Where to buy used books in Portsmouth

Updated 9/3/2026

Portsmouth, New Hampshire — not the Virginia one, and not the English original — holds almost nothing secondhand inside its own street grid. Two shops stand a hundred yards or so apart downtown, Sheafe Street Books on a back lane off Market Square and the Portsmouth Book Nook around the corner on Daniel Street, and after that pair every entry here needs a car or a bridge. The closest lies over the state line, roughly 1.5 miles northeast in Kittery, Maine, where the Rice Public Library's Friends keep a shelf opposite the shipyard gate. The rest fans out across the Seacoast: York in Maine to the northeast, Dover north-northwest and Durham west-northwest, then Stratham and Exeter to the southwest, Hampton and Hampton Falls below the city. Every entry outside Portsmouth itself opens by naming its town, and the two in Maine name the state as well.

Very little out here runs on retail hours; most of it runs on library hours. Six entries of the eleven below live inside a public library, which bends the week in ways worth knowing before you set off. Among the stops that publish a timetable at all, exactly three open on Sundays — Sheafe Street Books, the Portsmouth Book Nook and the Dover thrift store — and Monday thins out too, with Sheafe Street closed and Rice Public Library in Kittery closed. Saturday brings everything into overlap and is also the shortest day of the seven, since Kittery, York and Durham all lock up at 2pm and Stratham at 3pm.

Three closures explain the short downtown list, and any older roundup will still march you toward them. Book and Bar, twelve years inside the historic Custom House on Pleasant Street, closed in late January 2024. RiverRun Bookstore did business for the last time on February 28, 2025 after twenty-three years and four addresses, owner Tom Holbrook retiring into editing and publishing, and the Portsmouth Book Nook took the same Daniel Street unit that April. The third is messier: the city condemned 1070 Lafayette Road, NHPR covered the owner's claim of persecution on April 24, 2025, a Seacoastonline story of September 3, 2025 reported that a judge had ordered Walter Wakefield and the twenty-one vehicles he kept books in off the property, and the Antiquarian Bookstore website now shows nothing but an In Memoriam page for him. A fourth name misleads in the opposite direction: Reedmor Books and Brews opened on State Street in December 2024 with about 5,000 titles its founder had ordered new, so it belongs on a different kind of list.

Spot map

The best spots

Used bookstores

Sheafe Street Books

29 Sheafe St, Portsmouth, NH 03801

One narrow room on a back lane a block off Market Square, and the survivor Seacoastonline counted as still standing downtown when it broke the news of RiverRun's closure on December 5, 2024. Its own Bookshop.org profile puts the weight on Beat literature, poetry, New England writing and the classics, while the Facebook page sums the stock up as new, used and collectible and repeats a Yankee Magazine line calling it the best small bookshop in New England. That same feed doubles as a stock report: a post there on February 14, 2026 logged four Bukowski titles going out the door in one day. No website of its own turned up beyond that page, so the grid below comes from two directories rather than the operator.

Hours : Tue 11am–6pm, Wed–Thu 10am–6pm, Fri–Sat 10am–7pm, Sun 11am–5pm; closed MonWebsite

Used bookstores

Portsmouth Book Nook

32 Daniel St, Portsmouth, NH 03801

Ashley Meenaghan and Laura Koulet, both Portsmouth residents, took the Daniel Street unit RiverRun Bookstore gave up on February 28, 2025 and opened here that April, a plan Seacoastonline reported on January 30, 2025. Read the trade rules before hauling anything in, because they are published in full: a copy has to be As New or Fine, with five years the outer age limit unless it counts as a classic, each one taken earns $3 in store credit, and rejected books are given to a charity rather than held for you to collect. The shop posts its week on its own home page as ten to six from Sunday through Thursday and ten to eight on Friday and Saturday, so aim at the later close; a MapQuest listing still shows six every day, which is why 603-380-7274 settles a late visit.

Hours : Sun–Thu 10am–6pm, Fri–Sat 10am–8pmWebsite

Antiquarian bookseller

The Colophon Book Shop

101B Water St, Exeter, NH 03833

In Exeter, eleven miles southwest and, by its own banner, one hour north of Boston, a member of both the ABAA and ILAB, founded by Robert and Christine Liska in LaGrange, Illinois in 1971 and moved to New Hampshire in 1982; the same banner reads fifty-five years, 1971 to 2026. The subjects are books about books, the history of printing, typography, bookbinding, literary first editions and military history, with a second storefront on the site given over entirely to First and Second World War aviation. A collection bought in 2026 pulled it toward space material, and the Facebook feed on May 31 and June 3, 2026 was offering a 1957 Soviet Sputnik presentation model at $350 and a Gemini Agena aspect indicator at $4,900, matching its List 346 on space exploration, NASA and early aviation. Selling is only half of it: the home page says the shop buys, and asks for images or a phone call first.

Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–5pmWebsite

Friends of the Library shelf

The Book Nook, Rice Public Library

Rice Public Library, 8 Wentworth St, Kittery, ME 03904

Over the Piscataqua in Kittery, Maine, the first stop across the state line: the library stands in the Foreside directly across from Gate 1 of the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard, and the Friends stock a shelf of gently used books and puzzles in the newspaper and periodical room on Level 1R. Payment runs on trust, cash or a check into a secure honors box or a QR code that charges a card through the Friends' donate area, and the money goes to museum passes and the summer reading program. Once a year that shelf becomes a proper sale: the Friends listed their annual used book sale for 10am to 4pm on Saturday, June 20, 2026, timed to the Kittery Block Party. Parking around the building is capped at two hours, and none of it is on Traip Avenue behind the library.

Hours : Tue 10am–5pm, Wed–Thu noon–8pm, Fri 10am–5pm, Sat 10am–2pm; closed Sun–MonWebsite

All spots by type

Used bookstores

Used books, prints and framing

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

65 Water St, Exeter, NH 03833

Also in Exeter, a couple of doors along the same street from the antiquarian and the obvious way to make one trip do for two, describing itself as a compendium of used books, custom framing, vintage ephemera, maps and local art; John and Jennifer Segal have owned it since 1985 by the account Patch published in 2013. The stock leans toward paper you would hang, and its posts show it: December 20, 2025 led with Henry Shute, whom the shop calls Exeter's first best-selling author, and January 10, 2026 with art nouveau bicycle advertisements by Will Bradley. In May 2026 it was also selling Sarah Koff's poster for Exeter's 250th, with proceeds going to the town celebration committee. No weekly grid is published anywhere, and closures go up on Facebook instead — a June 6, 2026 notice gave warning of two closed days and a Friday afternoon reopening — so call ahead.

Website

Thrift stores & charity shops

Thrift store with a book department

Thrifty Bootique

652 Central Ave, Dover, NH 03820

Up in Dover, eleven miles north-northwest on Central Avenue, a thrift boutique that gives secondhand paper a department of its own: the shop lists Books beside furniture, housewares and clothing, and promises fiction, non-fiction, classics, children's titles and out-of-print editions sorted by genre. Its feed prices them plainly, a June 15, 2026 post putting adult reads at a dollar and children's at fifty cents for the summer, and an August 10, 2026 one repeating the nine-to-six week the contact page publishes. Everything else on the floor is clothes, furniture and upcycled work by local makers, so treat the shelves as one stop among several rather than the point of the drive.

Hours : Mon–Sat 9am–6pm, Sun 11am–5pmWebsite

Library book sales

Friends of the Library bookstore

The Friends Bookstore, Durham Public Library

Durham Public Library, 49 Madbury Rd, Durham, NH 03824

Out in Durham, a 9.5-mile run west-northwest into the University of New Hampshire's town, the Friends keep a permanent room of donated secondhand stock just inside the entrance to the library café on the mezzanine level. Their page sorts the bargains into fiction, non-fiction and children's literature and says the room is open for browsing and buying throughout the library's own opening hours, which makes this the easiest entry here to slot around a working day. The group has backed the library since 1997 and posted its 2026 meeting dates as January 14, May 20 and September 16, so the operation is demonstrably still going.

Hours : Mon–Wed 10am–8pm, Thu 10am–6pm, Fri 10am–5pm, Sat 10am–2pm; closed SunWebsite

Library used book corner

The Book Nook, York Public Library

York Public Library, 15 Long Sands Rd, York, ME 03909

Further up the Maine coast in York, some 7.5 miles northeast, a used book corner to the left of the main circulation desk on the upper level, with everything it earns going to the York Public Library Association, the nonprofit that owns the building. What reaches those shelves is filtered hard at the donation door: fiction and children's titles from 2015 onward, non-fiction from 2020 onward, classics and rare copies in excellent condition, and a flat no to textbooks, encyclopedias, magazines, DVDs and audiobooks, one bag or box per week. Sitting inside the library, the corner keeps the library's clock, and that clock cuts Saturday to a two-hour window, the narrowest opening of its week. Traffic past it is not thin: the 25 Years Strong campaign page counts 101,489 visits in 2025, more than six times the 2002 figure.

Hours : Mon–Thu 10am–7pm, Fri 10am–5pm, Sat 10am–2pm; closed SunWebsite

Ongoing library book sale

Wiggin Memorial Library ongoing book sale

Wiggin Memorial Library, 10 Bunker Hill Ave, Stratham, NH 03885

Southwest in Stratham, a shade under nine miles out, with the simplest pricing anywhere on this page: the library's own book sales page describes a standing sale of books, music CDs, DVDs and puzzles, most of it at a dollar. The door you want sits at the rear of the Municipal Center, a detail worth having before you circle the front hunting for one. This library also publishes its closures a year ahead, and the 2026 schedule has it closing at 3pm on November 25, staying dark from November 26 to 28 for Thanksgiving and locked again on December 26, so a wasted drive is easy to avoid.

Hours : Mon 9:30am–7pm, Tue–Fri 9:30am–6pm, Sat 9:30am–3pm; closed SunWebsite

Library book sales

Friends of the Lane Memorial Library book sale

Lane Memorial Library, 2 Academy Ave, Hampton, NH 03842

Down in Hampton, ten miles south, the Friends say on their own website that they hold bi-annual book sales in June and November, and no fall 2026 date had gone up by the start of September. The June edition shows the shape of the thing: Great Bay Coffee News listed Thursday, June 4, 2026 for members only between 9am and 6pm, then the general public on Friday the fifth until 4:30pm and Saturday the sixth until 3pm, with everything priced at a quarter, fifty cents or a dollar. The group has been going since 1958, and the library calendar carried a Friends meeting on September 9, 2026, so it is plainly still active. Donations are taken at the library on Thursdays only, and dictionaries, textbooks and Reader's Digest condensed volumes are refused.

Website

Library book sales

Hampton Falls Free Library Book & Bake Sale

Hampton Falls Free Library, 7 Drinkwater Rd, Hampton Falls, NH 03844

The furthest stop here, twelve miles southwest in Hampton Falls, and the one dated event on this page you can still turn up to. The library's own front page carries a save-the-date flyer for a book and bake sale set for Saturday the nineteenth of September 2026, opening at ten and closing at two, run as part of Community Day in the town, next to a second notice saying book donations are being accepted now. A four-hour Saturday window is all there is, so anchor the outing on it instead of treating it as a detour.

Hours : Saturday, September 19, 2026, 10am–2pmWebsite

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.

Try BiblioScan for free

Local sourcing tips

Two addresses in this guide will price a box for you, and only one settles while you stand there. At the Portsmouth Book Nook the terms are posted: near-perfect condition, a five-year recency bar with an exemption for classics, three dollars of credit per title accepted, and no return trip for whatever gets turned away, since the shop gives rejects to a charity. The Colophon Book Shop, eleven miles out in Exeter, buys in the antiquarian register instead, and its home page wants photographs or a call first. Every other address in this guide is donation-fed, so a Seacoast selling run means one downtown call with a single fallback in Exeter.
Among these eleven, the cheapest paper sits in public buildings and one Dover storefront. Stratham holds most of its standing sale at a dollar apiece, books, discs and puzzles alike. The Friends in Hampton priced their June 2026 sale in quarters and half-dollars, according to Great Bay Coffee News, and Thrifty Bootique put its own summer shelves at a dollar for grown-up titles. Kittery takes cash or a check in an honors box, or a card through a QR code, and Durham keeps its room unlocked for every hour the library is, which between them covers most of an ordinary week without a single scheduled date to catch.
Do not plan the day around a chain, because there is not one to plan around. Half Price Books listed 116 branches across nineteen states on its own store directory, not one of them in New England, and its store finder returns nothing whatsoever for Portsmouth's coordinates; 2nd & Charles, the other multi-state secondhand chain, lists no store in any New England state either. What is left is a string of small rooms, six of them inside public libraries. Budget for driving time rather than browsing time.
Five names still in the directories cannot sell you anything secondhand, and a sixth is a softer trap. The Antiquarian Bookstore's phone number is live in half a dozen business listings, but Walter Wakefield has died, and a Seacoastonline story dated April 3, 2026 said the vehicles holding his stock had been hauled off the Lafayette Road lot. The Portsmouth Bookshop, once at 1 Islington Street, has let its domain lapse, and the address now resolves to a for-sale parking page. RiverRun and Book and Bar are both gone; Reedmor Books and Brews, which several roundups file under bookstores without qualification, stocks new titles. Water Street Bookstore in Exeter is the softer one: a Poets & Writers profile credits it with a used book consignment program, yet neither the store's own site nor its FAQ mentions secondhand copies, so do not drive over expecting them.
Three entries on this page answer to the name Book Nook, and confusing them costs a bridge crossing. The Portsmouth Book Nook is a business at 32 Daniel Street. The one at Rice Public Library is a shelf in the newspaper room in Kittery, Maine. The one at York Public Library is a corner beside the circulation desk another six miles up the coast. Only the first is a shop, only the first gives you anything for a box of your own books, and the two in Maine keep library hours that end at 2pm on Saturdays.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find cheap used books in Portsmouth?

The deepest bargains start once you cross a town line. Wiggin Memorial Library in Stratham, nine miles southwest, keeps a permanent sale table of print, discs and puzzles priced almost entirely at a dollar an item. In Kittery, Maine, a short hop over the bridge, the Rice Friends stock a shelf of donated books and puzzles where you pay into a locked honors box or by scanning a QR code. The Friends Bookstore inside Durham Public Library sells donated novels, non-fiction and children's titles during every hour that library is open; the Hampton Friends were charging a quarter to a dollar at their June 2026 sale per Great Bay Coffee News, while Thrifty Bootique up in Dover ran its shelves at similar money that summer. Inside Portsmouth proper this guide turns up secondhand stock in just two places, the used half of the Book Nook on Daniel Street and the shelves at Sheafe Street Books, both priced as trade rather than rummage.

Where do I sell used books in Portsmouth?

One counter in the city and one out of it. The Portsmouth Book Nook on Daniel Street works to posted rules: condition has to be near perfect, the printing recent unless the book is a classic, $3 of store credit comes back per title accepted, and refused copies go to a charity because the shop will not hold them for collection. The Colophon Book Shop in Exeter buys as an antiquarian dealer and asks for photographs or a call before you bring anything, which suits first editions, printing history and aviation material rather than a carload of paperbacks. Every other entry here is donation-funded and pays nobody. Triage before you load anything: photograph a whole shelf at once and BiblioScan reads the spines and prices whatever it recognizes, and the split between titles worth your own marketplace listing and titles worth three dollars of credit takes about a minute.

When is the Friends of the Library sale in Portsmouth?

There is not one. The Portsmouth Public Library at 175 Parrott Avenue names no Friends group and no book sale anywhere on its own website; what it does maintain is a page of Little Free Libraries around town. For a Friends sale you leave the city. Nearest of those on this page: the Friends of the Rice Public Library in Kittery, Maine, who put their annual used book sale on Saturday, June 20, 2026 alongside the Kittery Block Party. Hampton Falls Free Library has a book and bake sale on September 19, 2026, open from 10am for four hours. The Friends of the Lane Memorial Library in Hampton put theirs in June and November, with no fall 2026 date published by the start of September. Between events, the permanent versions are the Friends room in Durham and the shelves in Kittery and York.

Which day is best for book hunting in Portsmouth?

Friday, if you want everything open at once. Sheafe Street Books runs to 7pm, the Portsmouth Book Nook stays open until eight, Colophon in Exeter is open, and Dover, Durham, Kittery, York and Stratham are all unlocked, several of them into the afternoon. Saturday gets you the same list but with three of the libraries closing at two in the afternoon and Stratham an hour later, so it is a morning rather than a day. Monday costs you Sheafe Street and Rice Public Library, though Colophon in Exeter, Durham, York and Stratham all open. Sunday leaves only the two downtown shops and the Dover thrift store, since every library here and the Exeter antiquarian are closed. And a dated sale overrides all of it: the one still ahead is the Hampton Falls morning of September 19, 2026.

Do you run a store here?

Bookstore, thrift store or consignment shop in Portsmouth: get listed in this guide for free, or tell us what to fix.

Nearby cities

Manchester Portland

← Used books by city The guide: how to source books for resale →