BookBuyers

They’re finally going out of business. Good riddance. Smell ya’ later!

I was super impressed with how well the store was laid out. I look forward to seeing where they move to. Great selection and prices.

I’ve been a customer and frequent visitor to BookBuyers on Castro for over two decades. I’m extremely sad to see them go. BookBuyers has been a fixture downtown for so long. It has been a must stop when downtown for interesting and unique finds. They allowed our dogs in on the fun, too. They were open late most nights, so convenient to stop by after late evening dinner and stroll. A friend worked there during the downturn of ’98−2000 when he lost his programming job, that helped him to survive the bad times. They took myriads of books in their exchange program. I wonder what happens with my account — I still have a considerable amount of money left unused on it.

Shame on you. I understand that you are moving, but don’t give me attitude when I just ask you where else I can donate books. Don’t talk like everybody who lives in Mountain View knows were every thing is, i’ve lived here less than a year and I think it’s very alienating and unwelcoming for a local business on such a «townie» street to have such an attitude when a simple question was asked. So don’t tell me other places to try like I am dumb.
I was incredibly put off by your attitude and I did the grudgingly grumble as I left your store. It seems like you guys have a lot on your plate right now and other customer should probably not attend your store until you guys move because clearly you cannot multitask.
Settle down the Snark and don’t work in customer service if you can’t be friendly.
On a sidenote, I called this business several months I go looking for a book. Whoever answered the phone was so quick to interrupt and assume what I wanted when it was way off and had they just listens to me they would’ve known what I wanted because they were way off and they just assumed it was something that it wasn’t.
A similar thing happened when I came in this time too. The clerk assumed I had calendars I was going to purchase when I walked in with my books hoping to be able to donate them since I am moving. It’s strange that he verbally made such a broad assumption when he could’ve just waited until I was my turn and just asked if he could help me.
I love to support small businesses but not if they just hire someone because they’re a friend of the family or whatever and lack any social skills and belong in a basement.

I’ve been shopping at BookBuyers for 19 years. Being a night person, I’ve always loved the fact they were open until 11pm on weekdays and midnight on weekends. I’ve found some great books here, and I always enjoyed the music they played in the store. Plus, they not only let me bring in my dog, but they gave him free treats. I’m really going to miss this place when they go.

We also love this bookstore. My daughter found a copy of Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes. When she was a toddler, we bought her a copy. She loves this book. It was one of the books that we consistently read to her at bed time. It was her favorite. She brought it to school and lost it (or another child fell in loved with it too). This book is out of print and luckily we found a copy! Not only that, my daughter was happy to also find Twenty One Balloons by William Pene du Bois. This book is also out of print. It was my turn, but I didn’t have time to hunt for hard copies of my favorite books. That’s for another time.
One of our family weekend pastimes was to go to a book store and browse at all the different genres. It is nice to feel the pages, look at the covers, and especially read the short bio on the authors. It’s a great way to support our local authors. One example is Armistead Maupin’s Tale of the City (so good!) He used to write a column for the San Francisco Chronicle newspaper (now known as
). Loved all his books. Oops, I just got sidetracked!
This bookstore has been here for years. It is located on Castro street, Mountain View. The retail stores & restaurants in the area are rapidly changing and moving towards trendy. I hope this bookstore and some of the other veteran businesses continue to thrive as mainstays of the neighborhood business community.

You could spend hours here! I came to sell a good amount of books I had, took store credit which was very fair compared to most other places I have used. They only buy books on Thursdays from 3−8pm. I was lucky I just went on a random Thursday during those hours. They took the majority of my books I thought I would be left with at least 1 of the bags I brought in. Nope! Most are gone :) (most were travel books, children’s books, and some novels)

Great store for general browsing. The layout has changed a few times in recent years but generally it can be semi disorganized and challenging to find particular subject areas — still… that’s half the fun of a used bookstore. The volume of the books is pretty high so there is a lot to see. I don’t suggest visiting to find a particular book, but it’s a great place for a Friday stroll.
The store offers music and other media, but I’d only visit for the books as far better stores are in the vicinity for used media.

While I only turned in books for credit — I have to say it was easy and I feel I got a VERY fair price. I’m a huge book worm and any book worm will tell you it’s hard to part with books. I am about to move and finally did the tedious chore of going through my bookcases and picking out ones I did not enjoy, won’t ever read or just am not interested in the subject anymore. After filling 3 small Lowe’s moving boxes, I put them in the corner wondering what in the world I was going to do with them. Libraries never want them… garage sales drive me crazy. Can’t just throw them out. that’s blasphemy! That’s when a friend told me about Bookbuyers and sure enough, he didn’t steer me wrong.
They told me they would take the boxes any time they were open and as long as I wasn’t expecting cash or same day turn around, drop them off and they’ll get to them as soon as they could. I dropped them off before Thanksgiving, thinking maybe I’d hear back in December sometime (Holidays can be crazy) but within a week, they already had a number!
Easy, fast, fair. How can you go wrong? Looking forward to coming in and spending the credit… I’m sure it won’t be hard at all.

Support local businesses and the old fashioned bookstore concept! BookBuyers appears to be in hard times — there are flyers hung up inside that talk about the uncertain future of the store.
It’s a gem of a store. You can find used books on pretty much every subject. Browsing the shelves is like digging through a treasure chest! Also, the racks of $ 1 hardcover books outside the door are great, I found some great fiction and nonfiction reads there.

BookBuyers is simply one of the best bookstores in the Bay Area.
Huge selection, unbelievably low prices and a great location in Downtown Mountain View.
Another thing I really appreciate is the fact that unlike many independent bookstores in the Bay Area the management doesn’t continually cram some silly Leftist agenda down your throat (yes, I’m talking about you City Lights). I’m sure most of us don’t need a bookstore to tell us how to think or what we should read, we simply like books of all types to be made available and BookBuyers does just that.

HELP SAVE BOOK BUYERS — just heard that as they approach their 25^th anniversary they may have to close if things do not improve, I love this store, a real gem on Castro Street. I would really hate to see it close, only to be replaced by yet another restaurant or a worse yet a corporate chain business. The owner is doing all he can to keep the store open. If you value independent book stores please stop in and spend a bit of $$. I am guilty of giving into Amazon Prime way too often, heading downtown to buy some books! read more about Book Buyers

As someone who enjoys bookstores (I get this warm, fuzzy feeling each time I walk into one), it makes me sad to see the trend of bookstores going out of business over the recent years.
It’s no surprise that BookBuyers has been facing the challenges of competitors like Amazon who offer convenience and low prices, and recently BookBuyers announced that the store is currently going through financial hardships. There is even a post on their website titled, «BookBuyers 25^th Year: Will It Be Its Last?»
Over the years I have created many fond memories of this place — including selling back books, interacting with the helpful and friendly staff, finding rare/​out of print books, browsing their (almost) endless selection for hours, etc…
I would hate to see a store like this (which is very undervalued) go out of business since it’s such a gem to the community. They even have a new lounge area with a couch and they are reorganizing the store as well to be more spacious and organized.
I recently went by and picked out three books, and I will certainly be back!

My boyfriend introduced me to this store late one night after dinner, and it’s the kind of place that you can get lost in for hours because there are so many interesting books/​categories of books to look at! The prices are also extremely reasonable, books are just so ridiculously priced now that finding a shop which sells gently used books for a reasonable price is a treat! The organization rivals some major bookstores which I’ve been in, with larger categories broken into manageable groups so that if you’re looking for something specific, you’re likely to find it.
The staff was also really friendly! I would love to visit again soon

My girlfriend went inside for a postcard, and we walked out with a postcard and a book.
You will be pleasantly surprised with the collection of books here. Even a non-​reader like me is impressed. The postcards here are unique from the supermarkets. I’ve shown you one…
They do have a romance section full of exciting stories if you need a break. There’s a sofa waiting for ya. But what my gf and I need are this little cute book in red.

Great used bookstore on a busy street, which make this a nice place in which to escape the crowds for a while. This place is larger than it appears from the outside, and their selection of used books is reasonably extensive. Unlike many used bookstores, this actually has a really large selection of child and young adult books.
Prices are about what you’d expect from a used bookstore, but on a recent trip we found a 1964 imprint of an L. Frank Baum book that probably retails for $ 50 elsewhere, but we picked it up for $ 10. I’m sure there’s other treasures to be found in there.

If you have an hour or so to spare, come have a looksie. You’ll always find something
There is a new little sofa and chair in the front corner which is really nice.
It’s always fun to come and nose around

I echo my good friends comment about bookstores. We both love the smell of old books or just books in general.
Of course I love my kindle and my iPad too. What can I say? I appreciate modern things but I also look forward (backwards?) to touching and reading the «real» books. Paperbacks. Its nostalgic and its sometimes great to curl up with a book made of paper. Yes. That book. I do handle the paper kind everyday but not the leisurely reading that I so love.
This bookstore is lovely to peruse ye old books. You can also find new reading materials. Or like me a 2015 calendar. It was 40% the day we walked in. Score!
The lady behind the counter was easy to talk to and very helpful. It is a dwindling number of this kind of store everywhere. Replaced by electronic everything. If this happens for good; I’m going to be one of those sad souls walking around wishing that they haven’t disappeared forever!

Once this place was a collectors dream, with members of the Church Of Anada (owners of the bookstore) giving up incredible collections of vintage magazines, comic books, sports programs, paperbacks and more for the store to sell at very cheap prices.
Those days are gone.
Still one of the funnest places to shop for a good used read, but that’s about it. The days of really interesting stuff coming in here seem to have dried up with the sex scandals that rocked the church a few years back. Now if they get anything collectible it’s a pretty safe bet it’ll be at about 200% of retail value…
I used to get comic books that they paid a dime for for $ 30 or $ 40 that were worth $ 150 to $ 200. Now they have signed graphic novels worth about $ 50 on Ebay for $ 200 in store. Really sad and a shame what has happened here!

There are only a few places I can stay planted for hours and forget about my woes and worries and this place happens to be one of them.
On a spontaneous trip to Mountain View via Light Rail, I was delighted to find this awesome and affordable bookstore. Not only did I take a trip down memory lane but I got 3 Fear Street books for my daughter. I bought her a Kindle Fire not too long ago but I can see that it was hardly used to read so I confiscated it and decided to buy her actual reading material instead.
It’s a huge bookstore but not to fear, everything is categorized and organized. Staff are there to help and I can tell that they’re there because they want to be there. Prices are very reasonable — perhaps too cheap but I am certainly not complaining.
Highly recommend: support local bookstores!

Librairie quasi-​anachronique sur Castro. Je dis ça car c’est en fait un bouquiniste, avec un choix gigantesque de livres d’occasion et une ambiance bohème vieillotte, un peu cracra, un peu bordélique, qui fait agréablement tache sur la proprette, riche et high-​tech Castro Street. Spécialité de calendriers illustrés particulièrement quétaines, dédiés au choix aux chatons ou aux avions de combat ou à n’importe quoi entre les deux. J’adore.