Where to buy used books in Tampa

Updated 9/3/2026

Tampa has almost no secondhand storefronts, and any guide that pretends otherwise will cost you a tank of gas. One large used-and-new room trades on Fowler Avenue beside the University of South Florida, one long-running hardcover house sits out in Brandon, and one antiques dealer in Palma Ceia files old books beside the porcelain. What carries this city instead is the library, and it carries it a long way: Friends of the Library chapters run named permanent shops inside branch after branch, among them the Gazebo in Westchase, the Book Nook in New Tampa, Grover's Corners downtown, the Carousel in Northdale, Bargain Street in Town 'N Country and Book Ends out in Valrico.

This page stays inside Hillsborough County. Tampa sits on the eastern half of a two-county bay, and the western half — St. Petersburg, Clearwater, Largo, Dunedin, Safety Harbor, Oldsmar — is Pinellas, a separate county with a much denser secondhand trade that this site handles on a page of its own rather than folding in here. Plan around one consequence: the antiquarian fair and the densest run of secondhand shops both sit over there, a bridge and a good half hour of traffic away. Everything mapped below is reachable without crossing the water, though Brandon, Valrico and Riverview are their own communities east and south of the city, which every entry below flags up front.

Three names in older Tampa roundups will send you to a closed door. Old Tampa Book Company held 507 North Tampa Street downtown and was singled out by Creative Loafing Tampa Bay in 2012 for its out-of-print, rare and secondhand stock; a June 11, 2026 write-up on the Uncommon Bookshop blog says flatly that the store is closed, and oldtampabookcompany.com was serving an unrelated reading blog in September 2026. Inkwood Books shut on March 31, 2019 after more than a quarter century, which the Tampa Bay Times announced that February. And the handsome newer arrivals — Oxford Exchange on Kennedy Boulevard, Bookends in an Ybor bungalow, Black English on East Oak Avenue, Steamy Lit on South MacDill — are all worth an hour and not one of them is described as carrying secondhand stock in That's So Tampa's August 6, 2026 roundup of area bookshops.

Spot map

The best spots

Used books, vinyl and a coffee bar

Mojo Books & Records

2554 E Fowler Ave, Tampa, FL 33612

On Fowler Avenue across from the University of South Florida, and the only address in this guide that prints in advance what it will do with your boxes. The shop opened in April 2007 and sells secondhand titles beside new ones, vinyl, CDs and cassettes, with a manual-brew coffee counter in the same room; it calls itself the largest independent book and record store in Tampa Bay, which is its own claim and not an outside count. Buying runs seven days a week, noon until 6pm, you state cash or store credit before staff begin sorting, and credit earned on print and discs spends on used stock and coffee-bar drinks only. Its contact page was carrying special hours for Record Store Day on April 18, 2026, when the doors opened at 8am instead of the usual eleven.

Hours : Mon–Sat 11am–8pm, Sun 11am–7pmWebsite

Used and out-of-print hardcovers

Book Corner Tampa Bay

728 W Lumsden Rd, Brandon, FL 33511

Out in Brandon, in a shopping plaza on West Lumsden Road with more parking than it needs, a family business open to the public since 1988 that bills itself on Facebook as the oldest used book store in the Tampa Bay area. Two thirds of what is on the floor is ordinary gently used stock rather than collectible, by the owners' own reckoning, paperbacks go for half whatever the cover once said, and the deep sections are science fiction, horror, fantasy, mystery, children's illustrated and cookbooks. That Facebook page announced significant fresh stock in theology and American history on August 28, 2026, and that is roughly how supply reaches these shelves. Settle one thing before you set out: the shop's own website prints three different weeks — Tuesday to Saturday at the top, Monday to Saturday further down, and a 10-to-6 Monday-to-Saturday in the page description buried in its code — so the grid below is the single version its site and its Facebook page agree on.

Hours : Tue–Sat 11am–6pmWebsite

Friends of the Library shop

Grover's Corners Bookstore

John F. Germany Public Library, 900 N Ashley Dr, Tampa, FL 33602

Downtown on North Ashley Drive, the flagship of the county system keeps two volunteer-run rooms rather than one. Grover's Corners sits on the first floor and trades whenever the doors are open, which means four nights a week until 9pm, while the separate Loading Dock store opens from 10am to 3pm on the second Saturday alone: the branch calendar had it down for four dates in 2026, September 12, October 10, November 14, December 12. Everything on both sets of shelves arrives by donation, and what it raises stays inside the building, so treat the pair as two errands: only one of them keeps evening hours.

Hours : Library hours: Mon–Thu 10am–9pm, Fri–Sat 10am–6pm; closed SunWebsite

Monthly Friends of the Library sale

Ada T. Payne Friends Book Sale

Robert W. Saunders, Sr. Public Library, 1505 N Nebraska Ave, Tampa, FL 33602

In Tampa Heights on North Nebraska Avenue, at the branch that houses the county's African American History and Genealogy collection, volunteers keep one of only two dated monthly sales inside the city limits. The sale runs once a month on a Monday from 11am to 2pm, and the library calendar had it booked for September 28, October 26 and November 30, 2026, moving between the Ada T. Payne Community Room and the genealogy library depending on the month. The listing promises grab bags and gifts alongside the boxes, which tells you it is pitched at families rather than at dealers — turn up at eleven and work the cartons before the room fills.

Hours : Library hours: Mon–Sat 10am–6pm; closed SunWebsite

All spots by type

Used bookstores

Antiques dealer with an old-book room

Tampa Antiques & Books

1802 S MacDill Ave, Tampa, FL 33629

A South MacDill Avenue shop in Palma Ceia run by Frank B. Vasey, a retired academic professor of rheumatology who introduces himself on the store's own site as a lifelong learner and collector. Old volumes share the floor with pottery, porcelain, prints and vintage tin signs, and the stock moves by the crate rather than the shelf: the shop invited readers in through its Facebook page on August 30, 2026 with the line that its selection of old books changes all the time. Neither tampaantiquesandbooks.com nor any directory publishes a weekly timetable for the place, which is why there is no grid below — call before you plan a South Tampa afternoon around it.

Website

Library book sales

Friends of the Library shop

Carousel Bookstore

Jimmie B. Keel Regional Library, 2902 W Bearss Ave, Tampa, FL 33618

North of the city in Northdale, volunteers work the Carousel out of the north lobby, and the 10,000-square-foot extension finished in February 2014 was built partly to give the shop a bigger space. The chapter pushed it from its own Facebook page on August 24, 2026, steering readers toward the how-to shelves — bread making, furniture restoring, sewing — which is the kind of nonfiction that actually turns over out here. Money raised buys programming, furniture and the seven life-sized carousel animals the local artist Cindy Niemi Seifert made for the children's room, on the library's account of the branch.

Hours : Library hours: Mon–Thu 10am–9pm, Fri–Sat 10am–6pm; closed SunWebsite

Friends of the Library shop

Book Nook

New Tampa Regional Library, 10001 Cross Creek Blvd, Tampa, FL 33647

Up on Cross Creek Boulevard, the chapter keeps the Book Nook just inside the front lobby and clears its overflow through weekend sales in the Jeri Zelinski Community Room. The most recent of those filled Friday and Saturday, May 1 and 2, 2026, on the branch's own events listing, running from 10am to 5pm on the first day and 10am to 4pm on the second. Between sales you are looking at a single shelf and not a room, so fold it into an errand up here rather than making the drive for it.

Hours : Library hours: Mon–Thu 10am–9pm, Fri–Sat 10am–6pm; closed SunWebsite

Friends of the Library shop

Gazebo Bookstore

Maureen B. Gauzza Public Library, 11211 Countryway Blvd, Tampa, FL 33626

Out in Westchase, the branch that opened in January 2005 as Upper Tampa Bay Regional and was renamed for Maureen Gauzza in August 2017 keeps the Gazebo in its lobby. The library describes the shop on its own page and says the takings pay for special programs, events and general operations; its calendar had a sewing-machine workshop booked into the community room for the evening of Thursday, September 3, 2026. Ignore the timetable posted on the chapter's Facebook page, which advertises a Sunday afternoon the building itself is shut for — the library week below is the one that holds.

Hours : Library hours: Mon–Thu 10am–9pm, Fri–Sat 10am–6pm; closed SunWebsite

Friends of the Library shop

Bargain Street Bookstore

Town 'N Country Regional Public Library, 7606 Paula Dr, Tampa, FL 33615

West of the airport in Town 'N Country, this is the one volunteer shop on this page whose own timetable the library prints: 10am to 4pm, Monday through Saturday, in Suite 120 of the Paula Drive building. Stock arrives by donation, prices are pitched to move it, and what comes in stays with the branch. The room doubles as an exhibition space — a Tampa Museum of Art poster series was still up there in early September 2026 on the branch calendar — so the drive buys you more than a shelf.

Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–4pmWebsite

Friends of the Library shop

Book Ends Bookstore

Bloomingdale Regional Public Library, 1906 E Bloomingdale Ave, Valrico, FL 33596

East in Valrico, the lobby shop goes by Book Ends, and the library credits the Friends of the Bloomingdale Regional Library with running it out of the lobby. Proceeds fund special events at the branch, the Life Story Writing Workshop among them, on the library's description of the group. This is a reading suburb first: the calendar set a discussion of Gillian McAllister's Just Another Missing Person for the afternoon of Thursday, September 3, 2026, a useful clue to what lands in the donation pile out here.

Hours : Library hours: Mon–Thu 10am–9pm, Fri–Sat 10am–6pm; closed SunWebsite

Two-day volunteer sale

Friends of the Riverview Library Book Sale

Riverview Public Library, 9951 Balm Riverview Rd, Riverview, FL 33569

South in Riverview, on Balm Riverview Road, the volunteers stage the only two-day event on the county's own events calendar, taking the James B. Jim Johnson Community Room for half of one Friday and the whole of the Saturday after it. The library listed the pair across September 11 and 12, 2026, one session running 1pm to 5pm and the other 10am to 4pm, with the next round already down for January 8 and 9, 2027. The same group meets in the building on a Thursday afternoon each month and says non-members are welcome, which is the shortest route to hearing what has come in before it reaches a table.

Hours : Library hours: Mon–Thu 10am–9pm, Fri–Sat 10am–6pm; closed SunWebsite

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

Only one counter on this page tells you in advance what it will pay, and it asks two things of you in return. Mojo buys from noon until 6pm seven days a week, wants your cash-or-credit answer before the sorting starts — it can sometimes accept more of a collection if you take credit — and recommends arriving in the first half of that window with anything bigger than a couple of bags, because the buyers stop at six whether or not a queue has formed. Credit earned on print, discs and tapes spends on used print, discs, tapes and anything at the coffee counter; credit earned on records spends on used records too. Driving in from outside the area, phone a buyer about the contents first, which the shop asks for in print and which no other address on this page offers at all.
Three more volunteer operations did not earn a pin here and are worth knowing about anyway. The Jan Kaminis Platt Regional Library in South Tampa runs a bookstore its group has never named in public, as the library's page for that branch puts it; the Brandon Regional Library keeps a book-sale area on its first floor; and the Seminole Heights Branch Library keeps one too, run in concert with the Old Seminole Heights Neighborhood Association. None of the three publishes a price list or a schedule, so they are a detour rather than a plan — but all three sit inside branches you can walk into six days a week, and all three price off the donation pile instead of off a marketplace.
One shop belongs on your list with an asterisk beside it. The Far Forest at 4312 North Florida Avenue in Seminole Heights sells hand-picked secondhand books and records alongside vintage clothing and decor, and the Creative Loafing Tampa Bay venue directory puts it at 11am to 6pm, Tuesday round to Saturday. What it does not have is a dated update anywhere: its website is a bare Square storefront with no news page, the last press write-up ran in May 2021, and no directory listing carries a timestamp. Ring the shop before you build an afternoon around it, and take those opening times as a listing rather than a guarantee.
The nearest true antiquarian event is across the bay and worth the bridge. The Florida Antiquarian Book Fair fills The Coliseum, the historic hall on Fourth Avenue North in St. Petersburg, and the organizers have booked the next edition across March 6 and 7, 2027, opening at ten on both days and closing at five on the Saturday, four on the Sunday. The 2026 edition ran on March 7 and 8, with the Independent Online Booksellers Association counting around eighty-five bookshops opening pop-up stalls for the weekend beside maps, prints, ephemera and photographs. Go for the schooling — this is where a dealer will explain why the copy in your hand is the wrong printing — rather than for a flip.
Do not build a Tampa day around thrift-shop books. Goodwill Industries-Suncoast is the big chain here, but its book operation, BookWorks, is a giveaway program rather than a sales floor: the charity's own page describes volunteers handing books to children from families in need across eight counties in West Central Florida, and asks donors to label their boxes for BookWorks. Metropolitan Ministries, the other name that keeps surfacing, describes its Tampa Heights resale store as clothing, furniture and appliances and never mentions reading matter at all. Sunshine Thrift on South Dale Mabry Highway does list books among its categories in its own FAQ, which is more than either of the others will confirm, though it is a for-profit company that buys much of its stock from charity partners rather than waiting on donations.
A national chain everyone expects to find down here simply is not in this state. Half Price Books runs a dedicated hpb.com landing page for every state it trades in, and on September 3, 2026 the Georgia, Tennessee and Texas pages all loaded while the Florida address returned a not-found error. Its closest counters sit a couple of state lines to the north, which is the plainest way of saying that the Fowler Avenue window is the entire commercial buy side of this town.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find cheap used books in Tampa?

The volunteer shops inside the county libraries, and no storefront here comes close on price. Six named stores trade inside branches of the county system, from Grover's Corners downstairs in the downtown flagship out to Book Ends in a Valrico lobby, and every one of them is stocked purely by donation, with the money going straight back into the building that houses it. Only Bargain Street has opening times published for the shop itself, a straight ten-to-four day six days out of seven; the rest trade inside library hours, which run to 9pm on four nights a week at the regional branches. The one dated event with grab bags on the table is the Ada T. Payne sale in Tampa Heights, 11am to 2pm on one Monday a month.

Where do I sell used books in Tampa?

Only one address on this page publishes a buy counter, and it sits on Fowler Avenue. Mojo takes books, CDs, DVDs, VHS and cassettes daily between noon and 6pm, pays in cash or in store credit, and wants your choice stated before anyone starts sorting, because answering credit can widen what it accepts; that credit only buys secondhand copies and whatever the coffee counter is pouring. The Brandon hardcover house deals in secondhand copies but advertises no terms of its own, and the library shops take donations rather than buying, so a carton turned down on Fowler has nowhere commercial left to go. Sort at home before you drive: hold BiblioScan up to a packed shelf and it reads the photo one spine at a time, pinning a live resale price to each title, which is what tells a listing worth making apart from a carton worth giving away.

Which day is best for book hunting in Tampa?

The month's second Saturday, and nothing else is close. That is when the Loading Dock room downtown unlocks, 10am to 3pm, a slot the library calendar carried right through the closing quarter of 2026; the first-floor room in the same library is trading alongside it, and so is every other branch until six. Out in Brandon the hardcover house runs 11am to 6pm on a Saturday and Mojo stays open until eight, so a single loop can take in a downtown volunteer room, a Brandon shop and a Fowler Avenue buy counter. Keep Sunday for listing from the sofa, because every library in the county is dark.

When is the Friends of the Library sale in Tampa?

The city has two standing ones and a county calendar behind them. The Ada T. Payne chapter holds a monthly Monday sale at the Saunders branch on North Nebraska Avenue, 11am to 2pm, listed for the 28th of September, the 26th of October and the 30th of November 2026; the John F. Germany Public Library downtown opens its Loading Dock store 10am to 3pm on whichever Saturday falls second, next on the 12th of September and the 10th of October 2026. Outside the city limits the longest of them runs in Riverview, where volunteers hold a Friday afternoon and then a Saturday session in the branch's Jim Johnson room on the 11th and 12th of September 2026, with the January 2027 repeat already on the calendar for the 8th and 9th. The chapter up in New Tampa clears its overflow through weekend tables in the branch's big community room instead, the last of them across May 1 and 2, 2026, with no 2027 date posted on the branch listing as of early September 2026 — so watch that listing.

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Nearby cities

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