Where Are Low-Cost Used Book Sales Held in Boston?

Low-cost used book sales in Boston are held in church basements, school gyms, library community rooms, parish halls, flea markets, and on folding tables outside shops. Most are run by volunteers and most prefer cash.

East Boston and the blocks running up toward the Chelsea line are good hunting. A church basement on a Saturday morning, a school gym in early June, a parish hall the weekend before Christmas. The rooms are cold, the coffee is bad, and the books are a dollar. Nobody there is trying to impress anybody.

What Do Used Books Cost at a Boston Book Sale?

Paperbacks at a Boston community book sale typically run one to two dollars, hardcovers two to five, and children's books often fifty cents. Many sales end with a bag day: fill a grocery bag for five dollars.

• Paperbacks: usually $1 to $2
• Hardcovers: usually $2 to $5
• Children's books: often 50 cents, sometimes free by the box at the end
• Textbooks and reference: a few dollars, occasionally less than a coffee
• DVDs, CDs, and vinyl: a dollar or two apiece
• Bag day: the last hour of most sales, five dollars for whatever fits

Bring cash and bring your own bag. Volunteers rarely have change for a twenty, and a paper grocery bag will not survive a wet sidewalk in March.

How Does Give My Books Network Keep Boston Book Sales Supplied?

Give My Books Network collects donated books free from Boston doorsteps, and Local Pick-Up Partners pass much of what they gather into community book sales, shops, and the Give ME Books program.

The pipeline is simple and it is not glamorous. Somebody in East Boston packs four boxes, sets them on the stoop by 8 AM, and a Local Pick-Up Partner collects between 8 AM and 8 PM. Two weeks later a teacher pays a dollar for a hardcover in a church basement. Resale of the good material is what pays for the free collection at the other end, which is worth knowing before you feel odd about handing over a dollar.

Who Shops Low-Cost Book Sales in Boston?

Teachers, homeschool families, parents, students, ESL learners, and anybody who reads faster than a new-book budget allows. Library card in one pocket, two dollars in the other, and a tote bag over the shoulder.

A teacher building a classroom library is not doing it at retail. Forty dollars at a school gym sale in East Boston is a full shelf of chapter books, and the children reading them will never know the difference. The Book Donation Programs guide from the American Library Association explains why the supply exists at all: libraries cannot absorb everything offered to them, and community sales catch the overflow.

How Do You Find a Sale, and What Should You Bring?

Check your library branch events page, the parish bulletin, the school newsletter, and the flyers taped inside the corner store window. Boston book sales cluster in spring and fall, plus the weeks after Labor Day.

1. Bring small bills. Volunteers rarely have change for large ones.
2. Bring a sturdy tote. Cardboard on a wet sidewalk lasts about ten minutes.
3. Show up early for selection or late for bag deals. Pick one.
4. Check the spine and the last page. A cracked spine is fine; missing pages are not.
5. Ask a volunteer what has not been put out yet. There is almost always another box under the table.

Putting Books Back Into the Boston Supply

Books bought at a sale can go straight back into the system when you are done with them. Give My Books Network collects them free from your door, no sorting required, no minimum, and no need to be home.

Pack them yourself into boxes or doubled bags, keep each one light enough to carry one-handed, and set them out by 8 AM on your service day. Your Local Pick-Up Partner does not bring boxes and does not carry items down from an apartment, so everything has to reach ground level first. And put a lid or a heavy bag over the cardboard between November and April. A box on a wet stoop in East Boston does not last the morning.