Washington, D.C. keeps only a handful of used bookstores inside the District line, and the rest of the trail crosses two state borders. Capitol Hill Books stacks three floors into a row house on C Street SE; Second Story Books has held the corner of 20th and P in Dupont Circle for decades and runs a half-million-volume warehouse out in Rockville, Maryland; Lost City Books works the Adams Morgan strip on 18th Street. Seven of the nineteen entries below sit inside the District line; the other twelve cross into Hyattsville, Takoma Park, Kensington, Wheaton and Rockville on the Maryland side, or Arlington and Alexandria on the Virginia one, and each of those says which town it is in on its own first line.
What separates this metro from most is that the counters publish their terms in writing. Lost City posts a cash grid by format and takes twenty-five books a visit; Second Story runs its buying out of Rockville on a seven-day schedule with a twenty-book walk-in cap and a photo-first rule above that; Capitol Hill Books buys nothing off the street without an appointment made by email, though it will take four boxes of donations three afternoons a week. The nonprofits work the other direction entirely — the Lantern in Georgetown, the Company of Books in Del Ray and both Montgomery County Friends stores live on donated stock and sell it cheap, and Kensington Row had stopped taking books in altogether through 2026 while it cleared its back room.
Three names in older guides will send you to a locked door. Idle Time Books, the Adams Morgan fixture, was sold and rebranded as Lost City Books back in 2019, so the address is right but the sign is not. Riverby Books gave up its Capitol Hill storefront at the end of 2018, a closure both DCist and Roll Call covered that fall. And the Potter's House, the Columbia Road cafe and bookstore its own staff called a neighborhood pillar of more than sixty-five years, told its neighbors on January 27, 2026 that it had lost access to the funds it needed and was closed until further notice, with no plan to reopen elsewhere.
Used bookstoresCapitol Hill Books
657 C St SE, Washington, DC 20003
Three floors of used stock, first editions and rare books packed into a row house around the corner from Eastern Market, opened by Bill Kerr in 1991 and handed on when Jim Toole stepped back in the summer of 2018. Selling here takes planning: donations of up to four boxes go in on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays between 4pm and 6pm and no other time, and the shop states outright that it purchases nothing from walk-ins without an appointment arranged by email first. The rare material is not even in the building — it lives in a Hyattsville, Maryland room shared with sister company Bookstore Movers, where more than 6,000 cataloged items in literature, Americana and antiquarian sit behind one-hour browsing slots, and where the 2025 print catalog was compiled. Its own About page carries the hours grid — weekdays 10am–8pm, weekends from 9am — matching what directories showed in September 2026.
Hours : Mon–Fri 10am–8pm, Sat 9am–8pm, Sun 9am–7pmWebsite Used bookstoresSecond Story Books (Dupont Circle)
2000 P St NW, Washington, DC 20036
One block from the Dupont Circle station on the Red Line, this is the retail face of a firm whose real bulk sits in a Maryland warehouse, and it trades ten to eight every day of the week. Its own store page says buyers are on the floor daily between noon and 2pm, while the company-wide policy sends sellers to the Rockville desk instead, so phone before you drive a full trunk downtown. Credit earned at either counter spends here as well, but only at the penciled price — the 50% store-credit discount the firm introduced in January 2026 applies to Rockville stock alone. Anything the buyers turn down gets pushed into a flea market at this address or passed to the Montgomery County library Friends.
Hours : Daily 10am–8pmWebsite Used bookstoresSecond Story Books Rockville Warehouse
12160 Parklawn Dr, Rockville, MD 20852
Out in Rockville, Maryland, ten to fifteen minutes on foot from the Twinbrook station: over half a million books by the company's own count, plus decorative and folk art, vintage prints, maps, posters, paintings, CDs and DVDs, with free parking on site and a Special Collections area you ask for at the front desk. This is where the buying happens — Monday to Friday 10am to noon, Saturday and Sunday 11am to 2pm, twenty books per visit rather than per person, no estimates by phone or email, and anything above twenty needs a spine photo mailed ahead to the buyer. The store spent the winter moving to an appointment system and ended its unscheduled drop-off grace period on February 10, 2026. Whatever the buyers reject has to be collected within thirty days of notice or it goes for recycling.
Hours : Sun–Wed 10am–8pm, Thu–Sat 10am–9pmWebsite Used bookstoresLost City Books
2467 18th St NW, Washington, DC 20009
The Adams Morgan shop that took over the Idle Time premises in 2019, with used shelves downstairs and a programming load that would embarrass most chains — poetry, spec-fic, queer romance and a Reading Palestine group all had September 2026 meetings on the calendar. The buy counter names figures instead of hedging: mass market $1 to $2, paperbacks $2 to $4, hardcovers $3 to $5 in cash, with credit offers running about half again higher, twenty-five books reviewed per visit while you browse. Buying moved to Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays from 11am to 2pm starting June 1, and the shop warns that an event can cancel a session, so check its Instagram before you load the car. It accepts no donations whatsoever, so anything the buyer passes on goes back out the door with you.
Friends of the Library saleFOAL Fall Book Sale
Arlington Central Library Garage, 1015 N Quincy St, Arlington, VA 22201
The twice-yearly Arlington, Virginia sale takes over the whole Central Library garage, and the fall 2026 edition opens on Thursday October 22 from 3 to 7:45pm for FOAL members, then runs Friday to Sunday, October 23 to 25, from 10:30am to 4:45pm for everybody. Sunday is half-price day for all comers, and teachers and librarians showing a school ID get the same 50% on Friday and Saturday. Sets, first editions and rare titles are priced individually and sold apart from the main floor, in the Quincy Room inside the library, on a tighter schedule of Thursday 3:30 to 7:15pm and 11am to 4:15pm the other three days. Cash and cards are fine, mobile wallets are not, checks are no longer taken, and the garage closes to cars and pedestrians for the duration — take the Orange Line to Ballston or Virginia Square and carry your own bags.
Hours : October 22–25, 2026Website Friends of the Library saleFriends of Beatley Library Book Sale
Beatley Central Library, 5005 Duke St, Alexandria, VA 22304
A packed week on the Alexandria, Virginia calendar: a members' preview on Tuesday September 22, 2026 from 3 to 7:30pm with entry numbers handed out from 1:30, four public days from Wednesday September 23 to Saturday September 26, a half-price Sunday afternoon, and a $15 bag sale on Monday September 28 in which the reusable Friends tote is part of what you pay for. The prices are published up front — hardbacks $4, paperbacks $3, children's titles $1 to $3, CDs $1, DVDs $2 — with individually marked special-value books above that band. Turn right inside the main entrance and the media and checkout tables fill the corridor, with the sale itself in the large meeting room at the end of it. The Friends have already posted their 2027 windows, March 18 to 23 and September 30 to October 5, which is rare enough to be worth writing into a 2027 calendar.
Hours : September 22–28, 2026Website Rare and antiquarian book fairCapital Rare Book Fair
University Club, 1135 16th St NW, Washington, DC 20036
Fine Book Fairs, set up in 2022 to stage fairs in historic buildings with live music and drinks laid on, brought this one to the University Club on 16th Street from May 29 to 31, 2026: two dozen dealers from around the country, with books, maps, prints and ephemera marked anywhere between $10 and $100,000. Preview night cost $60 with wine and canapés and carried through the weekend; Saturday and Sunday general admission was $15, or $10 for students and free under sixteen, with unlimited re-entry. Talks are part of the draw, and the 2026 program paired a leading collector of science fiction and fantasy with Kermit Roosevelt III on his grandfather's CIA career, at $15 a seat including entry. A Capital Rare Book Fair: Holiday Edition is billed for December 4 and 5, 2026, but the organizer had not posted a venue for it when the site was checked in September 2026, so confirm before you commit to the date.
Hours : December 4–5, 2026Website Where can I find cheap used books in Washington, D.C.?
The floor is set by the nonprofits, not the bookshops. Carpe Librum caps its pop-up stock at $7 and its downtown room is donated goods throughout; the two Montgomery County Friends stores price to move seven days a week; the Lantern was selling postcards at twenty cents apiece when the GW Hatchet visited in April 2025. For bulk, the sales beat all of them — Beatley in Alexandria posts hardbacks at $4 and paperbacks at $3, halves everything on its Sunday and finishes with a $15 bag day, while Arlington gives everyone 50% off on the last day of its October run. Among the year-round shops, Lost City's own buy grid tells you what the bottom of its stock costs, and the not-for-profit over in Del Ray works entirely from donated inventory.
Where do I sell used books in Washington, D.C.?
Two walk-in options, one more by appointment, and a lot of donation desks after that. Second Story Books buys out of its Rockville warehouse every day of the week, capped at twenty books a walk-in visit, with anything larger triaged from a spine photo emailed ahead, and it pays either cash or credit that spends at a 50% discount on Rockville stock. Lost City Books buys four days a week on a published per-format grid, twenty-five books at a time, and pays roughly 50% more in credit than in cash. Capitol Hill Books will look at collections and rare items but only by prior appointment. Triage at home rather than in the car: one photograph of a full shelf run through BiblioScan splits it back into single spines, each carrying the resale price it fetches on the day you scan it — which is how you separate the handful worth listing under your own account from the box that should just go across a counter.
Which day is best for book hunting in Washington, D.C.?
Sunday, oddly, and Friday runs it close. On a Sunday, Lost City and Second Story both buy, the Lantern is open noon to five, Del Ray's Company of Books is trading, the Montgomery County Friends have both doors unlocked, and My Dead Aunt's shop stays open until 5pm in Hyattsville. Friday adds Kensington Row, keeps the Company of Books open until 9pm, and is the one weekday that Carpe Librum, Lost City's buy desk and the whole of Georgetown line up together. Saturday is strong for shopping but weaker for selling, since Second Story shortens its buying window to 11am to 2pm. Monday is the thin one: the Lantern and Kensington Row are both dark, and the Company of Books pulls back to a 6pm finish.
When is the Friends of the Library sale in Washington, D.C.?
There are three of them and none is inside the District. Alexandria's Friends of Beatley Library hold the longest one, a full week that starts with a members-only evening on September 22, 2026 and ends six days later with a bag sale, and they have already published their two 2027 windows. Arlington goes twice a year under its own Central Library, and the fall 2026 run is October 22 to 25, with a member preview the evening before it opens. Takoma Park holds a spring and a fall sale on the library grounds plus a children's holiday sale in the Community Center; its May 9, 2026 edition raised over $4,500. Dealers are not turned away at any of them, but the previews are membership-gated and both Arlington and Alexandria sell memberships at the door.