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AyRojgar

Second-hand book shop

Buying used books and selling them on. In the Purana Paltan market in Dhaka used books went at roughly Tk 20-30 a book in May 2024. In Nilkhet shop rents ran from Tk 12,000 to Tk 50,000 a month on advances of Tk 2 lakh to Tk 8 lakh.

  • Last reviewed: 21 September 2026
  • Version 1
Second-hand book shop

Second-hand book shop

Starting capital
৳2,50,000 – ৳9,50,000
Editorial estimate
Manpower
1 – 4 people
First sale
3 – 45 days
Editorial estimate
Break-even
6 – 34 months
Editorial estimate
Kind of work
Shop · Medium difficulty

About the business

Buying used books and selling them again. The stock comes from several places: students who have finished with them, readers returning novels, and a few standing 'parties' who bring them in by the sackful. Books are bought by weight or by the heap and sold by the title, and the gap between those two is where the money is. The biggest place for books in Dhaka is Nilkhet, where one report counts about 750 bookshops, though another a decade earlier counted nearly 400; neither is an official census. Banglabazar is the wholesale ground for new books. There are markets beyond Nilkhet too, on Topkhana Road in Purana Paltan and at Gate 5 of the stadium in Mirpur-2. At Purana Paltan one buyer took four books for Tk 80 and a regular took 67 books for under Tk 2,000. The shop overhead is large next to those prices: in Nilkhet a small shop was rented at Tk 12,000 a month against a Tk 2 lakh advance, and a larger one at Tk 50,000 against Tk 8 lakh. A substantial part of this market is photocopied and pirated textbooks, and that is a criminal matter. Under the Copyright Act 2023, selling an infringing copy, offering it for sale or displaying it commercially is itself infringement, punishable with up to four years' imprisonment and up to Tk 5 lakh in fines. Holding the plates or soft copies used to make infringing copies carries up to two years or Tk 2 lakh, and a second conviction carries up to five years or Tk 5 lakh.

Unit economics

ItemRangeEvidenceSuggest a correction
Monthly working capital৳12,000 – ৳50,000Market quote
Selling price৳20 – ৳30 / unitMarket quote
Variable cost৳5 – ৳15 / unitEditorial estimate
Gross margin50% – 75%Editorial estimate
Time to first revenue3 – 45 daysEditorial estimate
Break-even time6 – 34 monthsEditorial estimate
Cash cycle0 – 120 daysEditorial estimate
Waste / loss10% – 30%Editorial estimate
Daily capacity30 – 200Editorial estimate

What you need to start

  • Wooden or steel shelving, a weighing scale for buying by weight, polythene or tarpaulin, and a phone with decent light if you sell online. Prices could not be verified here.Equipment
  • An opening pile of books. Used books are bought by weight or by the heap and sold by the title; at the Purana Paltan market they were selling at roughly Tk 20-30 a book. The per-kilogram buying rate could not be verified from any source and should be checked locally with the scrap dealers and the 'parties' before starting.Starting stock
  • Trade licence from the city corporation, municipality or union parishad: form Tk 10, licence book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000, issued in 3-5 working days and renewed yearly. In the DNCC area the application is online at erevenue.dncc.gov.bd, issued in 3 working days and renewed in 2, with the fee set under section 10(4) of the City Corporation Model Tax Schedule 2016.Licence
  • Remembering which edition of which textbook is current, pricing a book by its condition, telling a pirated print from a genuine one, and recognising a scarce title. That eye is the difference between a Tk 20 book and a Tk 2,000 one.Skill
  • Three supply lines: students selling after exams, readers returning novels, and the standing 'parties' who bring books in by the sack. For new books, the wholesale market at Banglabazar.Supplier
  • A shop on a student walking route. In Nilkhet a small shop was Tk 12,000 a month against a Tk 2 lakh advance and a larger one Tk 50,000 against Tk 8 lakh, reported by shopkeepers and over 12 months old. Books are heavy, so the floor must take the load and the roof must not leak.Workspace

How the work is done

  1. 1Decide what you will sell: textbooks and guides, or novels and general books. Textbooks move faster but the stock dies when the edition changes; novels move slowly but never go out of date.
  2. 2Choose the spot. A used book shop does not work unless students walk past it: a college gate, the road beside a university, or a coaching cluster.
  3. 3Find out the rent and the advance first. In Nilkhet shopkeepers reported Tk 12,000 a month with a Tk 2 lakh advance for a small shop and Tk 50,000 with Tk 8 lakh for a larger one. The advance is the single biggest outlay here.
  4. 4Take the trade licence from the city corporation or municipality: form Tk 10, book Tk 50, standard tax Tk 30, stamp Tk 150-300, licence fee Tk 100-60,000, issued in 3-5 working days.
  5. 5Build the supply lines. Students come to sell after exams, readers return novels, and a few standing 'parties' bring books in by the sack. Without those three the shelves empty out.
  6. 6Open the books when you buy. Torn pages, the year of the edition, marks inside. Buy the heap without checking and half of it never sells.
  7. 7For new books go to the wholesale market at Banglabazar. What commission publishers give could not be verified here, so take rates from several publishers before you stock up.
  8. 8Do not stock photocopied or pirated books. Under the Copyright Act 2023 selling an infringing copy, offering it for sale or displaying it in the shop is itself infringement, and section 84 carries up to 4 years' imprisonment and up to Tk 5 lakh in fines.
  9. 9Shelve textbooks by subject and class and keep a note of which edition is current. Students ask for the edition number, not the title.
  10. 10Stock up ahead of the admission and academic seasons. December to February and July to August are when sales rise; empty shelves then cost you the year.
  11. 11Open an online line with photographs. Buyers for scarce titles live outside the city, and that is where the better prices come from.
  12. 12Protect the books from rain and damp: polythene, raised shelves, and a cover if you sell off a pavement table. A wet book is an unsellable book.

Seasons

  1. JanHigh
  2. FebHigh
  3. MarNormal
  4. AprNormal
  5. MayNormal
  6. JunNormal
  7. JulHigh
  8. AugHigh
  9. SepNormal
  10. OctLow
  11. NovNormal
  12. DecHigh
HighNormalLow

Where it works well

  • Strong fitChattogram · The student weight of Chittagong University, Chittagong College and the medical college makes this a steady market for textbooks and guides.
  • Strong fitDhaka · Nilkhet is the country's largest book market, with one report counting about 750 shops. Banglabazar is the wholesale ground for new books, and there are separate second-hand markets on Topkhana Road in Purana Paltan and at the stadium gate in Mirpur-2.
  • Strong fitRajshahi · A large student population around Rajshahi University and Rajshahi College, with admission candidates coming in from the northern districts.
  • PossibleBarishal · Students of Barishal University and BM College, plus those coming in from the southern districts.
  • PossibleBogura · The commercial hub of the north, with students of large colleges such as Azizul Haque College and coaching students from the surrounding districts.
  • PossibleCumilla · Cumilla University, Victoria College and the medical college, and being on the Dhaka-Chattogram highway makes bringing stock from Nilkhet easy.
  • PossibleKhulna · Demand around Khulna University, KUET and the medical college, with students from the southern districts looking for books here.
  • PossibleMymensingh · Large student numbers at Bangladesh Agricultural University and Ananda Mohan College, and because agriculture and medical textbooks are expensive the demand for used copies is strong.
  • PossibleRangpur · A student base around Begum Rokeya University, Carmichael College and the medical college, though with lower spending power the market for expensive titles is small.
  • PossibleSylhet · Students of Shahjalal University of Science and Technology and MC College are the main buyers, though the market is far smaller than Dhaka's.

Risks and cautions

  • HighCompliance: Photocopied and pirated textbooks are a large part of this market and are plainly criminal under the Copyright Act 2023. Section 69 makes selling an infringing copy, offering it for sale or hire, displaying it commercially or distributing it all infringement. Section 84 carries up to 4 years and up to Tk 5 lakh, or up to 6 months or Tk 50,000 where the court is satisfied it was not for profit. Holding plates or soft copies for making infringing copies carries up to 2 years or Tk 2 lakh or both under section 105, and a second offence up to 5 years or Tk 5 lakh under section 106. 'Everyone keeps them' is not a defence.
  • HighWorking capital: The largest sum goes into the shop advance, Tk 2 to 8 lakh in Nilkhet, which is refundable but locked up while you trade. On top of that is Tk 12,000-50,000 of monthly rent. Books sell at Tk 20-30, so covering the rent alone means selling from a few hundred to over two thousand books a month. A bad season and the rent eats everything.
  • HighDemand: When a textbook edition or a syllabus changes, the stock is worthless overnight. A book worth Tk 300 last year has to go by weight once the edition turns over. Nilkhet shopkeepers have said before that when demand falls they lay off staff to survive.
  • MediumSpoilage: Wet or damp books are finished. On pavements and temporary stalls one monsoon downpour ruins part of the pile, and nobody buys a wet book. The struggle of Nilkhet booksellers in rain and storm has been written up on its own.
  • MediumDependency: The stock depends entirely on who turns up to sell. As students move to PDFs and online notes the supply of used books itself dries up, and filling the shelves then means buying new books from Banglabazar, where the margin is far thinner.

Sources

What changed

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Stories about this business

What went wrongA secondhand bookseller in Cumilla, in a Bangla Tribune report

A day's 60,000-70,000 taka of sales is now barely a month's

What this 45-year-old secondhand book shop once took in a single day it now barely takes in a month, and the Moghaltuli-Dharampur shops are down from about ten to four.

Reasons
Weak demand

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