In South Bend, Indiana, most of the secondhand bookselling sits within a short stroll of the County-City Building. The Griffon Bookstore on West Colfax Avenue and the Library Foundation Bookstore on the library's second floor at 304 S Main St are both within 0.2 miles of it, with the Community Learning Center across Michigan Street, where the foundation has booked a ballroom sale; Erasmus Books occupies a house 0.9 miles east on East Wayne Street, and the Mishawaka Avenue corridor 1.7 to 1.9 miles out holds Book Trader and the IU South Bend campus library. Farther out lie Mishawaka, with Half Price Books on Grape Road and a church resale room on Lincolnway East, and Granger, where a shop mixing new and used stock trades on Adams Road; then the road crosses into Michigan, where Niles, about 10.5 miles north, has Casperson's and a summer Friends sale at its district library.
Know which counter pays before you pack the car. Erasmus describes its trade as buying, selling and searching; the Griffon wants classic literature, philosophy and theology traded in; the Grape Road chain store makes offers over the counter; Book Trader pays for course books; and Casperson's lists estate purchases among its services. The library foundation sells withdrawn and donated stock, the Niles Friends sell in support of their library and history center, the IU South Bend libraries clear material pulled from their own shelves, and the Presbyterian room is a church resale on set days.
Used bookstoresErasmus Books
1027 E Wayne St, South Bend, IN 46617
A Prairie-style house from 1912 on East Wayne Street, 0.9 miles east of downtown, where Philip Schatz has sold used books, out-of-print rarities among them, ever since he and the late Bill Storey bought The Haunted Bookshop and its 20,000 volumes in 1980. The South Bend News Times profiled the shop on June 23, 2025, for its forty-fifth year: fiction in the basement, a stock leaning on philosophy, theology and classic literature, no science or health shelves by the owner's telling, and no horror section. Its Facebook page still carries the line Bought - Sold - Searched, and a holiday notice posted on December 25, 2025 confirmed the regular week as Thursday through Sunday, noon to 6pm. Monday to Wednesday the door stays locked, so save it for the back half of the week.
Hours: Thu–Sun noon–6pmWebsite Used bookstoresThe Griffon Bookstore
121 W Colfax Ave, South Bend, IN 46601
Four levels on West Colfax Avenue, upward of 4,000 sq ft by the store's count, 0.2 miles north of the County-City Building, opened in 1976 by Ken Peczkowski and Sarah Bird and still dividing its floors between games, records and books. Its used-book page names philosophy, theology, classical and foreign-language literature, history, military history, science fiction, fantasy, mysteries and scholarly journals, with bargain stock at $1, 50 cents and 25 cents. ABC57 reported on October 16, 2026 that the store was marking fifty years with a two-day GriffCon at the public library and that Peczkowski had been handed a key to the city. The front page asks for trade-ins of Greek and Roman classics, in English or the original, and tells holders of the old store-credit cards to redeem or cash them in by December 31, 2026.
Hours: Mon–Thu 10am–6pm, Fri–Sat 10am–7pm, Sun 11am–5pmWebsite Library foundation bookstoreLibrary Foundation Bookstore
Main Library, 2nd floor, 304 S Main St, South Bend, IN 46601
Upstairs in the St. Joseph County Public Library's main building, 0.2 miles from the County-City Building, the Library Foundation sells the system's withdrawn books and media together with donated copies. The bookstore page prices adult nonfiction and all fiction at $2, children's and teen titles and audiobooks at $1, paperbacks for every age group at 25 cents and magazines at a dime, unless marked otherwise. The county library's calendar also lists a large Library Foundation Bookstore sale of withdrawn items, set for the Community Learning Center ballroom at 305 S Michigan St on Saturday, October 24, 2026, 10am to 2pm, and Sunday the 25th, 1pm to 4pm. Opening times are the building's own, with the Sunday afternoon slot running only from the Sunday after Labor Day through May.
Hours: Library hours: Mon–Thu 9am–8pm, Fri–Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 1pm–5pm (Sep–May)Website Used bookstoresHalf Price Books
5608 Grape Rd, Mishawaka, IN 46545
Out in Mishawaka, 4.3 miles northeast of downtown on Grape Road, the chain keeps a local branch whose Facebook profile calls it a family-owned new and used bookstore, buying and selling seven days a week. The hpb.com store page posts a long week, open until 8pm Monday to Saturday and until 7 on Sunday, and says its buy counter pays for books, music and certain gadgets carried in off the street. Checked in October 2026, that store page still listed the Grape Road shop with its full seven-day schedule.
Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–8pm, Sun 11am–7pmWebsite Used bookstoresCasperson's Books and Art
302 Broadway, Niles, MI 49120
Over the state line in Niles, Michigan, 10.5 miles north, a family bookshop sits on the corner of Third Street and Broadway; it dates itself to 1964 and claims more than 125 categories of books, along with vintage magazines, comics and vinyl records. In a Niles Main Street video published on October 13, 2025, owner Al Casperson credits his father's collecting for the business and mentions the gallery of his daughter's art downstairs. The website sets Wednesday through Sunday from 11:30am and Monday and Tuesday by appointment, but its home page closes at 5:30pm while the contact page says 6:30pm, so call (269) 362-1978 before a late visit. Book buying and estate purchases are both on its list of services.
Where can I find cheap used books in South Bend?
Begin upstairs in the county library's downtown building, where the Library Foundation Bookstore asks $2 for fiction and adult nonfiction, $1 for children's books and a quarter for any paperback. The Griffon's bargain shelves drop as low as a quarter. For bulk, watch the county library's events calendar, where the foundation listed its ballroom sale of withdrawn stock. The Niles Friends sale, held on second Saturdays from June to September, the IU South Bend Libraries tables in the Schurz Library and the Presbyterian resale room in Mishawaka add more dates; check each organizer's post for prices.
Where do I sell used books in South Bend?
Match the box to the buyer. Textbooks and exam-prep guides go to Book Trader on Mishawaka Avenue for cash; general stock suits Half Price Books in Mishawaka, whose buyers work all week long; and older or scholarly titles suit Erasmus Books from Thursday to Sunday, or the Griffon, which wants classics, philosophy and theology. Casperson's in Niles also buys, including whole estates. Before you load up, snap one photo per shelf in BiblioScan, which matches the spines it recognizes to their current used resale price, so the keepers worth listing yourself separate from the trade-in pile.
Which day is best for book hunting in South Bend?
Thursday through Saturday, the three days when every shop with a published week is open: Erasmus Books from noon, the Griffon until 7pm on Fridays and Saturdays, the library's second-floor store, Half Price Books, Briar's Edge in Granger and Casperson's in Niles. Sunday still covers Erasmus, the Griffon, Half Price Books, Briar's Edge, Casperson's and, from September through May, the library shop. Monday through Wednesday rules out Erasmus, and Casperson's opens on Monday and Tuesday only by appointment. Book Trader sends visitors to its Google listing for current times, so check with the shop before planning around it.
When is the big library book sale in South Bend?
Downtown, the Library Foundation has used the Community Learning Center ballroom for a large sale of withdrawn stock and listed it on the county library's events calendar, the place to watch for any repeat. At IU South Bend, the campus libraries announce their sale tables in the Schurz Library on their Facebook page. In Niles, the Friends of the district library run a two-hour sale in a downstairs classroom of the library one Saturday a month through the summer, June to September.