An Old Boot's Tale of a Car Boot Sale! Car boot sales. (Car Boot Sales)

Member Name: GillMN

Product:	Car Boot Sales
Date:	04/05/09 (425 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great day out, bargains, meeting interesting people.

Disadvantages: Some rubbish, dodgy toilets.

My favourite car boot sale is at Chirk, near Wrexham. On a good day it can be absolutely huge and fill the airfield where it is held. The stewards here are friendly and helpful and unlike some car boot sales you get a decent amount of space if you want to sell.

I can often be found here on a Sunday morning, rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and wrestling with my tables. I mostly sell jewellery, books and lumps of rock. I will sell any bits and bobs that I (or the family) no longer want. (and some that they do!) I absolutely love it, no two days are the same and the customers are usually very entertaining. (When I get any!)

Let me talk you through the day I had yesterday.

7.30. Arrived at Chirk to a full field and ended up in the very last row. (That will teach me to fiddle about on here reading and rating, instead of getting in my car a bit earlier!) Never mind, at least I'm not a mile and a half away from the toilets!

7.35. Parked up and started to get my tables out of the car. Answered about ten people about whether I had.....
Any mobile phones?... No phones.
Any gold?.... I wish!
Any old jewellery?.... About half a car full but you will have to hang on a bit.

7.40. Put the table cover on.

7.41. Retrieved cloth from the floor where it had blown off!.

7.45. Politely dissuaded a dealer from rummaging in my car.

7.47. Put the cloth back on and got said dealer to hold on to it whilst I weighted it down with a box of books.

7.49. Gave dealer a box of silver bits to rummage through whilst I carry on unpacking.

8.05. Ask the dealer if he has considered auditioning for 'The Comedians' when he offers me £20.00 for the lot. Finally settle on £42.00. A decent start to the day.

8.15. Finally set up and I am being driven mad by the aroma of bacon butties wafting from the distant butty van. You can't do a car boot sale without having a bacon butty! It's not allowed! Even if you're a vegetarian!

9.00. A very kind customer offers to go and get me a butty and a cup of tea. I grovel with thankfulness!

9.15. Eat butty and decide it's a wonderful world and all that are in it are completely marvellous human beings.

9.25. Ask an old gentleman not to let his dog pee on my table legs. Too late! I never blooming well liked Pekinese anyway! At least it didn't pee on my box of books!

9.40. Answer some more questions about what pieces of rose quartz do.
"I know some people say they have healing powers but I am selling them because they are beautiful, not because they 'do' anything!"
"Your sister is a healer and she says they cure all sorts of things? Well my rocks don't, they just sit there being rocky, like rocks do!"
"That big piece is £3.00." No, I won't take 50p for it, thanks anyway!"
"No, sorry, I won't take 70p either!"
"Okay, £2.50 is fine but I haven't got a gift box that big."

9.45. I reflect on how people can think a piece of stone can make someone calm. Perhaps if it were a big enough piece and landed on their head they would be calm all the time they were unconscious!

10.00 Sell a lot of books to a group of pleasant Polish lads. They were all excited about getting so many text books for 50p each. One of them bought an old Guiness Book of Records. He stood for ages regaling us with amazing facts. In Polish! I had to keep slowing him down whilst I explained some of the ideas to them. I think they went off looking for a phone box to cram themselves and another nineteen folk into! I can imagine the conversation in the pub later that night! "Did you know Igor, the English amuse themselves by getting into phone boxes? And they think we are odd! Amazing! Mines a wodka please!"

10.02 Desperate for the loo, I ask the lady on the next stall to look after my stuff whilst I go. She is fine about that but wants to know the price of everything. Legs crossed I explain and then say "Tell them to wait, I won't be long!" and run off up the field.

10.05. Get to what are laughingly described as the 'conveniences'. They are no laughing matter because there is a huge queue. Cross my legs again and hope no-one is sitting in a cubicle writing their will! The toilets are looking decidely lopsided and the truck thing they are in has a full set of flat tyres. The metal steps are leaning sideways too! I know this set of loos well. Because of the incline none of the doors fit so you have to pee and hold the door shut. No mean feat I can tell you!

10.10. Finally get in a cubicle and suprise suprise! No loo paper and the door is having an identity crisis and won't act like a door! At least this block has running water, unfortunately it's running down the floor because of the incline and because a handbasin is blocked. It's best to use the cubicle on the left because the water from the leaking cisterns (etc) runs downhill away from it! I think about whether I would get into the Guiness Book of Records as the person who can pee at the craziest angle whilst holding a door shut with her foot and not getting the bottom of her jeans wet!

10.15. Return to my stall where my beleaguered new friend has sold £22.00 pounds worth of silver jewellery and some books for me. I thank her and consider leaving her in charge again because she has sold more than I have all morning!

10.30. The stewards come round to collect the stall fees. £8.00 well spent in my opinion. I ask when they are going to invest in some loo roll for the toilets and am told that they put two dozen rolls in the loos earlier and some one has nicked them. I surreptitiously glance round the adjoining stalls to see if anyone is selling unwrapped Andrex! No joy!

10.35. I gently retrieve a teddy bear from a passing infant. His parents explain that he can't have the bear and "You can't just help yourself" The infant is not happy. I consider whether to just give him the bear but decide not to because I don't want to undermine his Mum. The poor child is carted off, screaming. I feel like Attilla the Hun. I restrain the urge to run after them with the blooming bear. I settle for telling the bear off for upsetting the child.

10.45. Sell a pendant and chain to a very fussy lady who tries about sixteen of them on before she chooses one. I know in my bones that she will change her mind before she leaves the field and will want to change it. I fantasise about making her a teeshirt saying "I used to be indecisive but I'm not sure now!" it amuses me and I return to sorting the books out.

11.05. Lady from the next stall gives me the most beautiful red alpaca jumper because she has noticed I am cold. She refuses all offers of payment saying it was going to a charity shop anyway. Warmed by the gesture and the jumper I carry on sorting the books.

11.25. Mrs Decisive returns and asks if she can change her pendant. I change it and smile to myself, smug in my assessment of human behaviour!

11.30. Need the loo again and wonder if I am turning into an inverted fountain. Enrol the very nice lady from next door and remember to get tissues from the car. Go to the loo!

11.35. It is a miracle! No queue and a roll of toilet paper! Luxury!

11.40. Go back to my stall the long way round so I can have a nosey at all the bargains. Buy some dog chews, a boxed set of historical fiction for £2.00! and unwisely get myself another cup of tea.

11.55. Remember that I have left my tea on someones stall and run back for it! Doh!

12.00. Rescue the clothes rack from the stall on the other side of me which has been blown over for the sixth time! We tie it to the car with a spare bungey so it sits there wobbling precariously but still upright. Just. The wind is becoming a problem now and various items keep flipping off my stall as well.

12.10. Explain to someone that I can't give change of a £50.00 note for a 50p book. This is a downright lie! I have plenty of change but I don't want to risk the note being a forgery. Car boot sales are notoriously easy places for unscrupulous people to pass forged notes. I lie because I don't want to offend him or risk getting a smack on the nose!

12.25. Go round the stall for the twentieth time today to make a fuss of another gorgeous dog. I love seeing all the different dogs being walked by their owners. (Except when they pee on my stuff! The dogs, not the owners.)

12.35. Start to think about packing up and decide to stay another hour.

12.40. Help an old farmer buy a present for his wife. He sits in the back of the car and has a breather whilst I wrap if for him and he tells me about his promising new sheep dog. He is a bit worried about her because she is afraid of the next door farm's cows. Being afraid of cows seems eminently sane to me if you are a little sheepdog, but what do I know?

01.00. Nice old farmer comes back to show me the pup and to buy another present for his sister. I fall in love with the collie pup and want to keep her. (Not many cows in Runcorn to frighten her.)

01.15. Start to pack up and look forward to meeting a friend for a pub lunch afterwards.

01.30. Unpack some of the car to get a box out for Mrs Decisive who has changed her mind again! Wonder if that will teach me to be smug?

01.50. Go to help the lady next door to fold her stuff up and she gives me another alpaca jumper for my lovely Daughter in Law. Spend a truly fascinating ten minutes hearing about this lady's travels in Peru. I want to go to Peru now!

02.05. Cram the last box into the car and stretch my slightly aching back. Pick up bits of litter from where my stall was and try to find a bin. Have a quick count up of my takings and feel like I've done okay!

02.15. Arrive at the Poachers Pocket Pub for lunch with my friend and a well deserved rest!

There you have it! A typical day for me at a car boot sale. The only regret I have is that I couldn't get a good look round at what some of the many tantalising stalls had on offer.

The days are never quite the same but perhaps reading this you can see why I enjoy them so much.

Thanks for reading!

Summary: A marvellous place for mooching and nattering.