Used books move through a broad ecosystem of nonprofit sales, charity stores, independent dealers, online marketplaces, and reuse programs. The statistics below describe the scale of that ecosystem, how buyers shop, what sellers hold, and how organizations connect book sales with literacy and environmental goals. Dates and geography are included wherever the source specifies them; historical survey figures are presented as reported rather than as current market estimates.
Contents
- The scale of used book availability
- How buyers shop nonprofit book sales
- What used-book buyers want
- Used-book dealers and online selling
- Nonprofit stores and charity-sale revenue
- Reuse, diversion, and literacy impact
The scale of used book availability
BookSaleFinder reports more than 7,000 nonprofit used book sales each year across the United States and Canada. Those sales make more than 60 million books available annually. The figures describe the nonprofit-sale channel, not every used book sold through stores, dealers, online marketplaces, or informal exchanges.
The buyer survey also shows repeated participation. Fifty-four percent of respondents attended at least six book sales per year, while 25% attended 11 or more. A smaller but substantial 9% attended more than 20 sales annually. These results portray book-sale shopping as a recurring activity for many survey respondents rather than an occasional purchase.
The main stated reason was price: 98% said bargain prices were the main attraction. Reading volume was another important signal, with 63% saying they attended because they read a lot of books. Nearly two-thirds bought at least 20 books from nonprofit sales per year, and 43% purchased more than 40 books annually from that source.
Several marketplace milestones illustrate how online availability expanded over time. According to Rare Book Monthly’s report on an AbeBooks press release, AbeBooks reached 1 million listings within six months of launching in 1996, had 35 million listings in 2000, and later reached 100 million books listed online. The same report says listings had grown by 17 million per year over the preceding three years, and that AbeBooks had 13,500 booksellers.
The report also says the average AbeBooks seller listed 7,400 titles, up from 6,500 titles one year earlier. AbeBooks planned to add another 2 million books through the integration of Iberlibro listings, while customers purchased up to 25,000 books per day across its five global websites. These are marketplace-specific historical figures, so they should not be read as a total measure of the global used-book market.
How buyers shop nonprofit book sales
The BookSaleFinder buyer survey gives a useful picture of spending at nonprofit sales. Thirty-seven percent of respondents spent $11 to $25 at each sale, and 28% spent $26 to $50. Another 13% spent $51 to $100, while 5% spent more than $100. Separately, 46% said they bought more than $25 worth of books at each sale.
Together, these figures point to a buyer base with several spending levels: a large middle group spending from $11 to $50, a smaller group making higher-value purchases, and a substantial share reporting more than $25 per event. Because the source reports grouped survey results rather than a mean or median, the data does not support calculating an average spend.
Digital reading appeared less common among these respondents than physical-book buying. Twenty-one percent had bought at least one e-book, while 79% had never purchased an e-book. That result is specific to the survey population and should not be generalized to all readers or all book buyers.
The survey also identifies the purchasing intensity of nonprofit-sale shoppers. Nearly two-thirds bought at least 20 books from nonprofit sales each year, and 43% bought more than 40. This high-volume behavior fits the other survey findings: many respondents attended multiple sales, and bargain prices were the dominant attraction.
What used-book buyers want
Physical formats led the preferences recorded in the buyer survey. Hardcovers were selected by 81% of respondents, compared with 64% for paperbacks and 51% for trade paperbacks. These categories may overlap because the survey reports interest in each format rather than one exclusive format choice.
Fiction was the most popular subject category listed, at 66%. Reference books followed at 36%. Cooking books and children’s books each reached 35%, while how-to books reached 26%. Young adult books were selected by 24%, travel books by 20%, and textbooks by 12%.
| Buyer interest | Share of BookSaleFinder survey respondents |
|---|---|
| Hardcovers | 81% |
| Fiction | 66% |
| Paperbacks | 64% |
| Trade paperbacks | 51% |
| Reference books | 36% |
| Cooking books | 35% |
| Children’s books | 35% |
| How-to books | 26% |
| Young adult books | 24% |
| Travel books | 20% |
| Textbooks | 12% |
The pattern suggests that used-book demand in this survey was broad, but fiction and physical formats stood out. It also shows why a single “typical” used-book customer can be misleading: the same buyer population expressed interest across general reading, practical subjects, children’s titles, and specialized categories.
Used-book dealers and online selling
BookSaleFinder’s dealer survey describes several routes into the trade. Among full-time dealers, 40% had been employed and started selling part-time before going full time. Fifteen percent were involuntarily unemployed before selling books, 13% quit an old job, 12% were retired, and 15% were homemakers or other home-based workers. Among part-time dealers, 65% had been employed and started selling part time; 8% were involuntarily unemployed, 13% were retired, 2% quit an old job, and 9% were homemakers or other home-based workers.
The same survey records the growth of internet selling from 4 internet sellers in 1989 to 73 in 2000. That historical change aligns with the online-listing milestones reported for AbeBooks, although the two sources describe different measures and should not be combined into one market total.
Dealer inventory sizes varied widely. Thirty-five percent of sellers had fewer than 5,000 books in stock, while 32% had 5,000 to 20,000. Twenty-two percent held 20,000 to 50,000 books. Five percent held 50,000 to 100,000, and another 5% held more than 100,000.
Reported annual sales followed the same grouped distribution in the dealer survey: 35% reported under $5,000, 32% reported $5,000 to $20,000, 22% reported $20,000 to $50,000, 5% reported $50,000 to $100,000, and 5% reported more than $100,000. These are survey categories, not an estimate of total used-book industry revenue.
Nonprofit stores and charity-sale revenue
The BookSaleFinder charity survey shows that nonprofit book stores also range from very small inventories to large operations. Eighteen percent had fewer than 500 books available for sale, and 16% had 500 to 1,000. Nineteen percent had 1,000 to 3,000 books, 14% had 3,000 to 6,000, and 10% had 6,000 to 10,000. Eight percent had 10,000 to 20,000, another 8% had 20,000 to 50,000, and 7% had more than 50,000.
Annual revenue from the nonprofit stores covered similarly broad ranges. Ten percent reported under $1,000, 20% reported $1,000 to $3,000, 13% reported $3,000 to $5,000, 15% reported $5,000 to $10,000, and 18% reported $10,000 to $20,000. Sixteen percent reported $20,000 to $50,000, 6% reported $50,000 to $100,000, and 2% reported more than $100,000.
The charity survey separately reports annual revenue from separate sales. Eleven percent reported under $1,000 from those sales, and 24% reported $1,000 to $3,000. Eleven percent reported $3,000 to $5,000, 16% reported $5,000 to $10,000, and 16% reported $10,000 to $20,000. Another 15% reported $20,000 to $50,000, 5% reported $50,000 to $100,000, and 2% reported more than $100,000.
These distributions show why nonprofit used-book activity is difficult to summarize with one revenue figure. Store inventories, annual revenue, and separate-sale revenue are different measures, and the source presents them as ranges rather than totals.
Reuse, diversion, and literacy impact
Better World Books’ Press and Media figures connect used-book activity with reuse and nonprofit support. The company says it has reused or recycled more than 450 million books to date and sold more than 100 million books. It also says it has diverted more than 171,000 tons of books from landfills.
The same source says two billion pounds of books are sent to landfills each year. This figure is presented as a Better World Books statement, not as an independently verified estimate in the supplied material. Better World Books also says it has achieved more than 87,000 tons of carbon offsets through carbon-neutral shipping.
Collection infrastructure is another measure of scale. Better World Books says it has more than 800 Drop Box locations and counting. The company says it has created more than 350 full-time jobs with meaningful benefits, and that it has raised $10 million for nonprofit literacy partners since its founding in 2003.
Its reported nonprofit figures include $9.4 million raised for more than 80 literacy and education nonprofits, along with $12 million provided for libraries and thrift stores nationwide. Better World Books says it donated more than 6 million college textbooks, primarily to schools in Africa through Books for Africa. It also says the first Feed the Children shipment contained 31,910 books on October 7, 2009.
The source lists additional reported giving: more than $3 million to Books for Africa, more than $865,000 to Room to Read, more than $1.5 million to the National Center for Families Learning, more than $525,000 to Worldfund, more than $215,000 to the Robinson Community Learning Center, and more than $80,000 to the New Orleans Public Library Foundation. It also reports more than $4.3 million given to additional literacy partners.
These impact figures use cumulative wording such as “to date,” “since founding,” or “more than,” while the Feed the Children figure has a specific shipment date. They therefore describe reported milestones at different points in time, not a single-year performance measure or a forecast of future used-book activity.