178. Buying Religious Articles from a Non-Jew

28:10 A person who destroys holy books violates the negative commandment, "Do not do so to Hashem your God" (Deuteronomy 12:4). We must correct bookbinders who glue pages from holy texts inside the covers of other books. Care should also be taken when giving old seforim to non-Jewish bookbinders for repair. One should remove the old covers and put them aside so that the bookbinder will not end up using them for secular books.

28:11 One should not purchase Torah scrolls, tefillin or mezuzos from a non-Jew for more than they're worth so that we don't provide motivation for people to steal them. We are, however, obligated to purchase these things at their proper value (or a little more - Mishnah Brurah 39:17), even if they're just going to end up in sheimos. If the non-Jewish seller demands an unreasonable price, we should try to convince him to sell at an appropriate price. If he won't budge on the price, we should let him hold on to the sacred object. We should not ask a non-Jew to sell the religious article for less than this proper cost for fear that he will become disgusted and throw the item away.