Provo scatters its secondhand books across three unconnected pockets, and just one pocket works without a car. Downtown sets Pioneer Book on Center Street against the Provo City Library at Academy Square, 0.65 miles between them. The rest all needs wheels: Eborn Books a mile southward inside Provo Towne Centre, Moon's Rare Books at The Shops at Riverwoods, four and a half miles up University Avenue, then over the city line altogether — Orem for 2nd & Charles and for a library-and-thrift pairing on North State Street, and Pleasant Grove ten miles to the northwest. Where a listing below sits outside Provo, its first sentence gives the town; the whole page stays inside Utah County, because Salt Lake County is covered separately.
Learn the counter rules first, because the four general secondhand buyers listed below run on four unrelated systems. Pioneer Book takes walk-ins, handles twenty or thirty at a sitting and settles in nothing but credit spendable in the shop. The Happy Book Stack up in Pleasant Grove publishes its arithmetic outright — roughly 30 percent of intended shelf price as credit, less than that in cash — against a ceiling of three medium boxes. 2nd & Charles in Orem prices three tote bags as one unitemized number and offers store credit instead, capped at 150 percent above whatever it pays in cash, while Moon's acquires almost nothing by comparison: very early printings of instantly recognizable names, Bibles from before the 1700s, provenanced Latter-day Saint material and film props arriving with paperwork.
Three things age an older Utah Valley list badly. Half Price Books, the first chain most out-of-state scouts reach for, does not trade in Utah: the company lists 19 states and 116 branches, and its own finder comes back blank around Provo even at 300 miles, the widest setting that tool allows. Several Utah Valley operations have gone dark since 2025 — The Dollar Bookstore, whose warehouse weekends drew crowds to Pleasant Grove, HideAway Books over in American Fork, and Boomerang Books in Orem — and the dates for all three sit further down. And Eborn Books is not the firm older guides describe, because a 2019 eviction emptied the largest bookstore the chain says it ever had in Utah and drove most of the inventory into storage, leaving an independently owned mall unit as this county's version of the business.
Used bookstoresPioneer Book
450 W Center St, Provo, UT 84601
Two floors on Center Street west of downtown, and the anchor every other entry here gets measured against: its own booksellers page claims 45 years in the book business. No appointment is needed to trade and the only currency is store credit, with a batch of twenty to thirty assessed while you browse, or the whole load left behind for a call later, and the option of signing that credit over to the Battle of the Books program for local elementary and middle schools instead of spending it. Its 2026 Reading Challenge runs 40 categories toward a $50 prize certificate, open from January 1 to December 31, 2026 with claims accepted until January 16, 2027, and eight of those categories have to be bought here. That category list doubles as a floor plan: a customer pick shelf, an employee pick shelf, best seller displays, new-arrivals tables on both levels and a 500-plus-page section on each floor.
Hours : Mon–Thu 10am–7pm, Fri–Sat 10am–9pm; closed SunWebsite Rare and antiquarian bookshopMoon's Rare Books
4801 N University Ave #340, Provo, UT 84604
At The Shops at Riverwoods, up University Avenue 4.4 miles from the center point, a room that bills itself as a museum disguised as a bookstore and looks the part, with brick floors, a mock English village frontage and film props standing among the stock. Reid Moon brought the business here from Dallas and Los Angeles in 2015 and switched it from new-and-used to used-and-rare, and The Salt Lake Tribune reported on January 21, 2026 that he flew home through a New York snowstorm to receive Andy Serkis in the back room. What it acquires is narrow by its own account: first or very early printings by instantly recognizable authors, children's classics on the same footing, Bibles printed between 1455 and the 1700s, signed or historically owned early Latter-day Saint material, and props from recognizable films, with appraisals declined outright. Public show-and-tell hours cost $25 a head for about thirty seats and private bookings start at $495, and the store says every dollar from them goes to Generations Humanitarian, the fund it names on its show-and-tell page.
Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–8pmWebsite Used bookstoresThe Happy Book Stack Utah
452 W Center St #105, Pleasant Grove, UT 84062
Ten miles northwest in Pleasant Grove, on that town's own Center Street, and it publishes its trade arithmetic in more detail than any other counter listed here: the shop's Instagram announced the opening on June 11, 2025 with more than 35,000 books on the walls. Walk in during business hours with up to three medium boxes of books, video games, unopened puzzles or board games, no appointment needed, and the desk quotes store credit at 30 percent or so of whatever sticker it plans to attach, cash somewhat under that, which it illustrates as about $3 in credit or around $1 in money on a title it will price at $10. Three boxes take about half an hour, software checks demand and duplicate copies before anything is accepted, and refused items either come back to you or get donated on your instruction, since nothing turned down can be stored for long. Two families run it, the Jacobses and the Robinsons, and the site lists a free storytime every Thursday from 10 to 11 in the morning.
Hours : Mon–Thu 10am–6pm, Fri 10am–7pm, Sat 9am–7pm; closed SunWebsite Used bookstores2nd & Charles
140 E University Pkwy, Orem, UT 84058
Over in Orem on University Parkway, the Utah branch of the secondhand chain owned by Books-A-Million, a wide floor of used books, vinyl, games and pop-culture stock. Load three store totes at most, pass them across to the buyback desk, ask to be texted or emailed when the offer lands, then take the money, or the credit alternative, which the chain publishes as a ceiling of 150 percent above whatever the cash comes to; the quote arrives as one total instead of title by title, and the desk waves sellers away an hour before the store locks up. Refused outright are advance reading copies, school textbooks, computer games, VHS cassettes, phones and anything damaged, while books of all kinds, spoken-word CDs, records, DVDs, console games as far back as the Atari era, comics, manga, e-readers and tablets are all in scope. Its Orem Instagram account posted on August 11, 2026 to push a Saturday the 15th running 8am to 8pm, two hours ahead of the Saturday opening the store page prints.
Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–8pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Provo?
Start with the two library sales, because their published ceilings sit under any shelf price on this page. The Provo City Library caps almost everything in its ballroom at $2 and unlocks the room from noon to 3pm on Wednesday, November 18, 2026, a window it also kept on August 5 that year after an opening Tuesday that ran to 8pm. Orem Public Library puts secondhand books and media out in Library Hall on Monday, October 5, 2026 between 3pm and 9pm, then again on Tuesday, October 6 until 1pm, accepts plastic or cash, and lifts half the bill once 25 items are in your arms. Between those dates the everyday fallback is the Savers on North State Street in Orem, whose store page files Books & media under accepted donations and drops 30 percent every Tuesday for shoppers past 55. Pioneer Book downtown is the shop to work through on volume, since its own trade-in page says it takes books in every genre and pays only in credit spendable on its shelves.
Where do I sell used books in Provo?
Four addresses, and none of them writes the same contract. Pioneer Book on Center Street accepts walk-ins with no booking, works through twenty or thirty copies while you wander the aisles or phones you afterward if you leave the pile, and pays exclusively in credit good inside the store. The Happy Book Stack in Pleasant Grove accepts up to three medium boxes, quotes credit at close to 30 percent of the sticker it expects to charge and rather less in cash, and turns a full load around in about half an hour. 2nd & Charles in Orem accepts up to three totes, sends one total by text or email, pays in dollars, or in credit that the chain publishes as reaching 150 percent beyond its own money offer, and turns away advance copies, textbooks, PC titles, video cassettes, phones and damaged goods; Moon's Rare Books acquires only first or very early editions, antique Bibles, Latter-day Saint pieces carrying a known history, and props from films people recognize. Triage at home: photograph a single shelf and BiblioScan attaches a resale number to every spine it can identify, and within a minute the two or three you can sell on yourself separate cleanly from the boxful destined for a trade desk.
When is the big library book sale in Provo?
Provo City Library runs it in the ballroom at Academy Square, 550 North University Avenue, and its calendar names the next date as Wednesday, November 18, 2026, open only between noon and 3pm, with almost all of it at $2 or under; only the first day of the August run that year, Tuesday the 4th, stayed open to 8pm, and a further date is already published for August 4, 2027. Five miles up the road in Orem the equivalent runs bigger and longer: Library Hall opens at 3pm on the Monday, October 5, 2026, and runs to 9pm, reopens 9am the following day and closes at 1pm, takes card or cash, halves the whole purchase at 25 items, and repeats on January 11 and 12, 2027. Springville Public Library on Main Street ran multi-day sales in February and June 2026 but had posted nothing later as September 2026 opened.
Which day is best for book hunting in Provo?
Saturday, with one caveat. Pioneer Book and Moon's both trade late on Saturday, to 9pm and 8pm respectively, and The Happy Book Stack opens at 9am, an hour earlier than it does the rest of the week, so a Pleasant Grove start followed by an Orem middle and a downtown finish uses the whole day. Cross Sunday off completely: Pioneer Book, The Happy Book Stack, Moon's and Eborn are all closed, the Provo library is dark as well, and only 2nd & Charles, which closes at 7pm on a Sunday against an opening time its own store page prints unusably as 12am, and the Savers in Orem, 10am to 8pm, are trading. Midweek matters for the sales rather than the shops, since both library events fall on a Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday.