What To Expect
We typically do not buy books in cash, rather we offer store credit.
Most books in our shop are priced between $3 and $7. Typically, you can expect to get $.50- $2 in store credit forgood condition books we need. If your book is rare and more valuable, we can work out a higher credit or cash price. Many books that you bring in will be great books that we just can't use. Please don't take it as a judgment on your taste-- it's a shelf space issue!
If you have more than one box of books, please try to bring them on a weekday. We won't turn books away if it's the only day you can come, but we would strongly prefer not to take in large numbers of books on Saturdays.
If you do not want to drag your books in, feel free to snap a few photos of the spines and email them to jeanenne.petri@gmail dot com.
What We Typically Don't Take
- encyclopedias;
- reader's digest condensed;
- most popular romance, mystery and crime thrillers (Patterson, Cornwell, Grisham, Brown, Twilight, etc.) unless it is the most recent book.
- mass market paperbacks (pocket sized paperbacks);
- former library books;
- most children's books. If you just want to donate them, we will put them in our free kids bin.
- books that have been exposed to water or smoke or heavily creased or soiled.
- Hardcover books missing the dust jacket;
- magazines, videos, CDs
- Textbook: We can usually only re-sell them if they are the most recent edition.
Trade Credit Policies
We'd love to take all your books and give you all the books you want for them. Unfortunately, the fine folks at the electric and gas company won't trade with us too! To help us convert your trades into the cash we need to keep the lights on, we'veimplemented the following trade credit policies, which can be summarized in two simple rules: we can't trade your used items for our new items and we can't trade our high demand books for books that have less customer demand. Easy enough, right? Here's the specifics:
- Trade credit can only be used to purchase used books. Items that cannot be purchased with trade credit includes gift items (e.g. bags, tiles, mugs), stationary & cards, games, food & drinks and clothing. Books being sold on consignment, current best sellers and used books from our rare, signed & collectible cases are also excluded.
- Trade credit is valid for one year from date of issue.
- Books left in the store for evaluation for trade credit that we don't purchase must be picked up within one week of notification of the credit issued. Books that are not picked up will be donated to the Goodwill or Salvation Army.
- Trade credit slips are transferable. Can't use it within a year or getting ride of books before a move? Give it to a friend.
- A credit slip must be presented to redeem credit. Slips that have been altered or are damaged to the point of illegibility are not redeemable.
- We reserve the right to refuse any book brought in for credit.
- Books purchased with trade credit do not earn punches on our frequent buyer punch cards.
What We Need
These are a few books that are always in high demand and we may buy in cash ($1.00-2.00) or offer more trade credit:
- Girl on the Train, Hawkins
- Round House, Erdrich
- Martian, Weir
- Persepolis, Satrapi
- 48 Laws of Power, Greene
- New Jim Crow, Alexander
- Boys in the Boat, Brown
- Wonder, Palacio
- Purity, Franzen
- I Am Malala
- House of Leaves, Danielewski
- The Goldfinch, Tartt
- Dead Wake, Larson
- Catch 22, Heller
- All the Light We Cannot See, Doerr
- Go Set a Watchman, Lee
- Life Changing Magic of Tidying Up
- Nightingale, Hannah
- Humans of NY
Any by these authors
- Haruki Murakami
- Adiche, A
- Junot Diaz
- Ferrante, Elena
- Hancock Graham
- Calvino, Italo
- Knausgard, Karl Ove
- Ansari, Aziz
- Veronica Roth
- Brown, Brene
- Vonnegut, Kurt
- Tom Robbins
- Chuck Palaniuk
- Thomas Pynchon
- Neil Gaimen
- John Green
- Groff, Lauren
- James, Marlon
- David Foster Wallace
- Schiff, Stacy
- Charles Bukowski
- Classics
- JD Salenger
- Aldus Huxley
- George Orwell
- John Steinbeck
- Nikolai Gogol
- Vladimirl Nabakov
- Science/Math
- Neil DeGrasse Tyson
- Richard Dawkins
- Albert Einstein
- Field Guides
- Game Theory
- Sci Fi/Fantasy:
- George RR Martin
- Douglas Adams
- Ray Bradbury
- Patrick Rothfuss
- Robert Heinlein
- Octavia Butler
- Anne Leckie
- Phillip K Dick
- Terry Pratchet
- Robert Jordan
- Philosophy:
- Bertrand Russell
- Karl Jaspers
- Michel Foucault
- Soren Kierkegard
- Karl Marx
- Non-Fiction Authors:
- Bell Hooks
- Alison Bechdel
- Malcolm Gladwell
- Leslie Feinberg
- Patti Smith
- Howard Zinn
- Neil Peart
- Hunter S Thompson
- Ta-Nihesi Coates
- Noam Chomsky
- David Sedaris
- Hunter S. Thomposn
- Che Guerva
- Christopher Hitchens
- Cornel West
- Beat Authors
- Jack Kerouac
- William S Burroughs
- Allen Ginsburg
- Herbert Huncke
- Ken Kesey
- Poetry
- Sylvia Plath
- Mary Oliver
- Frank O'Hara
- Pablo Neruda
- Rumi
- Billy Collins
- William Carlos Williams
- Religion/Theology/Spirituality
- CS Lewis (non-Narnia)
- Thich Naht Hanh/Buddhism
- Pema Chodron
- Augustine
- John Calvin
- Khalil Gibrain
- Karl Barth
- Mystery/Detective
- Jo Nesbo
- Louise Penny
- Raymond Chandler
- Cookbooks
- Joy of Cooking
- Nigella Lawson
- Julia Child
- Children's Books/YA
- Dr. Seuss
- Maurice Sendak
- Beatrice Potter
- Shel Silvertein
- Harry Potter Books
- Rick Riordan
- One and Only Ivan
- 5th wave
Also always interested in books on:
- Paganism, Wicca, Magic and the Occult
- Postcolonialism
- Homebrewing/wine making
- Local interest, books about Buffalo
- Leather bound books
- Role Playing Games/Dungeons & Dragons
- Graphic Novels
- The Civil War
- "33 1/3" or "a very short introduction" book series
Please note this list is not intended to act as offer to buy as our stock levels can change quickly, but provide you a guide for the kinds of books typically look for.