671 Maltman Drive #3
Grass Valley CA 95945
530-273-4002
tomes@nccn.net

Our stock

We carry a  general stock of used books, CDs and DVDs. We think we are strongest in literature, philosophy and religion, art, music, history, politics and children's books but try to keep a reasonable number of books in almost all categories. We have very few romances because Carol's Recycled Paperbacks, which is a two-minute walk away, has that genre in hand. We have very few law books because they date so quickly.

Our books online

We currently have a few dozen books listed on amazon.com. If you live locally and see something that interests you, give us a call and we'll bring the book to the store. That'll save you $3.99.

Requests and questions

If you want to know if we have a book in stock, if you'd like to request us to look out for a book or even order it for you or if you have any other questions, you can call us at 530-273-4002 or email tomes@nccn.net
As good a used book store as you can expect in an area of 25,000 people with a dozen book dealers.

We share space with Sierra Mountain Coffee Roasters, which serves great coffee, tea and other drinks, great light meals and snacks and has the friendliest staff this side of Winnemucca.

The coffee shop is open Monday through Friday from 7  AM to 5 PM, Saturday from 9 to 3. The bookstore may stay open an hour or two later; we're still figuring out what works best. The two businesses share two rooms, one of which has a state-of-the-art dance floor and is available for events: inquire at 530-477-5282. Here's a complete calendar for SMCR.

Eric, the owner of Tomes, is usually on the premises from 10 AM to 5 PM Monday through Friday; he stays until 6 when he can. He comes in on Saturday afternoon when there are book presentations, usually at 2 PM. The Sierra Mountain staff sells the books when he isn't around.
 

Buying and trading

We are always  happy to look at your books. Like most used book dealers, we've accumulated much more over the years than we can fit on our shelves. We are therefore very selective in what we take in but see some books every day that we just can't resist.

We try to keep our prices roughly even for books of the same size and quality. That means that we may sell older books at more than their cover price and new ones at much less. On average we sell mass market paperbacks between $1 and $4, trade paperbacks between $3 and $7 and hardbacks between $6 and $12.

If you want cash for your books we'll usually offer between 30% and 40% of what we'll sell them for depending on how badly we want them. If you want trade credit we'll usually offer between 40% and 50%. We may offer much less for books that we already have copies of. We're glad to give you a mix of cash and credit; we frequently will take some books for credit that we don't want to offer cash for.

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What we're looking for

We'll take really good books in any category. Right now the only categories we're not overstocked in are
  • Native Americans
  • Mythologies
  • Plants (especially wild plants and herbs)
  • Crafts (especially woodworking and textiles)
  • Astrology
  • Children's picture books
Before you come in you can call 273-4002 or email tomes@nccn.net to make sure what categories we need.