Where to buy used books in Olympia

Updated 9/3/2026

Olympia, Washington packs four of the twelve stops on this page into three tenths of a mile downtown and spreads the rest across Thurston County and one corner of Mason; any entry past the municipal boundary opens with the name of its own town, and here those towns are Lacey and Shelton. That knot is Browsers Bookshop, Orca Books Cooperative, Last Word Books and the volunteer-run bookstore inside the Olympia Timberland Library, with Turtleman Used Books a mile to the south of it. A second, smaller pairing sits out by Capital Mall, where the Half Price Books outlet and the West Olympia branch stand 0.55 miles apart. After that you are driving: Lacey for two library kiosks, a six-weekend sale calendar and a Value Village, then fifteen miles northwest for the Shelton branch.

Work out what each counter actually pays before you start loading the car, because only two places in this guide take a box across a counter and they run on unrelated rulebooks. Browsers takes books on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday between noon and 3pm, one box at a time while you browse, and issues store credit worth three tenths of the figure it expects to take for that copy, which it puts at about $2 for a paperback and $4 for a hardcover, good for two years against anything on the floor. Orca trades daily from opening until five without an appointment, offers 25 percent of its own list price and locks that credit to used stock alone; whatever it declines must be off the premises within a day or the credit lapses. The Half Price Books by Capital Mall is not a third option: it carries the chain's Outlet badge, and the chain states that its Outlet locations buy nothing from the public.

Three things age an older Olympia roundup. The library district is the first: Timberland Regional Library uncovered a $3.8 million budget shortfall in January 2026 and imposed a hiring freeze, and newsletters from the Olympia Friends recorded an April 2026 agreement that shrank the layoff plan, followed in May by notices rescinded for 36 permanent staff. The second is a sale that has gone: the Olympia Unitarian Universalist Congregation held its Books, Brownies and Beans event over October 24–25, 2025 and calls it a tradition of many years, but the congregation's own page states there are no plans for a 2026 edition. The third is a ghost the search engines keep alive, because Fireside Bookstore is still carried by several directories complete with a street address, a working number and event-venue entries, while Publishers Weekly wrote up its closing back in 2012.

Spot map

The best spots

Used bookstores

Browsers Bookshop

107 Capitol Way N, Olympia, WA 98501

The anchor of the downtown block, dated by the shop itself to 1935 and trading from 107 Capitol Way North, where the secondhand stock is not walled off: used arrivals go onto a cart at the back, and any used copy shelved beside the new ones carries a bright pink dot on the spine. Its trade terms are set out line by line: buying happens between noon and 3pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, one box per turn, and the payout is credit at 30 percent of the price Browsers expects to get, which it estimates at $2 on a paperback and $4 on a hardcover and honors for two years on new books, used books and merchandise alike. The refusal list is long and worth reading before you pack — Time-Life volumes, Reader's Digest, Chicken Soup titles, For Dummies, Book of the Month printings, romance, erotica, westerns, hardcover mysteries, classroom textbooks and any hardcover already reissued in paperback all come straight back. The events page had the shop's book club upstairs on Thursday, September 17, 2026 and the OlyPages writing studio holding an open house the following evening a few doors up.

Hours : Mon–Thu 11am–6pm, Fri–Sat 10:30am–6:30pm, Sun 11am–6pmWebsite

Member-owned co-op bookstore

Orca Books Cooperative

315 5th Ave SE, Olympia, WA 98501

A fifth of a mile southeast of Browsers, and a bookstore that became a member-owned cooperative on April 1, 2020 after its last sole proprietor decided to retire rather than close; its history page traces the business back to a shop she bought from her father in the early 1990s, and calls the result the largest independently owned bookstore in Thurston County. New and secondhand share the same floor, and the buying desk runs every day from opening until five with no appointment needed, though the co-op asks for a phone call first because capacity shifts day to day and trading stops early when an event is booked. Payment is credit only, fixed at 25 percent of whatever Orca decides to list the copy for, spendable on used items and explicitly barred from new books, special orders, consignment stock, sidelines and gift cards. Rejected boxes must leave with you within 24 hours or no credit is applied at all, and the events calendar had Linda Quiquivix discussing her book on Monday, October 12, 2026.

Hours : Mon–Sun 11am–7pmWebsite

Used bookstores

Turtleman Used Books

108 22nd Ave SW #4, Olympia, WA 98501

South of the Capitol campus in the Olympia Professional Building, at Capitol Way and 22nd Avenue Southwest, roughly a mile from the downtown cluster, with free parking front and back and the shop near the middle of the courtyard. Murlin Varner opened it on August 1, 2022 and marked the fourth anniversary with 20 percent off everything through August 2026, layered on top of a clearance table he had been wheeling onto the sidewalk since the start of July. His own notice of September 3, 2026 moved closing to 6pm on Wednesday and 5pm on Thursday while keeping the 11am start on both days, with ten o'clock openings from Friday to Sunday. It is a small operation, and his Biblio profile warns that some titles are listed online only while others sit on the floor and nowhere else, so treat the web catalog as a sample and ask once you are through the door.

Hours : Wed 11am–6pm, Thu 11am–5pm, Fri–Sat 10am–6pm, Sun 10am–5pm; closed Mon–TueWebsite

Friends of the Library bookstore

Friends of the Olympia Library Bookstore

Olympia Timberland Library, 313 8th Ave SE, Olympia, WA 98501

Some 0.3 miles southeast of Browsers, inside the downtown Timberland branch, a room of donated stock that opens and shuts with the library itself. The volunteers announced on their site that the sale had reopened in a room behind the wall where the old shelving stood, taking donations at the same place, and their June 2026 newsletter still printed the branch week as six days of ten until six, Sunday excepted. You pay by cash or check into the boxes beside the shelves, or by PayPal through a posted QR code, and the group asks you to choose the option labeled Olympia so it can tell downtown takings from the west-side ones. Its book-sales page is blunt about the format: the giant sales that ran before the pandemic are not coming back, and what replaces them are pop-up single-subject carts wheeled out next to the general shelves.

Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–6pm; closed SunWebsite

All spots by type

Used bookstores

Last Word Books & Press

501 4th Ave E, Olympia, WA 98501

At the eastern end of the downtown run, a quarter mile from Browsers, founded in 2002 and describing its own mix as used, new and weird, with the Olympia Zine Library housed on the premises. Last Word Press, the publishing arm added in 2010, puts out poetry, zines and reissues of underground political writing, and a JOLT News column of February 3, 2025 recounted buying one of those imprints, Erik La Prade's Ancient Light, off the shelves that weekend. The site publishes its week without a click: eleven until six Monday through Thursday, an hour longer once Friday arrives, and a short Sunday afternoon.

Hours : Mon–Thu 11am–6pm, Fri–Sat 11am–7pm, Sun noon–5pmWebsite

Chain outlet store

Half Price Books Outlet

1520 Cooper Point Rd SW, Olympia, WA 98502

Beside Capital Mall on Cooper Point Road Southwest, one and three quarter miles west of downtown; the Half Price Books listing for Washington ran to seven branches in early September 2026, and this is the one it flags as an Outlet. That badge settles what you can do here, because the chain's help pages say it buys from the public at every neighborhood bookstore except its Outlet locations, and the four Outlets they go on to name across the country include this one. What the format does deliver is price: the same pages put Outlet stock from 50 cents with more than 50,000 titles under five dollars, while the branch page carried a $25 Fill-A-Bag Saturday for September 5, 2026 with all sales final, a signing by local historical-fiction author Juhi Ray from 11am, then a discount running to 20 percent on September 6 and 7. The clock here never shifts, eleven to six on all seven days, which spares you one check before you set off.

Hours : Mon–Sun 11am–6pmWebsite

Thrift stores & charity shops

Thrift store

Value Village Lacey

604 Sleater-Kinney Rd SE, Lacey, WA 98503

Also in Lacey, a block from Saint Martin's University just off Interstate 5 and under half a mile from the College Street kiosk, so the pair costs one detour rather than two. The Savers page for this specific store, consulted at the beginning of September 2026, names books among what the floor carries alongside clothing, housewares, dinnerware, accessories and electronics, and gives one window that never varies, 10am to 8pm, Monday right through Sunday. Between Monday and Saturday the donation dock takes deliveries an hour before the shop lets shoppers in, which is what counts when you are emptying a house rather than filling a bag.

Hours : Mon–Sun 10am–8pmWebsite

Library book sales

Friends sale shelves

West Olympia Library Sale Shelves

West Olympia Timberland Library, 625 Black Lake Blvd SW, Olympia, WA 98502

Tucked into Capital Mall on Black Lake Boulevard Southwest, 0.55 miles from the Half Price Books outlet, so the two go together as a single errand. The same Olympia volunteers stock sale shelving near the back of this branch, on the identical honor-box system as the downtown room and available whenever the doors are open. Timberland describes the branch as the product of a two-year pilot, enlarged by a board-approved refresh in 2023, and files it as a Lucky Day site whose popular-materials collection cannot be placed on hold. The district listing, as posted in early September 2026, gave this branch 10am to 6pm on six days and no Sunday opening whatsoever; the same grid appears beside the branch phone number in the June 2026 newsletter.

Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–6pm; closed SunWebsite

Friends of the Library kiosk

Carol and Art Book Place

Lacey Timberland Library, 500 College St SE, Lacey, WA 98503

Over in Lacey, three and three quarter miles east of downtown Olympia, a permanent kiosk named for Carol and Art Getchman, who started the used book sale that the Lacey volunteers still run. It stands inside the branch, works on the honor system with a depository beside the bookcases, and carries gently used paperbacks, hardbacks and children's titles. The group prices that stock at a dollar a book, with children's copies a quarter apiece, and routes the rare or unusual donations to its eBay shop rather than the shelf. The books-for-sale page that describes the kiosk also carries the group's full 2026 sale calendar, so the two halves of the operation are documented in one place.

Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–6pm; closed SunWebsite

Library book sales

Friends of the Lacey Timberland Library Book Sale

Lacey Timberland Library, 500 College St SE, Lacey, WA 98503

Six weekends of the 2026 calendar hand the Lacey branch meeting room over to donated bestsellers, children's books, videos and music, and the volunteers published every date: February 6–7, April 3–4, June 5–6, July 31–August 1, October 2–3, then December 4–5. Friday afternoons from 1:30 to 5 are reserved for members, who get first look at the newest stock; Saturdays run 9:30 to 4 and admit everyone. Payment is cash or check, prices match the kiosk at a dollar a volume with children's books at a quarter, and the group asks for your own bag.

Hours : Fri October 2, 2026 members 1:30–5pm; Sat October 3, 2026 9:30am–4pmWebsite

Friends of the Library kiosk

Hawks Prairie Library Book Kiosk

Hawks Prairie Timberland Library, 8205 Martin Way E, Lacey, WA 98516

Still Lacey, but two and four fifths of a mile further northeast on Martin Way East, where the same volunteers say they supply and maintain a second kiosk of used books inside a small storefront branch. Their page pitches it squarely at people who already live, work or shop around Hawks Prairie rather than at anyone making the drive on purpose. Timberland's early-September 2026 listing for the branch closes it on Monday, runs ten until six from Tuesday to Friday and cuts the weekend back to ten until two, and it goes dark with the rest of the district for staff training on Wednesday, September 16, 2026.

Hours : Tue–Fri 10am–6pm, Sat–Sun 10am–2pm; closed MonWebsite

Friends of the Library bookstore

Friends of the Shelton Timberland Library Bookstore

Shelton Timberland Library, 710 W Alder St, Shelton, WA 98584

Up in Shelton, in Mason County and just over fifteen miles northwest of downtown Olympia, the William G. Reed branch gives its main floor over to a volunteer-run bookstore. The Shelton-Mason County Journal reported on February 26, 2026 that the room had been newly expanded and that gently used books can be bought there at any time, in a brief that also covered a one-day bag sale held that Saturday from 10am to 3pm, five dollars for a tote the group provided and filled with paperbacks, hardcovers and movie DVDs. The volunteers hold the standing shelves to two dollars for a hardcover and one for a paperback, put DVDs at $2 and music CDs at $1, and say the titles turn over every one to two months. Payment goes into receptacles on the honor system, and the branch itself is shut on Sunday and Monday.

Hours : Tue–Sat 10am–6pm; closed Sun–MonWebsite

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

Exactly two of the twelve entries here will open a box you bring to the counter, and each one has invented its own terms. Browsers limits buying to three afternoons a week, only Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday between twelve and three, takes one box per turn, and its posted refusal list turns away westerns, romance and erotica, mysteries bound hard, school textbooks, and anything in boards that is already out in wraps. Orca will look on any day until five, though it stops early for events and asks for a call ahead; the offer is a flat quarter of the eventual list price, as credit that buys used stock and nothing else, and rejects leave when you do, that same afternoon. Do not add the mall to that list, since the Half Price Books there is an Outlet and the chain says its Outlet locations take nothing off the public at all.
The bargain floor here belongs entirely to volunteers. Lacey is the clearest of them, a dollar a book and a quarter for kids' copies whether you buy off the kiosk by the door or at one of the six meeting-room weekends on the 2026 calendar, with anything genuinely scarce diverted to eBay. Shelton holds hardcovers to two dollars and paperbacks to one as a rule on the main floor, and dropped to a five-dollar tote for the one-day sale the county paper covered in February 2026. The two Olympia branches take cash, checks or a PayPal QR code with no fixed price list published at all, which in practice means the downtown room rewards a slow browse more than a quick sweep.
Two groupings and no more will reward a pair of shoes. Downtown gives you four inside three tenths of a mile — Browsers on Capitol Way, Orca on Fifth Avenue Southeast, Last Word on Fourth Avenue East and the Friends room in the Timberland branch on Eighth — and all four keep Saturday hours, though the library room shuts at six and stays closed on Sunday. The Capital Mall pair is the second, with 0.55 miles between the outlet and the library branch and both locking up at six, so there is nothing to gain by saving either for last. Turtleman is a mile south of downtown, Lacey holds three separate stops between 3.3 and 6.4 miles east, and Shelton is a fifteen-mile run northwest for one.
Check the calendar before you build a weekend around a sale. Books, Brownies and Beans, the two-day October event the Unitarian Universalist congregation on East End Street ran in 2025, has no 2026 edition planned according to the congregation itself, which points buyers at Book Nook instead, its used-book store at books-ouuc.com whose takings go to the Thurston County Food Bank and which the congregation says also runs occasional small in-person sales, as it did for the all-books garage sale JOLT News listed over August 14–15, 2026 at a suggested two dollars an item. Timberland shuts the whole district for the Labor Day holiday on Monday, September 7, and again on Wednesday, September 16, 2026 to train staff. The next Lacey meeting-room weekend on the published calendar falls on October 2–3, 2026.
A few Olympia book names will not sell you anything over a counter. Fireside Bookstore, on Legion Way, still turns up as a live venue with a street address and a working phone number in several directories, but Publishers Weekly reported its closing in 2012. Sage Book Store in Shelton keeps a phone number in the business listings while its own social account stopped posting in 2014. Last Earth Distro, which the county tourism office lists at 111 State Ave NE, posts no hours at all and was showing a vacation notice on its storefront site when it was looked at in early September 2026. And A Novel Bookstore, the family-run used shop in Yelm that the same tourism roundup covers, falls outside the area this page maps.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find cheap used books in Olympia?

The volunteer outlets are where the floor prices are published. In Lacey the Friends kiosk by the library door and the meeting-room weekends both price at a dollar a book and 25 cents for children's titles, and the 2026 calendar gives six such weekends, the last two of them in October and December. The Shelton bookstore keeps its main-floor prices at two dollars a hardcover and a dollar a paperback, and the Shelton-Mason County Journal covered a five-dollar bag sale in that room on February 28, 2026. In Olympia itself the Friends room in the downtown Timberland branch and the sale shelving at the West Olympia branch both run on honor boxes with no set price list. For discounted retail rather than donations, the Half Price Books outlet on Cooper Point Road was advertising a $25 fill-a-bag day and a 20 percent Labor Day weekend for September 2026.

Where do I sell used books in Olympia?

Two counters, and each one wants something different from you. Browsers takes one box per visit, noon until three on Wednesday, Thursday and Sunday, and pays credit worth three tenths of whatever it means to charge, which it reckons at roughly $2 a paperback and $4 a hardcover, valid two years. Orca looks at trades daily until five without a booking, pays a flat 25 percent of whatever it decides to list the copy at, and confines that credit to used stock while insisting rejects are collected the same day. Leave the Half Price Books at Capital Mall out of the run, because it is an Outlet, and the chain's own help pages rule out buying from the public at those. Sort the pile before you leave the house: photograph a shelf, let BiblioScan price the spines it recognizes, and you drive off knowing which copies deserve to be listed under your own account and which are trade-counter filler.

When is the Friends of the Library sale in Olympia?

Olympia itself no longer holds one in the old sense. The volunteers downtown state on their book-sales page that the giant sales are a thing of the past after the pandemic, and that the format since then is a permanent room inside the downtown Timberland branch plus pop-up single-subject carts beside the general shelves, with a second set of sale shelves at the West Olympia branch. For a dated event you cross into Lacey, where the volunteers publish six weekends a year — the pair still ahead in 2026 land on the first weekends of October and December, with each Friday half shut to non-members until the Saturday session opens at 9:30. Shelton keeps its bookstore open on the main floor whenever the branch is unlocked, and its own site mentions one-day sales on top of that, one of which the county paper documented for February 28, 2026.

Which day is best for book hunting in Olympia?

Friday, if you want the whole field. Every stop with standing hours opens on a Friday, and the Lacey meeting-room sale, on the six weekends it runs, opens then too for members. Each of the other days loses something: Turtleman shuts Monday and Tuesday, Hawks Prairie shuts Monday, and the Olympia, West Olympia, Lacey and Shelton branches all go dark on Sunday, taking four of the five permanent Friends outlets with them. Saturday still works for the downtown four and the mall pair, and only then does the Lacey meeting-room sale open to non-members. Sunday leaves seven open: Browsers, Orca, Last Word, Turtleman, the Half Price Books outlet, Value Village and the Hawks Prairie kiosk on its four-hour afternoon. Selling instead of buying points at Wednesday, Thursday or Sunday, the three afternoons Browsers opens its counter while Orca is trading anyway.

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