Books upon books

WE BUY USED BOOKS!

Our regular buyback hours are Tuesday–Saturday, 10am–4pm.

Book buys are all done by walk-ins; we do not take appointments. Please note that if you are arriving by car, we can't make change for parking meters. Please bring quarters or plan to use the PassportParking mobile app. Thank you!

If you are interested in selling us your books, please read the following.

Requirements

All purchases require photo ID.
We typically offer 15% of the cover price for cash, 20% for store credit.
Books must be in good condition. They should not have notes, highlighting or underlining, and pages must be securely bound into the book.

Guidelines

We are particularly interested in books in the following categories: classical studies, European history, mathematics, philosophy, psychology, Loeb Classics, and books in the Everyman Library, Library of America, and Modern Library.
We buy fiction and nonfiction paperbacks in a variety of subjects including (but not limited to) mystery, science fiction, history, religion, poetry, science, psychology, and drama.
We do not buy test prep, textbooks, ex-library copies, computer books, out-of-date travel books, romances, westerns, or true crime.
If there is a paperback edition of a book, we are unlikely to buy the hardcover.
Have a question? Call our used book desk directly at 617-475-8305. The Used Book Department desk is staffed Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 4pm, but we may not always be able to immediately answer your call. Thank you for your understanding

Visit Our Used Book Basement

Downstairs in Harvard Book Store, you'll find thousands of used books, including works of classic and modern literature, children's books, books in other languages and nonfiction works on history, art, architecture, religion, science, and much more.

As you browse the shelves, take a minute to look on the end of bookcases and on the walls—posted are the ephemera we find in used books we’ve bought from customers. There are bookmarks from around the world, ticket stubs from events, including one from the Republican Convention of 1948 and a piece of stationery from the Sheraton Hotel on which someone wrote "I cannot contain my loathing for Kant."