About Us

Rammurti and Sita Reed opened BookBuyers in 1990, in the Old San Andreas Health Clinic building on Cowper Street in Palo Alto. Rammurti, who opened his first bookstore in 1967 in Chicago, was then the CEO of a computer retailer, and had been looking for a new opportunity a little closer to his heart. After the first few months the couple moved the store to the old Bank of America building on Emerson Street, just off University. There the store grew, adding calendars, computer books, vintage magazines, music CDs and art prints to the offerings of books, tapes and records.

After three years, the building on the corner of Emerson and University was slated to be torn down. Unable to find a landlord willing to rent a large space to a “used book store” along University, the entire shop - stock, fixtures and all - was moved into the former Hobby Shop at the old San Antonio mall which was empty and awaiting demolition. After about five months in storage, a new home in Mountain View on Castro Street was found for the store. Here we have been playing with books, happily, ever since. We hope you can join us at one of the best and largest used book stores in California.