Paperback Trader The

Customer service was mediocre. Most of their books were of mediocre quality. I was having a hard time getting over the sanitized smell of the place. A used book store should not smell antiseptic. It should have that hint of vanilla musty smell that comes with large quantities of used books. Seriously, the smell and customer service threw me off so much that I had a hard time focusing on the books. I think I will stick with my regular used book stores.

Recently renovated, easy to find what your looking for. Only down side, waiting for new releases and limited nonfiction selection.

I went to this used bookstore this weekend and traded in some books. It was dark and cramped in the front of the store, and many of the books were in very poor condition. This was definitely a case of quantity over quality. They had 2 or 3 large rooms of books, though mostly series romance and mysteries. Books were stacked upon each other and you had to dig through them to find anything. Many of the sections seemed to be disorganized and not alphabetized. The employees also seemed cranky, and the owner even admitted other bookstores in Redding were better.
I am giving this bookstore 3 stars instead of two because their prices were very reasonable when you have trade credit. I was able to get one book for 20 cents! The trade policy works like this: Bring in your previously read books and they’ll give you ¼th of the original price in credit. With that credit you can apply to a total of 80% of their price (and all of their books are ½ the original publishers price) and then you end up paying 20% of their price plus tax.
If you’re a bookstore aficionado then I would give this store a shot, otherwise there are other bookstores in Redding that are better.
P. S. I forgot to mention that they are cash only, which is kind of inconvenient.