When I was young I used to spend hours in secondhand music shops - but do they exist any more? When I buy books I always check our local secondhand bookstores (2 charity shops and 1 independent) as well as a couple of websites - but none of them do secondhand music. It does seem strange as there must be rafts of sheet music and scores that people no longer want. Does anyone have any recommendations?

Google for 'secondhand sheet music' - several come up; can't recommend any from personal experience though. Some items also appear on ebay, and bound sheet music is often available via abebooks and amazon marketplace sellers - I have always found these reliable.

best
Nick

Some of the Oxfam shops I've been in have good selections of sheet music - I think they "pool" what they get so certain shops specialise in keeping a stock of it.

I don't know whereabouts in the country you are but there's lots of recommendations in this thread...

Great Little Shops for Secondhand Sheet Music

I love browsing round secondhand sheet music shops - I'm hoping to get to Hay on Wye in the summer where I know there are dozens of bookshops and if anyone can recommend any that are good for sheet music, it would be great if I knew which ones to make a bee-line for!

I've also found a few good things at Oxfam, but our local Amnesty International secondhand bookshop is better. It has a big sheet music section.

The best one I know and can recommend (no connection except as a customer) is Stone Trough Books in Fossgate, York. They have a whole roomful of second hand music for all instruments, all at bargain prices. I visit on average once a month and have been known to spend up to 3 hours at a time browsing and invariably come away with something interesting. They also have a big collection of second hand music related books.

Agreed! My sheet music collection has expanded considerably since I moved to York...

I went into Stone Trough and I agree it's got a very large selection - just not my sort of music unfortunately

On the other hand, there's a bookshop next door but one where upstairs they have several shelves devoted to music books (and a few items of sheet music as well where I found something I wanted even though they just had one small box )

Find the jigsaw puzzle shop towards the bottom of the town, and go down the road a bit further and there's a bookshop on the left; the music section is towards the back of the shop.

Thanks!

Last year I went to the bookshop just after the Hay festival was on (this year's festival is on now), and picked up some brand new music at second hand prices. When I went to pay, the lady on the desk said that they'd had some contributions from either an orchestra or opera group visiting during the festival, so were particularly well stocked. It's one of my favourite music shops.

I go to our local Oxfam bookshop about once a month. Sometimes I am lucky and get several books - like last week, I got about 10 books, all of which I will most likely use and all for about £20. On the other hand, there might be a day when I come away with just one find, usually a tatty old book from the bygone era!! Last time it was a tune a day for flute - first edition! Maybe it will be worth thousands...

I was going to open a thread on shops for second-hand music and books on music and found this old one...

Anyone got any updates?

I am going to be in the UK in July-August and would like to get some more music (woodwind mainly) without spending a fortune. I'll be in London and probably at some point in the vicinity of Bristol, Gloucester, York, maybe Winchester. Anyone got any favourite places for second-hand music (or books o music) there?

Or anywhere else for that matter.

If you get up to Durham the Oxfam shop has a music section on the top floor. I believe that with major charities they try to send music to a few central shops to keep the choice as broad as possible in those shops that do stock music.

Canterbury's Oxfam Shop has a really good range of music as well - especially choral scores.

Brousing for second-hand music is wonderful, but it seems to me that Ebay has really taken over this corner of the market.

From experience I can vouch for what wendywoo says. I've found the Canterbury Oxfam shop good for organ musicvas well.

What I really want to know, though, is what churches do with music they no longer want. Bet they don't put it on e-bay.

P4

I hadn't seen this thread when I started one in Adult Learners:
http://www.abrsm.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=47258

Thanks ChristopherO - I knew I'd seen something recently on Malvern and I had it on my possible holiday stopping-off point list. ... I thought you'd said it was closing but now I think about it, I think it was somebody else lamenting the demise of a in Bath...

One day some time when I'm not too busy (though I can't imagine when that will be) I might do a consolidation job on these different threads...

As already said, his stock comes from a dealer in Oxford once a month, so I now go in around the 10th each month.
Stock is very variable - whilst I got three pieces on my first visit, last visit there were only beginner books for clarinet in the woodwind box but a whole pile for flute.
There is an Oxfam shop in the centre of Worcester so I'll call in there as well.
If you do come Malvern way, let me know.
You also may have seen that I am planning a get together locally next spring:
http://www.abrsm.org/forum/index.php?showtopic=47190

Can you recall if there was much piano music available ChristopherO?

I never looked carefully but my impression was, yes, a fair bit.
But I don't know what standard it is.
If you plan to take a look why not call me and we could have a coffee a few doors along from the shop?.

Thought I would revive this thread to say that Scarthin Books in Cromford (Derbyshire) has quite a big selection of secondhand sheet music plus several shelves of scores. It's sorted into instruments etc. I'll confess to not buying anything because it wasn't easy to look through, but if you're prepared to rummage about (space is limited - you need to take the piles of music down and sort through them!) I'm sure there are some bargains to be had!

Eric T Moore in Hitchen has a good selection too - I got some good stuff for both recorder and cello last time I was there.

Exeter Oxfam (music shop) has (or had) a few interesting bits. Particularly recorder consort stuff, but some other woodwind instruments around. Didn't look throught the string or piano bits, but managed to accumulate Faure Fantasie (too hard at the moment, but would have been rude to ignore for ?2.99), Telemann Suite in A Minor, Godard Allegretto from Suite de 3 Morceaux and Quantz Concerto in G major. There was also a Hindemith Acht Stucke which I decided against and some flute duets/flute with other instrument things too.