This page is measured from the Markham Civic Centre on Town Centre Boulevard and covers the City of Markham, from Unionville, Markham Village and Cornell to Milliken and the Thornhill streets east of Yonge, together with Richmond Hill and Whitchurch-Stouffville wherever a shop there sits closer to Markham than to Vaughan or Pickering. Toronto begins on the south side of Steeles Avenue, while Vaughan and Pickering, Ajax included, are covered on separate pages. Dollar figures throughout are Canadian.
For a city that counted 338,503 residents at the 2021 census, Markham offers few secondhand book stops. Alfsen House Books in Markham Village is the used bookshop to start with, and around it you'll find a weekend flea market with a big comic dealer, a Mennonite thrift shop in Stouffville, a Value Village and two book sales, one run by the public library and one by a Main Street church. Around Main Street North and Highway 7, the bookshop, the church and a library branch lie within about 750 m of one another, which makes Markham Village the natural first stop.
Richmond Hill adds comic shops and Chinese-language bookstores to the mix, though what they mostly sell is new.
Used bookstoresAlfsen House Books
154 Main St N, Markham, ON L3P 1Y3
In Markham Village, 6.6 km east-northeast of the Civic Centre, this independent shop on Main Street North deals in secondhand and out-of-print titles with original artwork on the walls, as Destination Markham, the city's tourism organization, describes it. According to a Markham Review article from July 6, 2026, the family behind it turned the front of their home into an art gallery in the 1980s, and that space later became the bookshop. Destination Markham pointed visitors to the shop for an unhurried browse in an Instagram reel on January 23, 2025, and a winter guide it published in January 2023 counted more than 40,000 paperbacks and hardcovers on the shelves. The shop doesn't post its hours, so phone 905-294-2571 before setting out.
Weekend flea market with comic boothsHwy 404 & Steeles Flea Market
2900 Steeles Ave E, Markham, ON L3T 4X1
On the Markham side of Steeles Avenue at Highway 404, 5.1 km south-southwest of the Civic Centre, this indoor market gathers more than 200 vendors every Saturday and Sunday. Its vendor list places The Cats Grafix Comics at booths 801 and 803, to the right of the Steeles doors, with over 30,000 comics from $1 up and an offer to buy, sell, trade or consign, and it names Five Bucks Vintage at booth 513 for books and magazines alongside cards and records. The comic dealer counted more than 300 Fantastic Four single issues, from the Silver Age to modern runs, on Instagram on July 29, 2025, and on October 11, 2026 it thanked the crowd from its first Comic Creator Days, which also gathered food for the Markham food bank. The organizer has a free Halloween party planned for Saturday, October 31, 2026, and the market stays open until 5pm that day.
Hours: Sat–Sun 10am–5pmWebsite Library book salesMarkham Public Library Book Sales
Markham Village Branch, 6031 Highway 7, Markham, ON L3P 3A7
On Highway 7, 6.6 km out from the Civic Centre and about 700 m south-southeast of the Main Street North bookshop, this branch belongs to a library system that says withdrawn and donated items are on sale at most of its branches on an ongoing basis, so ask at the front desk here whether any are out. The library's Big Book Sale filled eight branches, this one included, from Friday, October 16 to Sunday, October 18, 2026, with $2 paperbacks, children's and teen books, and $4 hardcovers. Its Instagram announced that weekend's opening on the Friday, and the previous rounds the library promoted fell on June 22 and 23, 2024 and in October 2023.
Hours: Library hours: Mon–Thu 9:30am–9pm, Fri 9:30am–6pm, Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 1pm–5pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Markham?
At the sales more than in the shops. Paperbacks went for $2 and hardcovers for $4 at Markham Public Library's Big Book Sale of October 2026, while most branches go on selling library discards and donations between those weekends. For comics, The Cats Grafix Comics at the 404 & Steeles flea market prices its stock from $1 and in June 2025 marked its new book sets as low as $10 apiece.
Where do I sell used books in Markham?
If it's comics you're selling, The Cats Grafix Comics buys, trades and takes consignments at its flea-market booths, and Planet X in Richmond Hill, which buys collections, asked on Instagram in November 2024 for a list and photos by email before any appointment. Ordinary paperbacks are better donated to MCC Care & Share, a library branch or St. Andrew's once it calls for donations again (its 2026 call said drop-offs would be taken after the Victoria Day long weekend), while anything with real value goes online through Amazon.ca, AbeBooks, Facebook Marketplace or Kijiji. Sort the pile first by taking a single picture of the shelf: BiblioScan matches each spine in it to a resale price, so the few copies worth listing are easy to pull from the donation box.
Which day is best for book hunting in Markham?
Saturday, when the flea market, MCC Care & Share, Value Village and the Markham Village library branch are all open, and St. Andrew's held its June 2026 sale on a Saturday too. Sunday leaves the flea market, Value Village and the library's afternoon hours, with the Stouffville thrift shop closed. On weekdays, MCC's late Thursday and Friday hours are the ones to plan around, and Alfsen House Books posts no schedule at all, so call before any visit.
When is the big library book sale in Markham?
Markham Public Library ran its latest Big Book Sale from October 16 to 18, 2026 at the Aaniin, Angus Glen, Cornell, Markham Village, Milliken Mills, Thornhill Community Centre, Thornhill Village and Unionville branches, and nothing had been posted about the next one by October 20, 2026. Watch its news page: the 2026 dates went up there on September 28, eighteen days before the sale opened.