Hard to Find Books - Rare and Hard to Find Books

The legendary Hard to Find Bookshop (although it didn't have a name then) began in a garage in John Street, Ponsonby in 1983. In 1984 it moved to a shop in Onehunga (now David Tua's boxing gym), and in 1988 to a historic mainstreet Onehunga location - formerly the Sai Louie Fruit & Veg shop from 1928-1988. We stayed for 35 years. At one point the business expanded to nine stores in five different cities until Warwick realised empire building wasn't really his passion and sold off many of the shops, a few of which still survive in new hands today.
He did open one more shop in 2013... our Dunedin store which also houses our Internet stock. On June 13th 2018 the Onehunga store closed, opening again on 15th June 2018 at our miraculous new location - 2-8 St Benedict's Street, Eden Terrace, Auckland. The Hard to Find Books Online website debuted in 1998 although we had been selling books online since 1997. Now you can find over 160,000 books in our online catalogue, plus our books are listed on overseas websites - with a worldwide following keeping an eye on what we offer. The books instore are not listed online - Auckland has around 90,000 instore, Dunedin around 50,000 (plus Dunedin has direct access to the 160,000+ online books). Once we include the books we have awaiting processing our total stock is in the vicinity of 1,000,000 titles (probably more... no-one is counting but it they take up more than 40,000 square feet of space packed tight!!)

Please note: Internet stock is NOT held at our Auckland store

What you can expect to find in our online bookshop is internationally competitive prices for a huge range of books that cover most subjects imaginable: for the collector of rare or valuable books and first editions through to those wanting car manuals (we have the largest second-hand range online in New Zealand - currently around 20,000 titles online on New Zealand topics alone and adding more every day.... in fact within New Zealand we have easily the largest range of just about every topic) or an affordable good old-fashioned read, Hard to Find often has books that have faded from public view…and here’s the place where you might find them.

Good books are hard to find and Hard to Find Books are good books.

Two Locations

Hard to Find Books have two locations:

Dunedin
20 Dowling Street
Dunedin 9016
Phone 03 471 8518
books@hardtofind.co.nz
Open: 9.30am - 5.15pm, 7 days

Auckland
2-8 St Benedicts Street
Eden Terrace
Auckland 1010, NZ
Phone 09 368 4898
books2@hardtofind.co.nz
Open: 9.30am to 5.30pm - 7 days

Internet shop is online and avaiable seven days a week

Warwick Jordan – the founder behind the bookshop

Warwick is obsessed with books and reading. His love of literature started when he was young - he had a adult reading age at five and won a writing prize at the age of ten - and has continued well beyond his five years at Waikato University where he gained a Masters in Literature.

After a slight career deviation into high rise window cleaning and three years on PEP East Coast Bays Council labouring scheme where he began as a labourer and ended up the only non-tradesman supervisor, Warwick continued his love affair with books managing a bookshop in Victoria St market for a couple of years before developing his own hand-operated letterpress printing and publishing business, Hard Echo Press, originally started in 1978.

Hard Echo Press has been on hiatus since 1991, but The Hard to Find Bookshop has consolidated its presence as one of New Zealand’s best secondhand bookshops, and Warwick is currently concentrating on Hard to Find Books Online and developing the newly located Auckland store... generating a different and unique style. One thing that never changes is Warwick’s passion for the treasure hunt to find books that excite both readers and collectors.

With his years of experience, he knows the value of books as pleasurable acquisitions or as old friends, and also from a commercial viewpoint (often intrinsic value can be at variance with financial value, and in Warwick's opinion nothing trumps sentimental value).