I love getting new ebooks on my Kindle and wandering around Barnes & Noble stores, but I also love searching through secondhand bookstores and thrift stores to find "new" books for myself at much lower costs. Part of the fun of buying secondhand books is looking through shelves upon shelves of books, searching for ones that I’ve been hoping to find or picking up random ones that I think look interesting. Plus, I can save a lot of money. Most of the books that I own are from secondhand stores that specialize in selling books or from general thrift stores like Goodwill. I’ve come up with five tips for buying secondhand books that have helped me in the past and which I’ve included below.
1. Make a List
I love making lists of all sorts, including book wish-lists. Your list can be as specific as you want it to be. It can be a general list of the books that you want to read, of authors that you like, or it can be as basic as the genres that you enjoy reading. I often look for recent fiction, classic literature, and sometimes cookbooks or travel books.
2. Be Patient
Some places may be organized and some may not. Stores that specialize in selling secondhand books will likely be organized according to genre if not also organized by last name. General thrift stores like Goodwill are less likely to be organized at all, but sometimes they will be organized by genre.
3. Look for What Catches Your Eye
If I’m not looking for any book in particular, or if the store doesn’t have shelves organized by genre and/or author, I will just scan the shelves looking for spines or covers that catch my eye. My eyes are usually drawn to book covers that are especially colorful or have intriguing titles.
4. Check the Quality
Are you looking for barely used books or books just in decent condition? Again, stores that specialize in selling secondhand books will likely have books in better condition than general thrift stores, but you never know what you may find in general thrift stores. Secondhand bookstores also may have multiple editions of a single book, so you might have options for the style or size of book that you want. I typically want barely used books, and at secondhand bookstores I usually choose the cheapest but nicest version of the book that I want.
5. Look for One of a Kind Books
Secondhand bookstores and thrift stores are great places to find special books like ones that are decorative or vintage at low prices. I’m not a huge fan of “coffee table books,” but if I was to get myself some decorative books for my future apartment, I’d look for secondhand options. In the past, I’ve found a number of one of a kind books at thrift stores or yard sales, including a picture book of Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream and a fancy edition of Chaucer’s The Canterbury Tales.
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