Where to buy used books in San Bernardino

Updated 10/21/2026

San Bernardino sprawls, and so does any decent book run out of it. The ten stops below start a few blocks from City Hall at the Feldheym Central Library, then fan out to Colton and Grand Terrace in the south, Loma Linda and Redlands to the southeast, Rialto and Fontana to the west, and Crestline up in the mountains to the north. Each of those addresses is nearer to San Bernardino City Hall than to Riverside City Hall, about ten miles to the south-southwest, and none of the stops lies more than about ten miles from City Hall.

Volunteer-run library groups carry most of the secondhand trade around here. Nine of the ten listings come from Friends groups, from the big downstairs shop under the A.K. Smiley Public Library in Redlands to the shelves the Fontana Friends restock inside the Lewis Library, and their prices start at a quarter for a paperback. The one address that works like an ordinary shop is Floodway Books, a used bookseller on Redlands Boulevard in Loma Linda.

Plan around library opening times rather than retail ones. Several of these shelves sit inside branches whose weeks differ sharply from each other: the Feldheym stays shut on Fridays and Sundays, the Redlands Friends lock up on Sundays and Mondays, and Colton's schedule is printed one way on the city website and another in the library catalog. The libraries behind these listings are all open on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and Saturday is the day the sales cluster on.

Spot map

The best spots

Friends of the Library bookstore

A.K. Smiley Bookstore

A.K. Smiley Public Library, lower level, 125 W Vine St, Redlands, CA 92373

Out in Redlands, 7.1 miles east-southeast of San Bernardino City Hall, the A.K. Smiley library's volunteer Friends run a downstairs shop that its own website calls one of the largest library bookstores in Southern California, stocked with bestsellers, classics, collectibles and antiquarian titles alongside movies and puzzles. On the price list the Friends dated August 30, 2025, a hardback costs a non-member $3, a green-dot book $2 and a small paperback $1, and members get each of those lines at half price. Donations go in on weekdays between 9am and 4pm, capped at four bags or boxes a day, with a delivery door on Eureka Street for larger loads.

Hours: Tue–Thu 11:30am–5:30pm, Fri–Sat 10:30am–4:30pm; closed Sun–MonWebsite

Friends sale shelves

Feldheym Library Ongoing Friends Sale

Norman F. Feldheym Central Library, 555 W 6th St, San Bernardino, CA 92410

Downtown, a 0.4-mile walk north-northwest from City Hall, the central library holds a standing sale that the Friends of the San Bernardino Public Library stock, placed next to the Circulation Department on the main floor by a city news release of August 2026, with new items brought out weekly. Hardbacks are $1 and trade paperbacks 50 cents on the Friends' page, while smaller paperbacks, children's titles and magazines cost a quarter each or five for $1, and DVDs are $1 unless marked otherwise. Bring small notes: cash purchases are limited to bills of $20 or less, and cards are accepted from $6 with a 3% fee, provided a Friends volunteer is on hand to process them.

Hours: Library hours: Mon–Tue noon–8pm, Wed–Thu 10am–6pm, Sat 10am–6pm; closed Fri and SunWebsite

Friends of the Library bookstore

Friends of the Lewis Library Bookstore

Lewis Library & Technology Center, 8437 Sierra Ave, Fontana, CA 92335

Fontana's main library, 8.2 miles west, has a Friends bookstore whose volunteers advertise it on Facebook, and an October 5, 2026 post set its regular prices at $1 for hardcovers, 75 cents for large paperbacks and 50 cents for small ones. A rotating genre goes on special: paperback romances sold four for $1 in late September 2026, cooking, crafts, gardening and DIY titles took over in early October, and an October 18 post marked its vintage stock at $1 a copy. Their cash-only bagged book sale, which opened on Friday, October 2, 2026 and closed that Sunday, charged $4 per bag and, by the group's own tally, raised just shy of $1,400. The county library's calendar has the next round, a Friends Bundled Book Sale, at the Lewis Library from December 4 to 6, 2026.

Hours: Library hours: Mon–Thu 10am–9pm, Fri–Sat 10am–6pm, Sun noon–5pmWebsite

All spots by type

Used bookstores

Floodway Books

24818 Redlands Blvd, Loma Linda, CA 92354

Floodway Books trades from 24818 Redlands Blvd in Loma Linda, 3.3 miles from downtown San Bernardino on a south-southeast bearing, and it is the one privately run used bookshop on this page. The San Bernardino Sun kept it on its map of Southern California independent bookstores, published in May 2026 and updated that June with closed shops taken off, under three words: "Gently used books." There is no website for the shop, so the phone number the Sun printed, 909-677-3339, is the surest way to ask whether it is open to walk-ins before making the drive.

Library book sales

A.K. Smiley Friends Bag Sales and Special Sales

A.K. Smiley Public Library, 125 W Vine St, Redlands, CA 92373

According to their website, the Redlands Friends turn the downstairs shop into a bag sale on every month's opening Saturday, between 10:30am and 4:30pm; the first hour is reserved for members, and a bag costs $5 with a membership or $8 without. Their home page names November 7, 2026 as the next of those Saturdays and books the following special sale into the library's Assembly Room for December 11 to 13, 2026. Rare and collectible items and bundled sets go to a silent auction instead, on display near the library entrance and closing every other Thursday, per the same page.

Hours: Next sale: Sat Nov 7, 2026, 10:30am–4:30pm (members only until 11:30am)Website

Library book sales

Feldheym Friends Room Book Sales

Norman F. Feldheym Central Library, 555 W 6th St, San Bernardino, CA 92410

The Friends' scheduled sales take place in their own room, entered through a blue door on the building's south side rather than the main library doors, and they run from 10am to 4pm. On the Friends' page, Saturday, December 5, 2026 is a regular sale day and Saturday, December 12 is a $3 bag sale, with one flat price for everything that fits. A city news release billed the Friends' Annual Fall Book Sale for two Saturdays, August 22 and 29, 2026, and the IE Voice, previewing that sale, said the group would take credit cards there for the first time.

Hours: Next sale: Sat Dec 5, 2026, 10am–4pm; $3 bag sale Sat Dec 12, 10am–4pmWebsite

Library book sales

Friends of the Colton Public Library Book Sales

Colton Public Library, 656 N 9th St, Colton, CA 92324

Colton's Main Library, 2.8 miles southwest of downtown San Bernardino, stands at 9th and D Streets across from Colton's own city hall, and the city's Support the Library page describes a Friends' sales area of used books and magazines inside it as an ongoing fundraiser. The library's Facebook page closed out a Friends holiday book sale on Saturday, December 6, 2025 by thanking everyone who stopped by. Phone (909) 370-5083 before setting out, because the city's facilities page gives 10am to 6pm on Mondays and from Thursday to Saturday, plus noon to 8pm on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, while the library's own catalog site shows it closed on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

Website

Friends of the Library bookstore and sales

Friends of the Rialto Library

Rialto Branch Library, 251 W 1st St, Rialto, CA 92376

In Rialto, 4.7 miles west of downtown San Bernardino, the branch library's Friends group keeps a bookstore, and its Facebook page steered shoppers to a holiday selection there on December 8, 2025. The group's third annual sale on April 18, 2026 brought out backstock and "like new" copies held back for that day, plus a set of rare books by writers including Bruce Sterling, Jack Williamson and Ursula K. Le Guin, and the leftovers went for $5 a bag that afternoon. The branch was shut for upgrades by late August 2026, with San Bernardino County Library expecting to reopen it in late September, and the county's events calendar lists programs there again from October 21, 2026, with Friends sales on Tuesday, November 3 and Tuesday, December 1.

Hours: Next sale: Tue Nov 3, 2026, 11am–6pm; Tue Dec 1, 11am–6pmWebsite

Library book sales

Grand Terrace Library Friends Sale

Grand Terrace Branch Library, 22795 Barton Rd, Grand Terrace, CA 92313

Grand Terrace lies 4.8 miles south of San Bernardino City Hall, with Riverside City Hall only about six-tenths of a mile farther off, and the county lists the local Friends' sales under its Barton Road branch. Writing on January 5, 2026, City News Group described the group's $5 Fill-a-Bag sale in the Grand Terrace Community Room, where shoppers loaded grocery bags, boxes and even laundry baskets and teenagers dug through battered science fiction and fantasy paperbacks. The county library's events calendar has the next one at this branch for November 7, 2026, a Saturday, from 9am to 1pm.

Hours: Next sale: Sat Nov 7, 2026, 9am–1pmWebsite

Library book sales

Crestline Friends of the Library BOGO Book Sale

Crestline Branch Library, 24105 Lake Gregory Dr, Crestline, CA 92325

Up in Crestline, 9.6 miles north of San Bernardino City Hall in the San Bernardino Mountains, the county branch library on Lake Gregory Drive carries a run of Friends of the Library BOGO Book Sale dates on the county events calendar, spread across the days the branch opens between December 1 and 30, 2026. Separately, the Alpine Mountaineer reported on May 20, 2026 a buy-one sale at the Crestline library that ran from May 18 to May 23 during library hours, with hardbacks at $2, paperbacks at $1, and a second book at half off with each one bought. The branch takes Fridays and Sundays off, so the sale days fall on the other five.

Hours: Next sale: Tue Dec 1 – Wed Dec 30, 2026, during library hours (Mon–Wed 11am–7pm, Thu 10am–6pm, Sat 9am–5pm)Website

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

Page 78 on East State Street in downtown Redlands opened on October 4, 2025 with a line around the block, according to Community Forward Redlands, and stocks curated new fiction rather than secondhand books. The Frugal Frigate on North 6th Street is a children's bookstore the San Bernardino Sun dates to 1988. On East Citrus Avenue, the Sun lists Le Chat Noir for books, cats and coffee, with a cat lounge that charges admission by the half hour, and A Shop Called Quest as a seller of comic books, graphic novels, gaming gear and collectibles.
General thrift floors are a gamble for books here. Eco Thrift on North E Street uses its store page for little beyond its address, phone and weekly schedule, and its Facebook feed through September and October 2026 dealt in color-tag markdowns, a storewide fall sale and autumn clothing. Goodwill Southern California's own store page says its boutiques, the one on East Palm Avenue in Redlands among them, carry a curated selection that includes books, and points book shoppers to its regular retail stores for a wider choice.
Saturday lines everything up. The A.K. Smiley shop, the Feldheym, the Rialto and Lewis branches, the Crestline branch and the Colton Main Library under both versions of its schedule are all open that day, while the Redlands Friends add their bag sale when that Saturday is the month's first. Fridays are thinner, since the Feldheym and the Crestline branch stay closed. On a Sunday, the Lewis Library in Fontana is the one stop here with posted Sunday hours.
Clearing shelves? Every Friends group listed here depends on donated stock. The Redlands Friends take gifts on weekdays, with a daily cap of four bags or boxes; the San Bernardino Friends accept books, movies, magazines and music at any city branch, the Feldheym, Inghram, Rowe and Villaseñor libraries, during opening hours before 5pm; and the Fontana Friends asked in October 2026 for books, magazines, DVDs, VHS tapes, CDs, vinyl, books on tape and what they called oddities. A donation is also the cheapest way to get rid of what a buyer would turn down.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find cheap used books in San Bernardino?

At the library sales. At the Feldheym Central Library downtown, smaller paperbacks and kids' books go for a quarter apiece or five for a dollar and hardbacks cost $1, and the Friends there regularly put on a $3 bag sale alongside their ordinary sale days. In Fontana, the Lewis Library Friends price hardcovers at $1 and small paperbacks at 50 cents, with a different genre marked down in turn, and in Redlands the A.K. Smiley Friends turn their shop into an $8 bag sale, $5 for members, on a month's first Saturday. Up in Crestline, the county calendar lists a Friends BOGO sale through most of December 2026, and the branch's May 2026 sale, as the Alpine Mountaineer reported it, charged $2 per hardback and $1 per paperback, then halved the price of the next copy.

Where do I sell used books in San Bernardino?

Not at the counters listed here, for the most part: the Friends groups stock their shelves from donations. Floodway Books in Loma Linda has no website, so ask by phone at 909-677-3339 whether it buys before loading the car. Otherwise, selling means listing online on eBay or Amazon, or taking buyback quotes through BookScouter. Sort before you haul: one BiblioScan photo per bookcase identifies the spines on it and returns a resale figure for each one, so the books that deserve their own listing stand out from those headed for a Friends donation bin.

When is the Friends of the Library sale in San Bernardino?

There are several Friends groups, each with its own calendar. The city library's Friends say they regularly hold a book sale and a $3 bag sale in their room at the Feldheym, both from 10am to 4pm, on top of an Annual Fall Book Sale advertised by the city, and they list upcoming dates on the library website. The A.K. Smiley Friends in Redlands hold their bag sale on each calendar month's first Saturday and add special sales in the library's Assembly Room. For Rialto, Grand Terrace, Crestline and Fontana, the San Bernardino County Library events calendar carries each Friends sale under the branch that hosts it.

Which day is best for book hunting in San Bernardino?

Saturday, and the month's opening Saturday above all. Every library hosting one of these listings opens that day, and the Redlands Friends run their bag sale from 10:30am. Avoid Fridays for downtown and Crestline, because the Feldheym and the mountain branch are both closed, and avoid Sundays and Mondays for Redlands, when the A.K. Smiley shop does not open.

Before you go

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