Where to buy used books in Vancouver

Updated 9/27/2026

Vancouver's secondhand trade sits in a few tight pockets and then scatters across the metro. Downtown, MacLeod's Books and The Paper Hound face the same stretch of West Pender about 120 metres apart, with the Central Library a short walk south. East Van strings its shops along two streets, Main in Mount Pleasant and Commercial Drive from Little Italy toward Kensington, while the West Side keeps Kitsilano and Dunbar for slower browsing. Past the city line you need transit or a car: Burnaby Heights, Lower Lonsdale in North Vancouver, Port Coquitlam, Steveston and central Richmond, and Surrey City Centre and South Surrey, and each of those entries names its municipality up front. Every price on this page is in Canadian dollars.

Selling terms differ from shop to shop far more than stock does, so read them before you load a trunk. Some counters here want a phone call for anything past a carton, one takes trade-ins only on three set days with no appointment, and several pay only in store credit while others put cash on the table for the right books. Companion Books in Burnaby publishes its percentages in full, Western Sky in Port Coquitlam only receives books midweek to Saturday, and the Friends groups accept donations and buy nothing.

A few things date an older Vancouver list quickly. Canterbury Tales on Commercial Drive closed after its owner Lea Watson died in May 2025, came back under her family that August and added a seven-day week in July 2026. Groove Cat left New Westminster for Robson Street over the summer of 2026, so any New West address for it is stale. Massy Books has shifted its mix toward new titles, per a Georgia Straight profile from October 2025, and Lawrence Books on West 41st keeps weekend afternoons only after years of intermittent closures.

Spot map

The best spots

Antiquarian bookshop

MacLeod's Books

455 W Pender St, Vancouver, BC V6B 1V2

Don Stewart's antiquarian shop at Richards and Pender has no website of its own: its old Tumblr, read in September 2026, carries a single notice asking readers to come and look in person, and the shop posts on Instagram instead. ABAC, the national antiquarian dealers' body, lists it as an open shop that buys books and does appraisals, naming Canadiana, history and literature as its specialties. Its Instagram post of January 4, 2025 announced hundreds of vintage Penguins on the shelves and gave the daily hours used below, the most recent schedule found from the shop itself. City of Vancouver licences issued in February 2026 for number 455 and for 414 and 420 West Pender confirm the business is still trading on that block.

Hours: Mon–Sun 11am–5:30pmWebsite
New, used and rare bookshop

The Paper Hound

344 W Pender St, Vancouver, BC V6B 1T1

Kim Koch and Rod Clarke's shop sits 120 metres east of MacLeod's and describes itself as new, used and rare, favouring the classic, curious, odd, scholarly and whimsical over any single specialty. Its buying page says the pair take single books or entire libraries, yet want a call and an appointment before you arrive with more than one carton, and a September 5, 2026 post made it plain that encyclopedia sets are not on the list. Harder-to-place titles go up on AbeBooks, and the FAQ warns that the online list and the room don't match, pointing local buyers to the counter for better prices. A September 26, 2026 post confirmed the shop would keep its normal day on Wednesday, September 30, the federal Truth and Reconciliation holiday, with that day's takings going to the Indian Residential School Survivors Society.

Hours: Mon–Sun 10am–6pmWebsite
New and used bookstore

Pulpfiction Books

2422 Main St, Vancouver, BC V5T 3E2

The Mount Pleasant flagship of a business established in June 2000, whose website counts more than 80,000 titles, new and used, between its two shops and says hundreds of new and out-of-print books go out on the shelves every day. There is no database of the secondhand stock, so a specific hunt means emailing to ask whether a title is in. Its sellers' pitch promises higher payouts for used books and a taste for the good stuff, a hint to bring clean, current or genuinely scarce material rather than bulk. CBC News quoted Chris Brayshaw as the owner on September 1, 2026, and the City of Vancouver renewed the licence for this address on December 31, 2025.

Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–7pm, Sun 11am–7pmWebsite
Indigenous-owned bookshop

Iron Dog Books

2671 E Hastings St, Vancouver, BC V5K 1Z5

Cliff and Hilary Atleo launched Iron Dog in 2017 as a bookshop on a truck and opened this Hastings-Sunrise storefront on December 6, 2019; the Vancouver Sun's April 24, 2025 piece for Canadian Independent Bookstore Day found secondhand and new titles shelved near puzzles, tarot cards and socks. Trade-ins run on Thursday, Friday and Saturday with no appointment, take staff about fifteen minutes to assess, longer past two cartons, and pay in store credit only. You can also hand that credit to the shop's fund for local groups, which the trade-in page says last went to Books to Prisoners. The homepage was taking pre-orders in September 2026 for Eden Robinson's new fantasy series.

Hours: Mon–Sun 10am–6pmWebsite
New, used and rare bookshop

Companion Books

4094 Hastings St, Burnaby, BC V5C 2H9

Out in Burnaby, on Hastings Street in Burnaby Heights, Companion counts more than 60,000 books on its own site, used stock with some new books on the shelves and more to order, plus rare and collectible titles listed on AbeBooks. Its trade policy is spelled out in full: up to half the shelf price in store credit or up to 20 percent in cash, with little cash for common authors, an appointment for anything beyond five books and a ceiling of five cartons per visit. Reader's Digest condensed books, encyclopedias and magazines are refused, and trade credit pays for only a fifth of any new book. The Vancouver Sun's roundup of April 24, 2025 credited it with more than 15 years in the neighbourhood and a side line in estate purchases.

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

All spots by type

Used bookstores

Indigenous-owned bookshop

Massy Books

229 E Georgia St, Vancouver, BC V6A 1Z6

On East Georgia at the edge of Chinatown, Patricia Massy's store began with her reselling garage-sale and estate-sale finds to pay for university, then flea-market tables and a pop-up at Main and 5th before this permanent address. The Georgia Straight's Best of Vancouver profile of October 2, 2025, written after readers voted it Best Bookstore, put new books at roughly seven in ten of what's on the shelves, against a fifth at the start, and quoted her plan to go scouting for more secondhand stock the following year. Massy, who has Cree and Métis ancestry, still sells titles from a 10,000-book collection a retired UBC professor handed over in the early days. Its contact page says it opens on every statutory holiday except Christmas and New Year's Day.

Hours: Mon–Sat 10am–6pm, Sun 11am–5pmWebsite
New and used bookstore

Pulpfiction Books East

1744 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC V5N 4A3

The Commercial Drive branch, 2.3 kilometres east of the Main Street shop in Little Italy, runs a single eleven-to-seven grid all week, so it opens an hour later than the flagship from Monday to Saturday. Pulpfiction's hours page, read in September 2026, lists it separately and gives one email address for queries at either store, with both shut only on Christmas and New Year's Day. Its City of Vancouver licence was renewed on the same December 2025 date as the Main Street one. Canterbury Tales is about 200 metres further south along the Drive, so the two fit in one stroll.

Hours: Mon–Sun 11am–7pmWebsite
Used bookstores

Lawrence Books

3591 W 41st Ave, Vancouver, BC V6N 3E7

At West 41st and Dunbar, Joseph Lawrence opened this shop when he retired from teaching history at UBC in 1984, and his daughter Anne runs it; the Vancouver Sun reported on July 27, 2026 that after years of on-and-off closures around her surgeries it was trading again. Its BC history section is the draw, sorted into pioneers, gold rushes, municipalities and the Northwest Coast, with nautical history facing it and an annex signposted 30,000 Paperbacks. The Sun found an inventory clear-out running, with a free paperback of equal or lower price for each hardcover bought, meant to empty a storage locker of boxed stock. The window sign quoted in the same article gives the weekend afternoons below and nothing else.

Hours: Sat–Sun 1pm–5pm
Used bookstores

Kestrel Books

3642 W 4th Ave, Vancouver, BC V6R 1P1

Down West 4th in Kitsilano, just down the street from Banyen Books, this family-owned shop says it has bought and sold new, used, rare and antiquarian books in Vancouver for over 40 years, specializing in New Age, spirituality and metaphysics. Its website offers store credit or cash for books you bring in, and the shop keeps the same hours all week. The shop's Instagram account posted eight times between September 7 and September 23, 2026.

Hours: Mon–Sun 11am–7pmWebsite
Used bookstores

Canterbury Tales Bookstore

2010 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC V5N 4A9

Lea Watson ran Canterbury Tales for decades, first on West 4th in Kitsilano and then in this Commercial Drive space taken over from Bibliophile Bookshop; after she died on May 23, 2025, Vancouver Is Awesome reported that the store had closed for the time being. Her daughter Brandee Holdsworth reopened it on August 7, 2025, as her own Facebook post marking the first anniversary on August 7, 2026 recounts, and a December 26, 2025 post spoke of the hope to continue what my mom built. Its posts through March 2026 announced fresh intakes of used mystery and crime novels, and on July 21, 2026 the page announced a seven-day week. The shop publishes no hours, so call before making a special trip.

Queer-owned bookshop

Cross & Crows Books

2836 Commercial Dr, Vancouver, BC V5N 4C6

A queer-owned shop in Kensington-Cedar Cottage, opened in 2023, whose own site promises new, used and collectible books for all ages and life stages. The Commercial Drive Business Society's directory entry invites customers to bring gently used books for resale, for cash or for store credit. On August 31, 2026 the shop's Instagram told people it was still open despite the construction south of Broadway, between 12th and 13th next to Gojo Cafe, and its events page lists cartoonist Sophie Labelle for Saturday, October 10, 2026. Hours start at noon on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday and at ten from Wednesday to Saturday.

Hours: Mon–Tue noon–6pm, Wed–Sat 10am–6pm, Sun noon–6pmWebsite
Used books and vinyl

Groove Cat Books & Records

1823 Robson St, Vancouver, BC V6G 1E4

In the West End just west of Denman, John and Cat Hughes reopened their used book and record shop over the summer of 2026 after four years on 6th Street in New Westminster, where they had started in October 2022. Vancouver Is Awesome reported the move on June 29, 2026, noting that gift cards and trade credit from the old shop carry over, and the Georgia Straight had it settled on Robson by August 21. Books and vinyl across genres share the floor with local authors, comics, puzzles and crochet, and the owners say they plan a monthly book club and live music sessions.

Hours: Mon 11am–5pm, Tue–Sat 10am–8pm, Sun 11am–5pmWebsite
Used bookstores

Tanglewood Books

2306 W Broadway, Vancouver, BC

At Broadway and Vine, about two kilometres east of Kestrel, Tanglewood's own Facebook page calls it a quality used bookstore that buys and sells. Curiocity's Kitsilano neighbourhood guide of July 7, 2025 still pointed readers to its shelves, although its own Facebook feed stops at a December 2022 holiday notice and the shop publishes no hours. Ring ahead before crossing town for it.

Used bookstores

BookLovers Used Books

102-175 E 3rd St, North Vancouver, BC V7L 1E5

In the City of North Vancouver's Lower Lonsdale, this owner-run shop marked 15 years under its current owner in August 2023, and its New Year's Day 2026 Facebook post called 2025 the best of the owner's 17 years there. Books go across the counter for store credit, and a June 2025 post added that magazines are welcome too because collage artists keep buying them. Plan around the owner's notices: a retinal tear closed the store from March 20, 2026 until a reopening set for Tuesday, March 31, and there are no published hours, so check the page before crossing the inlet.

Used bookstores

Western Sky Books

2132-2850 Shaughnessy St, Port Coquitlam, BC V3C 6K5

Out in Port Coquitlam, in the Shaughnessy Station Mall, Dianne Ganz and Tamara Gorin opened this new-and-used shop in 2018, and its homepage, revised in August 2026, claims the title of sole used bookstore in the Tri-Cities. Books for credit or donation are received on Wednesday through Saturday and on no other days. Indigenous and local writers get prominence, the children's section is large and a gallery shows local artists, and the Vancouver Sun's April 2025 roundup mentioned the Words in the Burbs reading series held there.

Hours: Sun–Tue 11am–5pm, Wed–Sat 10am–6pmWebsite
Bookshop and café

Village Books & Coffee House

130-12031 First Ave, Richmond, BC V7E 3M1

Out in Richmond, on First Avenue in Steveston village, a bookshop-café that Tourism Richmond's listing describes as selling new and secondhand books alongside espresso, teas and baked goods. Richmond News readers placed it first among the city's bookstores in the 2026 A-List results published on June 3, 2026, ahead of Indigo. The shop takes title queries by email, and on Sundays it opens an hour later.

Hours: Mon–Sat 9am–5pm, Sun 10am–5pmWebsite

Thrift stores & charity shops

Animal-rescue thrift shop

RAPS Thrift Store

8260 Granville Ave, Richmond, BC V6Y 1P3

Out in central Richmond, the Regional Animal Protection Society runs three thrift shops, and this Granville Avenue store put books at half price, alongside kitchenware and jeans, in a flash sale running September 11–13, 2026. Since an August 6, 2026 Facebook notice, all three keep a ten-to-five day, and store-wide half-price weekends ran in mid-August and again from September 17 to 20. Richmond News readers ranked RAPS first among the city's thrift stores in the June 2026 A-List.

Hours: Mon–Sun 10am–5pmWebsite
Animal-rescue thrift shop

Mama Karen's Korner

8160 Cook Rd, Richmond, BC

Out in Richmond, a few blocks north of the Granville Avenue store, this is the RAPS outlet its Instagram bio calls the society's go-to boutique and discount store. The same September 11–13, 2026 flash sale took half off books here too, along with kitchenware and lamps, and a late-August 2026 promotion cut kitchenware and mirrors at this address only. It follows the shared ten-to-five schedule the three RAPS shops adopted in August 2026.

Hours: Mon–Sun 10am–5pmWebsite
Thrift shop (MCC)

MCC Surrey Thrift Shop

10653 King George Blvd, Surrey, BC V3T 2X6

Out in Surrey City Centre, on King George Boulevard, the Mennonite Central Committee's shop listed books among the stock for its store-wide sale of Friday, July 24 and Saturday, July 25, 2026 on its own Facebook page. The page announced its four-colour tag sale was back for Friday and Saturday, September 25–26, 2026, at half price on the marked tags. Proceeds support MCC relief, development and peace work, and the store stays shut on Sundays.

Hours: Mon–Sat 9:30am–4:45pm; closed SunWebsite

Library book sales

Friends of the Library shop

book'mark and the Friends of the VPL Used Book Sale

Central Library, 350 W Georgia St, Vancouver, BC

Inside the Central Library downtown, the Friends of the Vancouver Public Library run book'mark, a library shop whose secondhand shelves are stocked from community donations and whose takings pay for special programs and collections. The same volunteers stage what they bill as their annual used book sale in the Alice MacKay Room, which ran from Friday, August 28 to Tuesday, September 1, 2026 offering upward of 50,000 titles from a toonie, according to Daily Hive's August 5, 2026 preview. Outside the late-summer drive, the Friends accept up to three cartons of donations at a time at the shop counter, and ask for bigger loads to be split a week apart.

Friends of the Library bookstore

Friends of the Richmond Library Bookstore

130-11590 Cambie Rd, Richmond, BC V6X 3Z5

Out in Richmond, at the Cambie branch address of the public library, the Friends of the Richmond Library staff a bookstore with volunteers on two days a week and accept donated books while it is open. Its Friends-of-the-Library listing on the RPL site, read in September 2026, lists two more Cambie Library mini sales for the rest of 2026, on Saturday, October 17 and Saturday, December 5, each from 10am to 4pm. The library's donations page adds a longer Wednesday for summer from May 20 and a second drop-off point at the Book Shed in the Richmond Recycling Depot on Lynas Lane. The larger Whale of a Book Sale filled Thompson Community Centre on the weekend of March 14–15, 2026, stocked with used English and Chinese titles, per the City of Richmond's events calendar.

Hours: Wed, Sat 10am–4pmWebsite

Book fairs

Rotary book sale

White Rock Rotary Charity Book Sale

Elgin Park Secondary, 13484 24 Ave, Surrey, BC

Out in South Surrey, the Rotary Club of White Rock moved its sale to the Elgin Park Secondary gym for the five-day edition that ended on September 1, 2026, as the Surrey Now-Leader reported on August 12. The club's event page set books at $3 on the first two days, $2 on the next two and ten dollars a bag on the closing Tuesday, and its wrap-up counted 4,764 customers and an estimated 33,727 books sold. The organizer describes the sale as twice yearly and promised the next one for April, without a date yet. Book donations go into a blue bin at the Rotary Fieldhouse in South Surrey Athletic Park, minus magazines, textbooks and encyclopedias.

Hours: Last documented: August 28–29, 2026, 10am–6pm; August 30–September 1, 2026, 10am–4pmWebsite

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.

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Local sourcing tips

  • Steveston village packs two bookshops into one block of Richmond. Village Books & Coffee House sits on First Avenue, and Steveston Book Store is about 100 metres away at 3760 Moncton Street; Richmond News readers voted it third in the bookstore category of the A-List published on June 3, 2026. Its Yellow Pages entry says it sells both new and secondhand books, but the shop posts neither stock nor hours of its own, so fit it in around Village Books instead of planning the day on it.
  • Most shops here will weigh up books you want to move, and no two use the same terms. Companion in Burnaby publishes its percentages, credit worth as much as half the sticker price or cash up to a fifth, and wants an appointment past five books, while Pulpfiction's homepage tells regular sellers they get paid more for their used books. The Paper Hound wants a call before more than one carton, Iron Dog takes walk-ins on Thursday, Friday and Saturday for credit alone, and Kestrel and Cross & Crows both offer a choice of cash or credit. Western Sky receives books from Wednesday to Saturday, while BookLovers in North Vancouver swaps for credit and will take magazines as well.
  • The next big Friends sale on the North Shore belongs to the North Vancouver District Public Library: its Friends list a sale from Friday, October 23 to Sunday, October 25, 2026, most items under $2, with a donation drive on October 20 and 21 beforehand. The event listing halves every price on the Sunday, and the group reports raising over $6,858 at its May 2026 edition. Check the district library's site for the room before you go.
  • Some Vancouver names in the directories won't sell you a paperback over a counter. Bjarne Tokerud, a past president of ABAC, Canada's antiquarian dealers' association, sees rare-book clients by appointment in the Rogers Building on Granville. Helicon Books in Lower Lonsdale is a new-book shop, per the Vancouver Sun in April 2025. In North Vancouver, E.C. Rare Books on Crown Street, an ABAC member, asks collectors to schedule an appointment, and Back Lane Books on East 19th opens by appointment from Monday to Saturday, per its own site. The Vancouver Flea Market on Terminal Avenue advertises antiques, collectibles and records rather than books, and the Value Village that opened on Fell Avenue in North Vancouver in June 2026 was described by Vancouver Is Awesome in chain-wide terms, so look at its shelves yourself before building a trip on it.
  • Three short walks cover most of the city stock. On West Pender, MacLeod's and The Paper Hound are 120 metres apart and the Central Library sits roughly 400 metres from the second. On Commercial Drive, Pulpfiction East and Canterbury Tales are a two-minute walk from each other, with Cross & Crows under a kilometre further south. On the West Side, Kestrel and Tanglewood are two kilometres apart along 4th and Broadway, and everything outside Vancouver proper, from Burnaby Heights to Surrey, means SkyTrain, SeaBus or a car.

Frequently asked questions

Where can I find cheap used books in Vancouver?

The volunteer-run rooms are the cheapest. book'mark at the Central Library prices donated stock from $2, and the Friends' late-summer sale there, which closed on September 1, 2026, started prices at the same toonie. The White Rock Rotary sale in South Surrey went from $3 a book down to a $10 bag over its five days that week, and Richmond's Friends group runs one-day mini sales at the Cambie branch on October 17 and December 5, 2026. Among the thrift chains, RAPS in Richmond halved its books at two stores during a September 2026 flash sale and MCC in Surrey brought back its colour-tag half-price sale in late September 2026.

Where do I sell used books in Vancouver?

For cash, Companion in Burnaby pays up to 20 percent of its shelf price, Massy Books offers cash or trade credit up to 30 percent and books sellers in by email, and Kestrel and Cross & Crows give you the choice of money or credit. Credit is the currency at Iron Dog, on its three trade days, and at BookLovers across the inlet, while Pulpfiction's site says it pays more for used books and The Paper Hound asks sellers to phone first above one box. Worth doing first: point BiblioScan at the whole shelf in one shot, and the app recognizes each spine it can and returns a resale estimate book by book, so the copies worth selling yourself through Kijiji, Facebook Marketplace, AbeBooks, eBay.ca or Amazon.ca come out of the pile before the trip.

Which day is best for book hunting in Vancouver?

Saturday lines up the most doors. Lawrence Books on West 41st opens only on weekend afternoons, the Friends bookstore in Richmond only on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and MCC in Surrey closes on Sundays, while Iron Dog and Western Sky both take in books on Saturday. Sunday still works for the city shops, which all post Sunday hours except where no hours are published at all, but Surrey and the Richmond Friends are shut. Midweek suits sellers, since Western Sky starts receiving on Wednesday and Iron Dog on Thursday.

When is the big library book sale in Vancouver?

The library's own Friends group describes its downtown sale as annual, and the 2026 edition filled the Alice MacKay Room over the Labour Day run-up, closing on September 1. Across the suburbs the calendar spreads out: the Richmond group follows its March Whale of a Book Sale with two more one-day sales at the Cambie branch this fall and winter, and the North Vancouver District Friends have their next sale on October 23 to 25, 2026. The biggest non-library sale is the White Rock Rotary one in South Surrey, which ran from August 28 to September 1, 2026 and is due back in April.

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