Used-book activity spans library fundraisers, online sellers, independent dealers, and reuse programs. The figures below are mainly from surveys and reports covering 2010 or earlier periods, so they describe measured historical patterns rather than current market totals.
Contents
- The scale of charity used-book sales
- Where sales were held
- How organizers operated
- Books, revenue, and online selling
- Used-book dealers and inventory
- Buyer behavior and preferences
- Reuse, retailers, and market context
The scale of charity used-book sales
Book Sale Finder reported about 7,000 nonprofit used-book sales each year in the United States and Canada in its survey results. A separate 2010 listing counted 7,263 charity sales held at 3,473 different locations. These are related measures, but they should not be treated as a current annual census or as independently verified modern totals. (BookSaleFinder survey results; A Survey of Charity Groups Who Run Used Book Sales.)
The 2010 survey also estimated that more than 60 million donated books were available for sale at charity sales in the United States and Canada. The average sale had about 11,000 books available, while the median sale had 5,000. The gap between the average and median indicates that some very large events raised the average above the typical sale size. (A Survey of Charity Groups Who Run Used Book Sales.)
Donations were an important part of the supply. Seventy-five percent of organizers said that at least three-quarters of the books at each sale were newly donated. Among used-book dealers, 23% said at least half of their stock came from thrift stores or estate sales, and nearly 40% obtained at least half of their stock from charity book sales. (A Survey of Charity Groups Who Run Used Book Sales; A Survey of Used Book Dealers.)
Public libraries and Friends groups made up 78% of the charity used-book-sale organizers surveyed. This helps explain why used-book events can function both as resale channels and as community fundraising activities. (A Survey of Charity Groups Who Run Used Book Sales.)
Where sales were held
California led the 2010 charity-sales listing with 909 used-book sales, followed by Michigan with 473 and Pennsylvania with 459. Massachusetts recorded 380, New York 377, Illinois 332, Ohio 315, Indiana 296, New Jersey 285, Connecticut 269, Virginia 267, Washington 238, and Texas 229. (A Survey of Charity Groups Who Run Used Book Sales.)
The same listing recorded 203 sales in Wisconsin, 164 in New Hampshire, 141 in Florida, 135 in Maine, 120 in Georgia, 115 in Maryland, 113 in North Carolina, 112 in Oregon, 110 in Minnesota, 101 in Tennessee, 100 in Missouri, and 95 in Ontario. The source covered the United States and Canada, and the figures are specifically for 2010 rather than a present-day ranking. (A Survey of Charity Groups Who Run Used Book Sales.)
| Location | Used-book sales in 2010 |
|---|---|
| California | 909 |
| Michigan | 473 |
| Pennsylvania | 459 |
| Massachusetts | 380 |
| New York | 377 |
| Illinois | 332 |
| Ohio | 315 |
| Indiana | 296 |
| New Jersey | 285 |
| Connecticut | 269 |
Among organizations with book stores, 60% held no separate book sale. Eleven percent held one separate sale per year, 13% held two, 6% held three, and 10% held more than three. These percentages describe the survey group and do not represent every bookstore or library program. (A Survey of Charity Groups Who Run Used Book Sales.)
How organizers operated
Donation trends were positive for many surveyed organizers during the comparison period: 41% reported receiving more donations than in the prior two years, while only 13% reported fewer donations. The survey therefore captured a period in which incoming supply was increasing for a substantial share of charity groups. (A Survey of Charity Groups Who Run Used Book Sales.)
Annual sales varied widely. Fourteen percent of organizers reported annual sales under $1,000; 30% reported $1,000 to $3,000; 15% reported $3,000 to $10,000; 17% reported $10,000 to $20,000; 17% reported $20,000 to $50,000; and 7% reported more than $50,000. In total, 41% reported yearly sales over $10,000. (A Survey of Charity Groups Who Run Used Book Sales.)
For organizations reporting revenue from separate sales, 11% earned under $1,000, 24% earned $1,000 to $3,000, 11% earned $3,000 to $5,000, 16% earned $5,000 to $10,000, 16% earned $10,000 to $20,000, 15% earned $20,000 to $50,000, 5% earned $50,000 to $100,000, and 2% earned more than $100,000. The separate-sale figures are a narrower measure than total annual organizational sales. (A Survey of Charity Groups Who Run Used Book Sales.)
Books, revenue, and online selling
Twenty-seven percent of charity used-book-sale groups also sold books online. Among those online-selling groups, 52% reported online revenue above $1,000. The median number of books listed online was 50, compared with an average of 388. As with the sale-size figures, the difference between median and average suggests that a smaller number of larger online inventories influenced the average. (A Survey of Charity Groups Who Run Used Book Sales.)
Amazon accounted for 58% of the places where organizers sold most of their books online. eBay accounted for 19%, Half.com for 5%, and ABE for 6%. These platform shares describe the primary online venue reported by surveyed organizers at the time of the survey; they are not current marketplace shares. (A Survey of Charity Groups Who Run Used Book Sales.)
Used-book dealers reported a similar concentration of online sales. Sixty percent said Amazon was the single venue accounting for at least half of their book sales. eBay accounted for 16% of dealers’ main sales venues, ABE for 8%, and Half.com for 5%. (A Survey of Used Book Dealers.)
Used-book dealers and inventory
Book selling was the primary job for 47% of surveyed used-book dealers, while 53% sold part time. The motivation commonly associated with sourcing books was the thrill of the hunt: 81% of full-time dealers and 87% of part-time dealers said it was an important or major factor in becoming a seller. (A Survey of Used Book Dealers.)
Eighty-one percent of dealers had never owned a brick-and-mortar store. Full-time dealers were more likely than part-time dealers to own stores, at 28% versus 11%. Among dealers who currently owned stores, 58% had no plans to sell or close them in the next five years, and 57% said more than half their income came from store sales. Dealers who had sold their stores had owned them for an average of 7.6 years before closing; half of those closed stores lasted five years or less. (A Survey of Used Book Dealers.)
Inventory sizes also differed by work pattern. About half of full-time sellers had fewer than 5,000 books for sale at one time, compared with 80% of part-time sellers. More than 7% of full-time sellers had over 50,000 books listed at one time. (A Survey of Used Book Dealers.)
Before becoming dealers, 25% of full-time dealers had been homemakers or otherwise home-based, and 15% had been involuntarily unemployed. Among part-time dealers, 13% had been retired, 8% had been involuntarily unemployed, and 65% had been employed and started selling part time. The comparable figure for full-time dealers who had been employed and started selling part time was 40%. (A Survey of Used Book Dealers.)
Sixteen percent of used-book dealers said annual sales exceeded $50,000. Roughly two-thirds reported annual sales under $20,000, and half of the dealers below $20,000 were under $5,000. These figures concern sales revenue, not profit or personal income. (A Survey of Used Book Dealers.)
Buyer behavior and preferences
Used-book buyers in the survey were frequent participants in nonprofit sales. Forty-three percent bought more than 40 books per year from nonprofit sales, and nearly two-thirds bought at least 20. Sixty-three percent said they attended because they read a lot of books, while 98% identified bargain prices as the main attraction. Twenty-four percent attended because they collected certain types of books, and 3% attended because they homeschooled their children. (A Survey of Used Book Buyers.)
Attendance varied: 9% attended more than 20 book sales per year, 16% attended 11 to 20, and 29% attended 6 to 10. Spending per sale ranged from $5 to $10 for 14% of respondents, $11 to $25 for 37%, $26 to $50 for 28%, $51 to $100 for 13%, and more than $100 for 5%. (A Survey of Used Book Buyers.)
| Buyer interest | Share of respondents |
|---|---|
| Hardcovers | 81% |
| Fiction | 66% |
| Paperbacks | 64% |
| Trade paperbacks | 51% |
| Library discards | 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 survey also found that 79% of used-book-buyer respondents had never bought an e-book, while 21% had bought at least one. Nearly one in five sold finished books online, and about one in four donated finished books to a book sale. Those figures describe the surveyed buyer group and its stated behavior, not the entire reading population. (A Survey of Used Book Buyers.)
Reuse, retailers, and market context
Better World Books estimated that one of its drop boxes saved more than 150 trees per year, reused or recycled more than 10,000 books per year, saved more than 74,000 gallons of water per year, saved more than 33,000 kilowatts of electricity per year, and saved more than 23 cubic yards of landfill space per year. These are estimates presented by Better World Books, not independently verified measurements in the supplied research. (Better World Books Make an Impact.)
Better World Books says it has reused or recycled more than 475 million books and that every book purchase helps donate books to people in need. ThriftBooks says it recycles millions of pounds of books every year and has provided more than $100 million in charity support over the last decade through purchase partnerships. These are company-reported figures. (Better World Books Mission; ThriftBooks Social Responsibility.)
ThriftBooks began in 2003 and says it is the world’s largest online independent used bookseller. Its account says the business launched with a pickup truck of used books in a storage unit, and that its first book sold was Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. ThriftBooks also says it sells millions of used books at everyday low prices and reported 2,794,549 Trustpilot reviews with a 4.7 TrustScore on the cited company page. The same page also referenced more than 640,000 Trustpilot reviews, so those displayed counts should be treated as page-specific company references rather than reconciled market statistics. (ThriftBooks About Us.)
The Census Bureau reported that bookstores fell from 12,151 establishments in 1998 to 6,045 in 2019. In its classification, used bookstores are counted under used merchandise retailers rather than new-book stores, which means bookstore establishment totals are not a direct measure of the used-book sector. Retail book sales represented 70.9% of bookstores’ total sales in 2017, or $7.1 billion of $10.0 billion. Nonemployer bookstores generated $339.8 million in sales in 2018, with an average of $41,901 per nonemployer bookstore. (Census Bureau bookstores story; Census NAICS used book retailers.)