Where to buy used books in Richmond

Updated 9/2/2026

Richmond, Virginia keeps most of its used-book trade inside a three-mile arc and scatters the rest across three counties. Carytown holds the big one, Shelf Life Books, five upstairs rooms of secondhand trading under a new name since the McDaniels took over Chop Suey Books; the Fan, Church Hill and Brookland Park each carry a small shop of their own. After that the trail crosses a county line — Book People and 2nd & Charles sit in Henrico, the Midlothian Book Exchange and the Chesterfield Friends sales are in Chesterfield County, and Solbird Books and the Mechanicsville Friends are up in Hanover. Anything on the list that sits outside the city boundary names its county in the opening line.

The buy counters are what should shape the day, because four of them publish terms and no two match. Shelf Life takes fifteen books a head between noon and 4pm on weekdays and will not split an offer between cash and credit. Small Friend sets no ceiling on what you bring, buys five days a week and does house calls for whole collections, but works off a want list tight enough that a carton of supermarket paperbacks goes straight back. The Midlothian Book Exchange pays a flat quarter of list price in credit good for half the value of any purchase, while 2nd & Charles runs the chain formula of three totes and a single lump-sum offer.

Three things in the older listings are wrong, and one of them is a web address. Black Swan Books no longer trades from the Main Street corner its own shop page still describes: the contact details give a Rosedale Avenue unit signposted Turnkey, and the about page reads open by appointment, so the antiquarian stock is not something you browse into any more. Bargain Books Richmond spent the last week of August 2026 tearing down shelving for a move and had announced no new address. And the obvious search turns up richmondlibraryfriends.org, which belongs to Richmond, California; the Virginia group is at rvalibraryfriends.org and runs its sales out of the Main Library on East Franklin Street.

Spot map

The best spots

Used bookstores

Shelf Life Books

2913 W Cary St, Richmond, VA 23221

Carytown, across the street from the Byrd Theater: new titles on the lower level and five rooms of used stock upstairs, with two cats called Page and Mylar working the aisles. Chris and Berkley McDaniel bought Chop Suey Books and rebranded the shop Shelf Life in March 2023, and it now bills itself as the biggest independent bookstore in Richmond. The buy desk runs Monday through Friday from noon to 4pm, fifteen books per person, cash or store credit but never a split of the two, and no magazines or textbooks under any circumstances. Anything above thirty books needs an appointment through the used-book manager and is capped at 200 per visit, with a five to ten working day wait for a reply — worth starting early, since the store calendar had readings booked through October 7, 2026.

Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–7pm, Sun 11am–6pmWebsite

Used bookstores

Small Friend Records & Books

1 N Lombardy St, Richmond, VA 23220

Down a flight of stairs into the basement at Main and Lombardy in the Fan, a woman-owned book and record shop that describes its own taste as the radical, weird and obscure. The selling window is the widest in the city: Wednesday through Sunday, noon to 4pm, no appointment, no ceiling on how much you carry in, cash or credit either way, and house calls offered for a whole collection. Read the want list before sorting a box, because it is a real filter — LGBTQ+ and BIPOC fiction, occult and herbalism, anarchism and leftist theory, art and architecture, horror and science fiction, poetry — and it rules out bestsellers, mass-market westerns and thrillers, presidential biographies, self-help, textbooks and magazines. The events page was still fronted by Record Store Day on Saturday, April 18, 2026.

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

Used bookstores

The Midlothian Book Exchange

13198 Midlothian Tpke, Midlothian, VA 23113

Out in Chesterfield County, twelve miles southwest along Midlothian Turnpike: 7,200 square feet and an estimated 175,000 half-price books, a store the Kerby family had run for more than three decades before selling to Dorryce and Caroline in October 2020. The trade terms are published in full and the arithmetic is simple — a quarter of the list price, paid as store credit, and the credit then pays for half of whatever you carry out. One bag or box per visit, Tuesday through Saturday between 10am and 4:30pm, usually under ten minutes at the counter, puzzles of 300 pieces and up accepted, donations declined outright. An August 2026 newsletter and a Fall Family Reading Challenge sign-up were both live on the shop's own site, so the programming has not gone quiet.

Hours : Tue–Sat 10am–5pm; closed Sun–Mon

Friends of the Library sale

Friends of the Richmond Public Library Book Sale

Main Library, 101 E Franklin St, Richmond, VA 23219

The Friends run a semi-annual sale, April and November on their own programs page, out of the Main Library on East Franklin Street downtown. The 2026 spring edition took May 1 to 3: Friday 10am to noon for members with sign-up at the door, noon to 8pm open to everyone, Saturday running 10am to 4pm and Sunday 1pm to 4pm. Several thousand donated titles, sorted before the doors open and deeply discounted in the organizers' own words, and they ask shoppers to bring a bag. The autumn date had not been posted at the time of writing, so watch rvalibraryfriends.org instead of assuming the spring slot repeats.

Website

All spots by type

Used bookstores

Richmond Book Shop

808 W Broad St, Richmond, VA 23220

In the VCU stretch of West Broad at Laurel Street, and by its own account the oldest bookstore in the city, trading on that block since 1969. Used books share the floor with back-issue comics, undergrounds, manga, vintage magazines, posters, prints and postcards, which makes it the stop to hit for printed paper that is not a book. It opens late in the afternoon on Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and shuts on Sunday and Monday; the shop announced a 3pm to 6pm window day by day on its own Facebook page through the end of August 2026, while its standing profile notice still gives roughly 3:45pm to 6:30pm, so no hours are listed below and phoning first is the safe move. The same owners keep a second stand inside the West End Antiques Mall on Staples Mill Road, which is where they send people on the two days the storefront is dark.

Website

Used bookstores

Brian's Books

2514 P St, Richmond, VA 23223

Church Hill, in a low brick building on P Street that the city last registered as a fish market in 1988, one room run by Brian Baynes, who publishes the comic and art review magazine Bubbles. He opened on June 14, 2025, a plan WTVR trailed that May, and stocks used books, niche vintage comics, magazines and zines rather than a general fiction wall — Richmond history, deep science-fiction cuts, international oddities. Eleven to six, Friday through Sunday only, and the owner takes suggestions on what to hunt down next. Small enough to clear in a quarter of an hour, which makes it the natural bookend to an East End run.

Hours : Fri–Sun 11am–6pmWebsite

Used bookstores

I Love You So Much Books

119 W Brookland Park Blvd, Richmond, VA 23222

On the Brookland Park Boulevard corridor in Northside, in the 1,300 square feet that SCRAP RVA vacated: a Filipino, LGBTQ and woman-owned shop that Mariela Gavino ran as a park-side pop-up from 2023 before opening the storefront on Valentine's Day 2025. The curation leans to unusual and hard-to-find titles rather than volume, so treat it as a spot-check rather than a sourcing stop. One thing to settle before loading the car: the shop is explicit that it buys no books at all, and it has paused private event bookings. A children's bookseller, Tyrannosaurus Tot, has since opened a few doors along at 113 W Brookland Park Blvd, so the block now covers both ends of a family shelf.

Hours : Tue–Sun 11am–6pm; closed MonWebsite

Used bookstores

Book People

10464 Ridgefield Pkwy, Henrico, VA 23233

Out in Henrico County, in the Gleneagle Shopping Center off Ridgefield Parkway at Short Pump, an old-fashioned general shop that has been selling new and used books out of Richmond for over thirty years on its own reckoning. The secondhand side spans every genre, and the store makes a point of its foreign-language shelves and its signed copies, which is unusual this far out along the West End corridor. It trades Monday to Saturday, ten to seven, and closes Sunday; the events calendar was carrying a September 9, 2026 evening billed as Reading Between The Wines. Fifteen minutes further out than the rest of the list, so pair it with the West Broad chain store rather than driving that corridor twice.

Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–7pm; closed SunWebsite

Used chain store

2nd & Charles

9004 W Broad St, Richmond, VA 23294

Also over the line in Henrico County, on the West Broad retail strip at Glen Allen, the local branch of the Books-A-Million used-goods chain; the operator files it under Richmond, on a store page the Internet Archive snapshotted October 16, 2025. The trade desk works by volume, not by title: load as many as three house totes, hand the lot over, and the answer comes back as one lump sum with a cash figure and a store-credit figure worth up to 150% of it. Books of all kinds are in scope alongside vinyl, DVDs, video games, consoles, comics and manga, while advance reading copies, textbooks, VHS and PC games get turned away. The buyback counter shuts one hour before the store does, which is the commonest way to waste the drive.

Website

Used bookstores

Solbird Books

7038 Mechanicsville Tpke, Mechanicsville, VA 23111

Up in Hanover County, sharing the Rivers Edge Coffee shop on Mechanicsville Turnpike, a one-woman bookshop that held its grand opening in that space on November 14, 2025. The used selection is small and moves fast: the owner photographs every restock and every new arrival as it lands and was still doing so through late August 2026, alongside stickers, mugs and a book club that pairs each month's pick with a local nonprofit. Opening times follow the coffee shop rather than the bookshop and no separate schedule is published, so call ahead before committing to the drive. Worth the detour mainly if the Mechanicsville and Atlee libraries are already on the route.

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Thrift stores & charity shops

Nonprofit thrift store

Diversity Thrift

1407 Sherwood Ave, Richmond, VA 23220

A 15,000 square foot thrift floor on Sherwood Avenue in Northside, operated by Diversity Richmond, which puts the takings into local nonprofit grants and has passed $1 million since it started. Books sit among furniture, clothing, housewares, electronics and records rather than in a room of their own, and the operator names them on its published donation list, so the shelf is fed constantly and sorted for nothing at all. Drop-offs run Tuesday to Sunday between 10am and 3pm, the window the Internet Archive still had on file in a capture dated July 9, 2026. Priced as thrift goods and not as books, which is the argument for reading the whole shelf instead of skimming the spines you recognize.

Website

Flea markets

Antiques mall

West End Antiques Mall

2004 Staples Mill Rd, Richmond, VA 23230

A 53,000 square foot mall with more than 250 booths at Staples Mill and West Broad, one block north of the intersection, with a large lot behind the Holiday Inn Express. Books are not the main trade — furniture, glass, jewelry and prints are — but the Richmond Book Shop keeps a second stand inside, and pointed customers to it in a post dated August 23, 2026 covering the Sunday and Monday its West Broad storefront is shut. Open seven days, ten to six on weekdays and Saturdays and noon to six on Sundays, dark only on New Year's Day, Easter, Thanksgiving and Christmas. Booth pricing means nobody imposes any sorting discipline on you and nobody offers any either, so budget the time.

Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–6pm, Sun noon–6pmWebsite

Library book sales

Friends of the Library sale

Chesterfield Friends of the Library Book Sales

North Courthouse Road Library, 325 Courthouse Rd, North Chesterfield, VA 23236

In Chesterfield County the Friends stage their big sales branch by branch rather than in one hall, and two are on the books for late 2026. North Courthouse Road Library takes November 13 and 14; the Bon Air branch on Rattlesnake Road follows on December 4 and 5 with a coffee-table and Christmas sale, Friday from noon until 5pm and Saturday from 9am until 3pm, hardbacks at $2, coffee-table books at $5, Christmas titles and paperbacks at $1. Cards, checks and cash are all accepted at the Bon Air dates. Between events the group keeps priced shelves going in all ten county branches, so a Chesterfield afternoon is planned around library opening times rather than around event dates.

Hours : November 13–14, 2026Website

Friends of the Library sale

Friends of the Mechanicsville Library Book Sale

Mechanicsville Branch Library, 7461 Sherwood Crossing Pl, Mechanicsville, VA 23111

In Hanover County, the Pamunkey Regional Library's own calendar puts the Friends of the Mechanicsville Library sale at the Sherwood Crossing branch on Friday, November 13, 2026 from 10am to 6pm and Saturday, November 14 from 10am to 2pm. A companion sale runs at the Montpelier branch on November 6, further north and off most routes out of the city. Nothing else sat in the library system's book-sale category for the remainder of 2026, so this is the county's one weekend. It collides exactly with the North Courthouse Road sale in Chesterfield, forty minutes away on the opposite side of the metro — pick one.

Hours : November 13–14, 2026Website

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

Four counters around Richmond say in advance what they will do, and no two of the four land anywhere near each other. Shelf Life caps you at fifteen books, weekdays between noon and 4pm, and refuses to split an offer — anything past thirty goes through an appointment form with a five to ten working day reply and a 200-book ceiling. Small Friend is the mirror image: Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 4pm, no cap, no appointment, house calls for a whole collection, but a want list that rules out bestsellers, mass-market genre paperbacks, self-help and textbooks. The Midlothian Book Exchange pays a flat quarter of list in credit good for half of a purchase, one container per visit, Tuesday to Saturday until 4:30pm. 2nd & Charles buys by the tote and answers with one number, which suits bulk and punishes anything scarce; I Love You So Much Books buys nothing at all, and the Book Exchange turns donations away.
November 13 is the date to settle early, because two sales land on it. The Friends of the Mechanicsville Library open at the Sherwood Crossing branch in Hanover County at 10am that Friday and run to 6pm, then 10am to 2pm on the Saturday. The Chesterfield Friends open at North Courthouse Road Library on that same Friday and Saturday, roughly forty minutes away across the metro. Montpelier, further up in Hanover, takes November 6, and Bon Air closes the year on December 4 and 5 with coffee-table books at $5 and hardbacks at $2. The city sale is the one still missing a date: the Friends commit to April and November on their own page, and the 2026 spring edition ran May 1 to 3, so treat the month as firm and the weekend as open.
Mondays are thin across all four jurisdictions, and one shop barely opens at all. The Richmond Book Shop trades four afternoons a week from around 3pm and is dark on Sunday and Monday; Brian's Books is a Friday to Sunday operation; Small Friend loses Monday and Tuesday; the Midlothian Book Exchange loses Sunday and Monday; Book People loses Sunday. Two names survive that: Shelf Life, open all week and to 7pm on six of the days, and the West End Antiques Mall, which also trades seven days. Build the browsing around a Saturday and keep the weekday noon-to-four band for selling, because that is when three of the four counters are staffed.
This is a four-jurisdiction hunt and a single map pin flatters it badly. The city proper holds Shelf Life, Small Friend, the Broad Street shop, Brian's Books, I Love You So Much Books, Diversity Thrift, the antiques mall and the Main Library sale, all within about fifteen minutes of one another. Henrico County adds Book People at Short Pump and the chain store at Glen Allen, both off West Broad and best done as one westward leg. Chesterfield County means Midlothian Turnpike and Courthouse Road, roughly twelve miles southwest, and Hanover County means Mechanicsville Turnpike and Sherwood Crossing to the northeast. No single transit line joins those legs, so budget for a car and for parking that is free almost everywhere outside Carytown.
Four entries in the older Richmond roundups point at doors that are no longer there. Black Swan Books, an ABAA member with a deep Americana and Civil War stock, no longer keeps the Main Street shopfront the directories still print: it works from 3310 Rosedale Avenue, behind a Turnkey sign, and its own site says open by appointment, with a separate storefront up in Staunton. Bargain Books Richmond was recruiting volunteers to break down shelving on August 28, 2026 and had gone temporarily dark for a move, so its Hull Street Road listing is stale until the operator says otherwise. Fountain Bookstore on East Cary is a good shop selling new stock, which is a different errand. And the Friends of the Richmond Public Library who post at richmondlibraryfriends.org are in California, where the Book Nook has been on hiatus since August 1, 2025 for a library renovation.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find cheap used books in Richmond?

The library groups set the floor, not the shops. Chesterfield tags hardbacks at $2 and paperbacks at $1 for its Bon Air sale on December 4 and 5, and keeps priced shelves ticking over in all ten county branches between events. The Friends of the Richmond Public Library put several thousand sorted, donated titles into the Main Library at deep discounts each spring and autumn. Of the shops trading year-round, the Midlothian Book Exchange is the volume answer — an estimated 175,000 books, every one at half of list price, under a single 7,200 square foot roof — and Diversity Thrift on Sherwood Avenue prices its book shelf like a thrift store rather than like a bookseller. Small Friend is where cheap stock is also interesting, which is a different thing.

Where do I sell used books in Richmond?

Four counters, four different deals. Shelf Life pays cash or store credit, with the credit figure always the larger of the two, weekdays noon to 4pm, fifteen books at a time and no split offers; past thirty books it is an appointment form and up to ten working days for an answer. Small Friend takes any quantity Wednesday to Sunday between noon and 4pm and will come to the house for a whole collection, but only wants what fits a narrow list. The Midlothian Book Exchange gives a quarter of list price in credit that covers half of a purchase, and 2nd & Charles makes one lump-sum offer per three totes, with credit worth up to 150% of the cash number. Sort the pile before the drive: a single shelf photographed end to end, BiblioScan reading every spine in the shot, and each title comes back carrying the resale figure it commands right now — which tells you in one pass which handful to list yourself and which crate is only ever going to be counter credit.

Which day is best for book hunting in Richmond?

Saturday if you are buying, a weekday if you are selling. Only a Saturday puts Shelf Life, Small Friend, Brian's Books, the Richmond Book Shop, Book People, the Midlothian Book Exchange and the antiques mall on one list, and it is also the day both November sales run their second session. Selling inverts that: three of the four counters work a noon-to-four band and Shelf Life's is Monday to Friday only, so a Tuesday or Wednesday of morning driving and afternoon counters beats queuing on a weekend. Monday is a listing day rather than a driving day, with Small Friend, the Book Exchange and the Broad Street shop all shut.

When is the Friends of the Library sale in Richmond?

November, and there are three of them. The Friends of the Richmond Public Library hold theirs at the Main Library on East Franklin Street twice a year, April and November on their own programs page; the 2026 spring edition ran May 1 to 3 with a members-only Friday morning that takes sign-ups on the spot, and the autumn date was still unpublished at the time of writing. Out in Hanover County the Friends of the Mechanicsville Library take November 13 and 14 at the Sherwood Crossing branch, with Montpelier on November 6. In Chesterfield County the North Courthouse Road sale falls on that same November 13 and 14, and Bon Air adds December 4 and 5. Check rvalibraryfriends.org for the city date rather than any aggregator, because the near-identical richmondlibraryfriends.org belongs to Richmond, California.

Do you run a store here?

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

Nearby cities

Washington, D.C.Charlotte Charleston

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