Waco keeps a short secondhand list, and every door on it stands within four miles of the courthouse blocks downtown. Golden's Book Exchange holds a storefront on Franklin Avenue to the southwest, with the Half Price Books Outlet a mile further out along West Waco Drive. Heart of Texas Goodwill works both ends of the compass, its flagship floor south on New Road and its by-the-pound outlet up East Waco Drive. The fifth entry is a date rather than a door, because the Friends of the Waco-McLennan County Library empty an arena on Bosque Boulevard for four days in November 2026.
Work out who takes what before you fill a crate, because the counters here behave nothing alike. The outlet on West Waco Drive is the trap: the sell-us-your-stuff notice printed on its own store page says outlets are excluded, so the buy desk you would expect at an ordinary Half Price Books is simply absent. Golden's deals in what it calls book credit, and lets purchases come back across the counter for credit once a sale has finished. Neither Goodwill floor buys over a counter, taking donations instead and pricing whatever survives the sort, so on this page a carton you want paid for has exactly one destination and it settles in credit.
An older Waco roundup goes stale on three points. Golden's web address has stopped answering altogether, every path returning a hosting error against an Internet Archive copy that still worked on April 6, 2025, which leaves the shop's Facebook page as the channel that carries closures and sale weeks. Downtown then gained two bookshops that turn up in any search for Waco books and will sell you nothing secondhand: The Raven's Nook on Washington Avenue, which KWTX filed on July 2, 2026 as a brand-new downtown hotspot, and Fabled Bookshop & Cafe on South 4th Street, which describes itself on Bookshop.org as offering new books. Third, Cavitt Corner Used Books still surfaces under Waco in used-book directories; it traded from Bryan, seventy-five miles southeast, and the notice that it would close after thirty years reached the Bryan resale groups on February 27, 2025.
Used bookstoresGolden's Book Exchange
3112 Franklin Ave, Waco, TX 76710
A Franklin Avenue storefront two miles southwest of downtown, dated to 1978 by the shop's own Facebook profile and credited to proprietor Donna Carroll by the longer version of that profile carried by business directories. The discounting is published rather than improvised: the sale-dates page of the shop's site as it read in June 2024 sets a half-off round on the first Thursday of each even-numbered month, Thursday through Saturday, taking a further 50 percent off everything but comic books and records, and Facebook announced the round of August 6 to 8 in 2026. Book credit is the coin of the shop, and that page cautions that settling up with it forfeits the discount, though anything bought during a sale can come back over the counter for credit afterward. Take the phone number instead of the web address: goldensbookswaco.com answers with a hosting error on every path, so the notices about weather closures and holiday hours land on Facebook.
Hours : Mon–Sat 10am–6pm; closed Sun
Half Price Books OutletHalf Price Books Outlet
4318 W Waco Dr, Waco, TX 76710
The single chain address in this guide, filed under Waco on the company's Texas store list and keeping one 11am to 6pm block across all seven days. Check the store page before filling the trunk: the sell-us-your-stuff tile on it states that outlets are excluded from the buy counter — money moves one way here. The parent company is growing rather than shrinking: president Kathy Doyle Thomas told Chron.com in a piece published July 9, 2026 that sales are up across the chain, that the business is debt-free, and that it has started buying buildings outright in cash after a developer declined to renew a lease and redeveloped the site.
Hours : Mon–Sun 11am–6pmWebsite Library book salesFriends of the Waco-McLennan County Library Book Sale
BASE at Extraco Events Center, 4601 Bosque Blvd, Waco, TX 76710
Four days in the arena on Bosque Boulevard, set west-southwest of the courthouse at a distance of three and a half miles, staged by the library Friends. The city's page for the event sets Thursday, November 12 through Sunday, November 15, 2026 and prices it day by day: hardcovers at $3 and paperbacks, DVDs, CDs and audiobooks at $2 for the Thursday and Friday, a dollar off each of those once Saturday arrives, then a Sunday round at $1 for a provided grocery bag or $5 for one of your own, any size. Thursday is the only paid entry — $10 from the 10am opening until 5pm, free after that, with wristbands sold from 9:30am — and Friday carries the same prices for nothing at the door. Vinyl records and puzzles sit at $4 through Friday and $3 on the third day.
Hours : Thu–Fri November 12–13, 2026 10am–8pm; Sat November 14 10am–6pm; Sun November 15 noon–6pmWebsite Where can I find cheap used books in Waco?
Two calendars set the lowest prices on this page. Golden's on Franklin Avenue halves its already-halved prices for three days beginning the first Thursday in each even month, a cycle its Facebook page carried right through 2026, with comic books and records left out. The Waco-McLennan County Library Friends then fill the Extraco arena from November 12 to 15, 2026, where the city's schedule starts hardcovers at $3 and closes out on the Sunday at $5 when the bag is your own. Off those dates the cheapest paper in town sits in the bins of the Goodwill outlet on East Waco Drive, most of which sells at $1.49 a pound, while the West Waco Drive outlet trades 11am to 6pm seven days a week.
Where do I sell used books in Waco?
Waco has one counter for this, and store credit is what comes back, never cash. Golden's on Franklin Avenue pays in book credit, its own term for the thing, and its sale-dates page warns that spending that credit during a discount week costs you the discount. The Half Price Books Outlet is out of the question: the chain store page carries the buy-counter tile with outlets excluded, so nobody there will look at your boxes. Both Goodwill floors handle donations rather than purchases, and the library wants its own boxes at the West Waco dock on a Tuesday or a Thursday. Thin the stack at the kitchen table first: stand the books on edge so their spines face out, take one photo, and BiblioScan comes back with what each title it recognizes resells for — a minute of work that tells apart the two or three worth an account listing and the carton destined for a donation dock.
When is the big library book sale in Waco?
The Friends group behind the Waco-McLennan County Library stages it at BASE, the arena inside Extraco Events Center on Bosque Boulevard, and the city's event page gives the run as Thursday to Sunday, November 12 to 15, 2026. Thursday and Friday each run 10am to 8pm, Saturday stops at 6pm, and Sunday opens at noon and ends at 6pm. Admission is charged only on the Thursday, $10 from opening until 5pm and free afterward, with wristbands available from 9:30am; the other three days cost nothing at the door. Prices fall as the weekend goes on, from $3 hardcovers and $2 paperbacks to a dollar less by the third day and a bag round on the Sunday, so the pickings and the price move in opposite directions.
Which day is best for book hunting in Waco?
Saturday, unless a Golden's markdown week happens to be running, in which case take its opening Thursday instead. Monday through Saturday every storefront here is open; Sunday narrows it, since Golden's is the single stop on this page that closes then. Build the run around the tightest window: the by-the-pound outlet on East Waco Drive locks its doors at five, Golden's and the Half Price Books Outlet at six, and the New Road Goodwill keeps going until eight, so start at the bins, cross town to Franklin Avenue and West Waco Drive, and finish on New Road. A markdown Thursday beats all of that, since the three discounted days at Golden's start then and end that Saturday.