April 2026 the symphony's executive director told CFJC Today that items start at $1 and that the sale raises about $70,000 for the orchestra. Donation days at the church are October 10 to 12; the wish list favours novels and non-fiction under five years old, Canadiana, local and Indigenous authors, children's books and vinyl, while textbooks and encyclopedias are refused.
Hours: October 17–31, 2026: Mon–Fri noon–5pm, Sat 10am–5pm, Sun noon–4pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Kamloops?
The symphony sale is the obvious bet: CFJC Today quoted prices starting at $1 during the April 2026 edition, and the fall round opens at the Seymour Street church on October 17, 2026. Between sales, dig through the two downtown charity shops, the RIH Thrift Seller and the United Church shop, which put its whole stock at $2 an item for its August 2026 clearance.
Where do I sell used books in Kamloops?
Legends Used Books has traded books for store credit, going by a 2020 press profile and a July 2022 post from the shop. Andrena's Book Company advertises trade-ins as welcome in its Facebook intro, but call first. Titles with real resale value usually do better listed by you, whether on Kijiji and Marketplace for local buyers or on AbeBooks, eBay.ca and Amazon.ca for the rest of Canada. BiblioScan helps with the sorting: snap the shelf, and the app attaches a resale value to each spine it can identify in the photo, so the few titles worth listing separate themselves from the ones headed for the credit counter.
When is the big book sale in Kamloops?
Twice a year, according to the Kamloops Symphony Orchestra. The fall 2026 sale fills 159 Seymour Street for the last two weeks of October, ending on Halloween, with doors at noon on weekdays and Sundays and at 10am on Saturdays, after three days of drop-offs. The spring 2026 edition was held in the basement of the DoubleTree hotel on St. Paul Street and wrapped up on Saturday, April 25.
Which day is best for book hunting in Kamloops?
Saturday. Legends and both downtown charity shops open that day, and both directory listings for The Book Place agree it trades until 6pm, although the Thrift Seller shuts at 2pm and the United Church shop at 3pm, so do the thrifts first. Sunday is a lost cause downtown outside the symphony sale, since Legends states it is closed and none of the three downtown shops lists Sunday hours; Andrena's posts no weekly hours on its page, which makes a Sunday visit there a phone-first gamble.