In this post, we’ll be covering the best places where you can sell your books and textbooks in Seattle.
If you’re a recent graduate or graduating soon, you may consider Seattle as one of the potential locations to settle down. Maybe not permanently, but we strongly recommend considering this city. Many resources that studied the movements of recent college graduates in the past few years mention Seattle as one of the best places to move after college.
- How to Sell Books in Seattle?
- Where to Sell Used Books in Seattle? Brick-and-Mortar Store List
- How to Sell Books Online in Seattle?
- Where to Sell Books in Seattle FAQs
How to Sell Books in Seattle?
If you’re or will be a college graduate in Seattle, you might soon be selling all the textbooks you used during your studies. In this post, we wanted to help you, so we compiled a list of brick-and-mortar stores in the area and a few online resources that have a buyback program.
Even if you are not a student but live in Seattle but love books and don’t have the space for them in your house, or you’re a tourist who doesn’t want to take stuff back home, we hope that you’ll find our recommendations equally useful.
Where to Sell Used Books in Seattle? Brick-and-Mortar Store List
Seattle has plenty of used bookstores; however, not all of them buy used books. Nonetheless, we’ve gone through a long list and singled out the stores that, in some way or another, accept used books for store credit, cash, or even as a donation (if you feel generous). So, here’s what we’ve selected for you today:
| 🛒 Bookstore | 📚 Books They Buy |
| 🛒 John Michael Lang Fine Books 📞 (206) 602-9765 📌 2442 NW Market Street, PMB 266, Seattle, WA 98107 |
📚 Single books and entire libraries, historical manuscript material, autographs, photographs, postcards, original art, and other vintage historical items. 📚 Contact the store in advance. |
| 🛒 Twice Sold Tales 📞 (206) 324 -421 📌 1833 Harvard Ave. Seattle, WA. 98122 |
📚 Books for store credit or cash (every working day, except for Saturday and Sunday)
📚 Contact the store in advance. |
| 🛒 Mercer Street Books 📞 (206) 282-6787 📌 7 Mercer St, Seattle, WA, 98109 🗓️ Wed – Sat 12 a.m. – 8 p.m. Sun 11 p.m. – 7 p.m. |
📚 Contact the store in advance. |
| 🛒 The Quest Bookshop 📞 (206) 323-4281 📌 717 Broadway E, Seattle, WA 98102 🗓️ Tue – Sun 12 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
📚 The store belongs to the Theosophical Society in Seattle. They don’t buy books but accept book donations (e.g., used books, magazines, periodicals, journals, audiovisual material, etc.) |
| 🛒 Magus Books 📞 (206) 633-1800, (206) 569-8312 📌 University District Magus Books, 1408 NE 42nd St., Seattle, WA 98105 📌 Wallingford Magus Annex, 2414 N 45th St., Seattle, WA 98103 |
📚 Books in good condition for store credit or cash. Different buyback times and terms depending on location.
📚 Contact the store in advance. |
| 🛒 Lamplight Books 📞 (206) 652-5554 📌 1514 Pike Pl, Ste 14, Seattle, Washington 98101 🗓️ 1 Mon – Sun 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
📚 Used books in good condition.
📚 Contact the store in advance. |
| 🛒 Ophelia’s Books 📞 (206) 632-3759 📌 3504 Fremont Ave N, Seattle, WA 98103 🗓️ 12 a.m.– 3 p.m. every day except Sundays |
📚 Quality used books of all genres, mostly popular paperback fiction and nonfiction. |
| 🛒 Pegasus Book Exchange 📞 (312) 478-94341102 📌 4553 California Ave SW, Seattle WA 98116 🗓️ Mon – Sat 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Sun 10 p.m. – 5 p.m. |
📚 Used books in good condition. Acceptance on a first-come-first-serve basis (no appointments).
📚 Store credit only at the moment. |
| 🛒 Arundel Books 📞 (206) 624-4442 📌 322 1st Avenue South (1st & Jackson) Seattle, WA 98104 |
📚 Used books singly and in large collections.
📚 Individual books and small collections are bought over the counter. |
| 🛒 BLMF: A Literary Saloon 📞 (206)621-7894 📌 1501 Pike Pl, #324, Seattle, WA 98101 🗓️ Mon – Sat 11 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
📚Used books for cash and credit.
📚 The only Black-owned bookstore in Seattle. Curated by owner J.B. Johnson; contact in person. |
| 🛒 Friends of the Seattle Public Library 📞 (206)733-9015 📌 Central Library (main branch), level 3 1000, Fourth Avenue Seattle, WA 98104 🗓️ Mon – Sun 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
📚 Book donations, no buyback program
📚 Gently used adult and children’s books (paperbacks and hardcovers), textbooks, etc. |
| 🛒 Page 2 Books 📞 (206) 248-7248 📌 560 SW 152nd St, Burien, WA 98166 🗓️ Mon – Fri 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Sat 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. Sun 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. |
📚 Trade in for store credit (no cash, no donations)–-one bag or box at a time.
📚 Clean books in very good and like-new condition: current bestsellers or classics, hardcover fiction, and nonfiction from the past two years. 📚Not accepted: Books in bad condition, books they have, magazines/digests, textbooks/test prep books, finance/business books, library books, advanced reader copies or books without barcodes, spark notes/summaries. 📚 Contact the store in advance. |
| 🛒 Seattle University Campus Store 📞 (206) 325-6002 📌 1125 12th Ave, Seattle University, Seattle, WA US 98122 🗓️ Mon – Fri 10 a.m. – 4 p.m. |
📚 Textbooks |
| 🛒 University of Washington Bookstore 📌 4326 University Way NE, Seattle, WA 98105 🗓️ Mon – Sat 10 a.m. – 6 p.m. Sun 12 a.m. – 5 p.m. |
📚 Textbooks (U.S. Standard editions in good condition).
📚 Buyback services are only available at their U District store. 📚 Online buyback services are available.
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In this list, we have included the most common places where you can bring your used books. However, we encourage you to check the locations in your area; perhaps there are other places where you can sell second-hand books closer to your home. We recommend checking the Yellow Pages and Yelp for more information.
How to Sell Books Online in Seattle?
Half Price Books
🛒 HPB Bellevue
📞 (425) 747-6616
📌 15600 NE 8th St, Bellevue, WA 98008
🗓️ Mon – Sat 10 a.m. – 9 p.m., Sun 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
We’ve already mentioned Half Price Books a few times in our previous posts. It’s one of the largest bookstore chains, with over 120 stores all over the US. They buy and sell all sorts of books, CDs, DVDs, etc. To learn about their buyback policy, visit the Stuff We Buy page on their website. They mostly sell books online, not buy. To sell your own books to HPB, you should bring them to the store in person; they pay in cash. The closest store to Seattle is HPB Bellevue. A while ago, when we were writing our comprehensive Half Price Books Overview: Top 16 Questions about Half Price Book Stores, there was information about HPB buying textbooks across a wide range of subjects. However, this information is no longer available on their website. Therefore, we recommend reaching out to them directly to get the details.
Barnes & Noble
🛒 Northgate, WA
📞 (206) 417-2967
📌 Northgate Mall, 401 NE Northgate Way #1100, Seattle, WA 98125
🗓️ Mon – Thu 9a.m. – 8 p.m., Fri – Sat 9 a.m. – 9 p.m., Sun 10 a.m. – 8 p.m.
Barnes & Noble’s textbook buyback program isn’t the most convenient option compared to the ones we’ll be sharing later in this post, but you are welcome to check their Sell Your Textbooks page to understand their current demand and offers. Enter the ISBN to get a quote from the store, but be prepared that you can receive none if B&N isn’t interested in your title at the moment. Barnes & Noble only accepts books in good condition. You can also check our post, which describes the company and its buyback process in detail: How to Sell Textbooks with Barnes & Noble.
Popular Online Marketplaces
- Better World Books offers affordable prices for used books. You can sell online or visit the store in person. Check out Better World Books reviews for more information.
- Amazon discontinued its textbook buyback program in 2020, but you can become one of their sellers. Check one of our recent articles to learn about selling textbooks on Amazon.
- Finally, you can sell books on eBay. Check our short step-by-step guide to learn more.
BookScouter
Alternatively, you can go to the price comparison platform and check the offers and demand for your books. While all the booksellers mentioned above can offer a good price, you will have to check each website specifically. BookScouter, on the other hand, gives you a clear picture of all the currently available offers because it works with more than 30 vendors and strives to provide the most recent price information possible. With the help of this platform, you can sell used books in Seattle or basically anywhere in the US.
You simply enter the ISBN of your book, click Scout, and get the offers displayed in one browser window. Then, you choose the best one and proceed to the vendor’s website to make a buyback order. Say you’re a fan of air crash investigations and have plenty of books about plane crashes and aviation disasters. This time, you decided to sell some stuff from your collection to get cash for new reads: Plane Crash: The Forensics of Aviation Disasters. Here are your offers from different vendors, all displayed on BookScouter.
Well, this might not be a very popular book, but you’ve got the idea. At the very least, you can see that TextbookRush offers the best quote, while BooksRun offers a buyback coupon code. There are also offers from other vendors. It would take a lot of time to check each of them separately, even if you’re familiar with all these services, and you still wouldn’t see the whole picture.
Let’s take another example. If you’re finished with your copy of Chemistry & Chemical Reactivity, plenty of vendors have a nice offer for it. Besides, you can see all of them in one place.
So, yes, we do recommend BookScouter to understand the prices on the buyback market.
If you need more information about bookstores with buyback programs in other locations, check out our other posts about selling used books in Atlanta, Dallas, Los Angeles, and Chicago.
Where to Sell Books in Seattle FAQs
Where can I donate books in Seattle?
If you’re not looking for profit, you can check a few places in Seattle that accept book donations. You can start with the local Goodwill and Salvation Army branches, but there are other options, such as the Seattle Public Library and Friends of the Seattle Public Library (an organization that resells books to benefit the library) that we’ve already mentioned. Kids’ literature will be welcome at Treehouse for Kids and Kidvantage, and local shelters, such as Mary’s Place, will also be happy to take in your donations. If you want to share books directly with your neighbors, check out Little Free Libraries around the city. Here is more information on where to donate textbooks in 2024, 14 great places to donate used books, and how to donate books to charity.
Where can I recycle books in Seattle?
Local transfer stations, like the North or South Seattle Transfer Stations, accept paper products, including books. You can also visit King County recycling and transfer stations in other Washington cities. The city’s recycling program (run by Seattle Public Utilities) allows you to place paperback books directly into your curbside recycling bin (the cost is included in the garbage service rate). How to Recycle Books in 2024: A Complete Guide can give you more details about recycling.
Where to sell textbooks in Seattle?
You can choose one of the locations from the list we offered you earlier in the post, such as the Seattle University Campus Store or the University of Washington Bookstore, as well as other college stores in Washington State. We also recommend checking the online services we mentioned and checking your ISBNs via BookScouter to find the best offer. Most brick-and-mortar bookstores either buy textbooks seasonally or pay too little, so we recommend online vendors for textbook buyback.
Where can I sell LGBTQ+ books in Seattle?
We’d probably recommend Twice Sold Tales for any LGBT+ books, as well as anything regarding Race and Gender Studies. You can check their subject list for more information. You are also welcome to check our post about the 10 Best LGBTQ+ Books 2024 if you are interested in this topic.
