Car boot sales: flog your unwanted junk (Car Boot Sales)

Member Name: Stephoohla

Product:	Car Boot Sales
Date:	19/08/09 (137 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Get rid of your rubbish for money, or you can pick up a bargain from a seller

Disadvantages: Pay to get in means you instantly lose money, but you should gain it back if you're selling

The world of car booting is a creative art, and its shocking how many people have either never been, have no idea what goes on, and haven't even heard of a car boot sale.

For those avid sellers, they get up at 5:00 in the morning, take their overflowing car to a big field so that they can embrace a brilliant spot for potential buyers to invest in their old junk.

For those potential buyers, depending on how fanatical they are about spotting a bargain, get up equally early in the morning, drive to said field and then pour over thousands and thousands of items on tables, rugs, car boots, absolutely anywhere where sellable items can be displayed.

The last time I sold at a car boot sale, it was at Weeley in Essex. We left the house quite late, about half past 7 in the morning (well, that's late for a car boot), arrived, and unfortunately had to park right at the back along with the other latecomers. Before we even had got out our pasting table to display our items on, buyers were pouring through our car boot which contained boxes and boxes of junk, and were already making offers on old cameras, hockey sticks, skirts, and the like. I hadn't sold for a while so I was shocked by this recurring theme, but quickly got into it.

My boyfriend who I went with was a car boot virgin. People were asking how much items were and he'd look at me, shrug, look panicked, and then offer £10. At which point I had to intervene, knowing that people who go to car boots don't like spending over £1, and offered a lot less.

Everyone at a car boot is a haggler. Even if you were to offer something for 5p, they'll offer 4p, just knowing that you're wanting to get rid of it so they want to spend as little as possible.

Sellers are car boot sales have stocked a complete variety of things, from DVDs, CDs, sporting equipment, garden gnomes, ornaments, etc, and by looking at the seller you can pretty much judge what sort of things will be on their table. For a young couple, you can imagine lots of DVDs, clothes, magazines, CDs, possibly baby stuff if they have a child. An older couple may have loads of ornaments that aren't needed anymore, old electrical equipment, and the like. There are also plenty of market traders there who will be seller things in bulk such as cleaning equipment, car accessories and potted plants.

The buyers at car boot sales do vary a lot, as it isn't just old folk who wander around wanting a bargain. Times have changed and plenty of young people do it now too. Some people don't mind spending lots of money, and end up coming home with loads of rubbish that they don't want, and some are highly stingy and refuse to pay full price, therefore go home with nothing but missing out on complete bargains.

If you are a seller, I recommend taking loads of change with you. I also recommend you don't price anything above £4, and take as much with you as possible, as even though a broken cassette player is useless to you, it may be someone else's treasure, and if you can score 50p from it, then that's money for you that you wouldn't otherwise have. Quite a lot of first time sellers will refuse lower offers because they dwell too much on how much the item cost in the first place and decide it isn't worth it. That isn't the way to be. You've got to decide for a car boot to bring everything you own which you don't use or need anymore, and absolutely everything you want to get rid of, no matter what the price is.

Marking prices on things using sticky labels is important, as lots of buyer's are too lazy to ask the price of everything, and will just not bother. I find that taking extra sticky labels helps too, because as the hours go on, you can lower the price of everything to try and get rid.

The common rule is: mark everything up at a tiny bit more than you want for an item (realistically) at the start, and as each hour goes by, knock more money off. By the end when you're left with only the crap, put everything at about 10p just to get rid of it. Ta da, a productive day of making money and ridding your home of crap!

If you're a buyer, a good tip is to bring plenty of change. Most people are selling items for 10p, 20p, 50p, etc, and if you only bring £10 notes, then you're ARE going to hack off sellers who don't have very much change to give you, and might even refuse sale if you're going to clear them out of their much needed coppers.

Also, if you're a buyer, you must remember to try and haggle. Even if an item is being sold for a great price, you should try and knock some off. These people are wanting to get rid of their rubbish, and you can definitely benefit from this.

At most car boot sales there's car parking, and are mostly sign posted as they are big events, so you should know when they are happening.

One important thing to remember is that you do have to pay to get into them. For buyers, it's normally a couple of pound, and for seller's it's normally £10 for a car, and £15 for a van. A bit unfair, but the owner of the field has to make their money someway.

There's generally hotdog/burger vans at these places, but they are expensive so its always good to bring a picnic or just some sandwiches and a bottle of water, as car boots go on for quite a long time.

Most importantly, have fun!

Summary: This is a great thing to do every now and again, and fun for all the family