Downtown Omaha's secondhand trade comes down to Jackson Street, a block off the Old Market cobbles, and after that the trail leaves Douglas County fast. Papillion and Bellevue are separate Sarpy County municipalities with their own city halls, and Council Bluffs sits over the Missouri River in Iowa altogether; four of the eight entries here fall outside the Omaha city limits, and every one of them names its town up front. Plan on driving; nothing on this page connects on foot except the two Papillion addresses, which are a couple of minutes apart.
What actually carries this metro is the library Friends network rather than the storefronts. The Friends of Omaha Public Library run what amounts to a permanent used bookstore in the basement of the Swanson branch, open every Thursday and two Saturdays a month at 50 cents a paperback; the Council Bluffs and Papillion groups keep smaller shops inside their own buildings; and the University Library Friends clear a week of tables onto the main floor of the Criss Library on the UNO campus. Between them they cover more shelf space, and far more turnover, than the commercial floors do.
Older guides get one thing badly wrong about Omaha: the bookstore boom of the last few years is a new-book boom. The Bookworm out at 90th and Center, The Next Chapter on Farnam, Dundee Book Company on Underwood and Urban Abbey in the Old Market all turn up on "used bookstore" lists for this city and all sell new, as does every shop in Omaha Magazine's July/August 2026 feature on the openings of summer 2025.
Used bookstoresJackson Street Booksellers
1119 Jackson St, Omaha, NE 68102
A block west of the Old Market cobbles, three floors of used, rare and out-of-print stock shelved into a maze that Omaha Magazine, writing on June 19, 2026, called easy to get lost in. Hurrdat ONE's survey of the metro's independents on January 19, 2026 puts the strengths at vintage paperbacks, history, classic literature, art books and scholarly material across most fields, with the shelves turning over constantly. It trades on all seven days from 11am, staying out until 7pm on Friday and Saturday, which is worth knowing if the Old Market is a detour rather than a destination. There is no working website to check against: the .com bearing the shop's name was taken over by an offshore gambling operation, so confirm hours on (402) 341-2664 instead.
Hours : Mon–Thu 11am–6pm, Fri and Sat 11am–7pm, Sun noon–5pm
Used bookstoresThe Book Nook Bookstore
114 N Washington St, Papillion, NE 68046
Out in Papillion, a Sarpy County city south of the Omaha line, in the old A. W. Clark Bank building on Washington Street — and by the operator's own accounting, 72% of what sits on those shelves was previously owned. The buyback desk takes walk-ins during trading hours, capped at two boxes per session and two sessions per week, and pays in store credit, cash, or Venmo and PayPal once an offer passes $60. Check what gets refused before filling the trunk: no mass-market paperbacks at all, nothing with a broken binding or heavy annotation, no magazines, encyclopedias or discs out of their cases — though textbooks are welcome, which is unusual. Hurrdat ONE's January 19, 2026 roundup singled out the rotating mix of books, movies, puzzles and board games and the buyback program feeding it.
Hours : Mon–Thu 10am–5pm, Fri–Sat 10am–7pm, Sun noon–4pmWebsite Permanent Friends saleFriends of Omaha Public Library Used Book Sale
W. Clarke Swanson Branch, 9101 W Dodge Rd, Omaha, NE 68114
The lower level of the Swanson branch on West Dodge Road holds better than 30,000 donated titles, and the Friends open it every Thursday plus the first and third Saturday of each month, 10am to 3pm. Children's books and mass-market paperbacks go at 50 cents, hardcovers and oversized volumes at $1.50, spread across fiction, history, cookery, art, religion, science, graphic novels, records, discs and puzzles. The group's own calendar listed sale days on the 3rd, 5th, 10th, 17th, 19th and 24th of September 2026, so a week rarely passes without one. Whatever the volunteers judge collectible never reaches those tables at all — it goes onto their AbeBooks storefront under the name Omaha Library Friends, better than 3,000 titles deep, and can be browsed in person at the sale.
Hours : Thu and 1st & 3rd Sat 10am–3pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Omaha?
The floor is fifty cents, and a library volunteer rather than a bookseller sets it. The sale that runs beneath the Swanson branch tags children's books and mass-market paperbacks at 50 cents and hardcovers at $1.50, opening every Thursday and on the first and third Saturday of each month from 10am to 3pm. The University Library Friends are next cheapest when they run, at a flat $2 for paperbacks and media and $4 for hardcovers on the main floor of the Criss Library. Council Bluffs and Papillion both keep small Friends shops priced the same way but holding far less at once, and among the commercial floors only Half Price Books cuts prices across the board, by as much as 20 percent over the September 2026 holiday weekend of the 5th to the 7th.
Where do I sell used books in Omaha?
Two counters take stock off the public, and neither of them is downtown. Half Price Books on West Center Road prices books, discs and certain electronics for whoever walks in, on any trading day, and hands the offer over at the desk. The Book Nook in Papillion buys as well, on tighter terms: two boxes a visit, two visits a week, textbooks fine, mass-market paperbacks never, payment in credit, cash or an app transfer above $60. Triage at home first — line the boxes along a wall, take in a whole shelf at once with BiblioScan, and every spine comes back carrying its current resale value, which is what separates the handful to list yourself from the crate to hand across a counter that pays by volume.
When is the Friends of the Library sale in Omaha?
That depends which Friends you mean, because four groups run one around this metro. The Omaha group holds its sale at the Swanson branch nearly every week rather than once a season — Thursdays plus the first and third Saturday, 10am to 3pm, with September 2026 falling on the 3rd, 5th, 10th, 17th, 19th and 24th. The University Library Friends take the main floor of the Criss Library for a full week at a time, the 2026 spring run covering April 20 to 26. Over in Iowa, the Council Bluffs group holds its own on September 10, 11 and 12, 2026, Thursday evening from 5 to 7pm being members only and Friday open to all from 9am to 4pm, while Papillion's Friends took June 11 to 13 for the summer edition.
Which day is best for book hunting in Omaha?
Thursday, which is not the answer most cities give. The Swanson sale opens on every single one, the Book Nook trades to 5pm in Papillion, Half Price Books runs to 8pm and Jackson Street to 6pm, so one Thursday covers the cheapest stock in the metro and both counters that buy. Saturday is the alternative when it lands on the first or third of the month, since that is when Swanson repeats and Jackson Street stretches to 7pm. Keep Monday for listing at home: the Swanson sale is dark, the Council Bluffs shop is shut, and Sump depends on a volunteer turning up.