Thrift stores in New York City
121 thrift stores and used bookstores across the five boroughs, mapped borough by borough for book hunters. Pick a borough and plan a route between the shops worth the walk.
Manhattan
51 shops · 7 used bookstores
3rd Avenue holds 5 thrift stores, the highest count of any single street.
Brooklyn
62 shops · 10 used bookstores
Out of the Closet anchors a run of 5 thrift stores within 11 minutes.
Staten Island
8 shops
Thrift stores dominate here, outnumbering used bookstores 7 to 0.
Why thrift stores are the best book hunting there is
Every thrift store shelf is stocked by donation, priced to move, and re-shelved constantly, which makes it the least predictable and most rewarding bookstore format there is. The same shelf can hold airport thrillers, a Pulitzer winner, and an out-of-print favorite someone finally let go of. The catch is volume: reading a few hundred spines shop after shop is where good intentions go to die. That's the bit Spines takes off your hands: photograph the shelf and it identifies every book, pulls ratings, and flags the ones that match your taste. If you're new to the hunt, start with our guide to finding good books in thrift and charity shops.
Hunt smarter in any of them
Spines reads a whole shelf from one photo and shows you which books are worth grabbing — tailored to your taste. Free to try.
Elsewhere? charity shops by city in the UK · thrift stores by province in Canada, or all directories.
Shop data © OpenStreetMap contributors, available under the Open Database License. Shop details can drift out of date — check opening hours before travelling.