I was in Oxford at the weekend and, since I needed to get hold of a vocal score of the Mikado, thought I might look for a second-hand one. But second-hand sheet music is now hard to find on sale in shops on the street. Blackwell’s Music Shop used to have a large bookcase of it, but that has gone. I suspect it disappeared when the shop moved from Holywell St. to the Broad a few years ago; at the same time the balance between shelf space for sheet music and for CDs seems to have shifted in favour of the latter. With the (relatively recent) closure of Russell Acott’s and the (longer ago) closure of Taphouse’s, there are now no other specialist music shops in central Oxford (I would love to be corrected on this).
I had a look in some second-hand bookshops but drew a blank on music except in the Oxfam bookshop on St. Giles’, which had a few bankers’ boxes of it. (The Oxfam bookshop on the Triangle in Bristol is rather better supplied in that respect). Perhaps I tried the wrong places and again I’d love to be corrected.
I suppose second-hand sheet music has largely moved to being sold on-line or from catalogues. This is a pity because it doesn’t allow you to drop in and browse during a shopping trip. I imagine a large proportion of it is almost unsaleable, being stuff that has fallen out of the repertoire, and so not worth the rental cost of the shop space.
There is a market for 2nd hand organ music but, as you say, it is online. Most copies of the RSCM magazine carry an advertisement. Sometimes there are messages about music on Freecycle. [Sorry if there are typing errors; I am typing across the dates on the RH menu since my screen resolution is not helpful.] This does not help you browse in a shop and I suspect your analysis is correct.
I’m told there is a good source of second-hand sheet music in Bristol, in St. Nicholas’ market. I’ll investigate, although I don’t often shop in central Bristol because the shopping there is so dismal.
Archive Bookstore’s website gives no interactive online catalogue but does give location and opening times of the old book and music shop( mon-sat, 10.30- 6pm) trading for the last thirty years in secondhand books and a wide range of printed music popular and classical at 83 Bell Street London NW1 within 1 mile of Paddington Station ; and by car it is just off Cosway Street , which is the first left turn after coming ( from Oxford ) over the Edgware Road via westway on to the Marylebone Road.
I was taken today to an Oxford shop I didn’t know about, ‘Antiques on High’ which has an extensive second-hand sheet music section. It’s not always shelved in very precise order so requires time to browse.