Car Boot Sales - Any Good

[Noel]

I'm moving and have pictures, old Hi fi's etc that I would put on ebay but postage will be expensive. Their is a local car boot sale (Rotherhithe) this sunday. At £15 to get a pitch am I going to come out have been offered £0.50 for everything and out of pocket?

I paid £30+ for the pictures so wonder if they're too expensive to sell at this type of event???

[pilchardthecat]

I did one of these once. Never again. The second you arrive you will be surrounded by 40 people, half of whom are there to steal your stuff while you get it out of the boot. The other half are there to buy everything off you for 10p and then sell it on their stall. Eventually when you've told them all to fk off a thousand times, you will spend 4 hours arguing with total scum about whether something is worth 25p or 30p.

Frankly i would rather pile it all up in the garden and set fire to it than go through that again.

[louismchuge]

Agreed, as a seller they're horid. The first crowd early in the morning are the worst, routing through your boot before you've even got anything out

[Jasandjules]

Did one many years ago, made about £120 (after the burgers and entry fee were taken off)...

Price everything up with little stickers and expect people to knock you down (so hey, mark up)....

I also went walking around other stands for a bit, I don't think it is possible to believe the utter s**e some people will try and sell without going to a car boot (two examples springing to mind are a child's bathing costume - used, and a collection of "tools" which were basically a pile of rust - you know, the 10 year old tools we all have floating around in the garage somewhere)..

[Tony*T3]

Noel said:

I'm moving and have pictures, old Hi fi's etc that I would put on ebay but postage will be expensive. Their is a local car boot sale (Rotherhithe) this sunday. At £15 to get a pitch am I going to come out have been offered £0.50 for everything and out of pocket?

I paid £30+ for the pictures so wonder if they're too expensive to sell at this type of event???

Old hi fis (towers espcially) are a complete waste of time at boot sales. Just bin it.


I love car boot sales. Selling stuff your happy to go straight to the tip with for real cash. Last one made £300 which is like free money. Obviosuly, a lot of PHers are seriosuy rich indeviduals and their time is worth so much more. They also dont like to meet real lower class people as it brings them out in a rash.

If you dont want to sell all your stuff in the first couple of minutes by the rabble that is just trying to buy to resell, when you get there, just keep your car locked up for the first 20 minutes or so. They soon move on allowing you to organise yourself and letting you get a fair price without being ripped off. Poor old bloke above obviosuly couldnt work this out for himself.

[Penny-lope]

What about Gumtree...Ebay but without the charges

[pilchardthecat]

Tony*T3 said:

Noel said:

I'm moving and have pictures, old Hi fi's etc that I would put on ebay but postage will be expensive. Their is a local car boot sale (Rotherhithe) this sunday. At £15 to get a pitch am I going to come out have been offered £0.50 for everything and out of pocket?

I paid £30+ for the pictures so wonder if they're too expensive to sell at this type of event???

<Big load of new labour class war chip-on-shoulder nonsense>

I just don't like being openly stolen from in broad daylight. The people at the boot sale i attended were nothing like the working class people i grew up with, because when i grew up, people like that were in prison.

[Rocksteadyeddie]

Pikeys ahoy.

I think the most I managed was about £400 for a morning's work selling old samples from my missus' work. All the comments above about getting rushed at the start are valid, but it's quote good fun once in a while.

[Nolar Dog]

Tony*T3 said:

They also dont like to meet real lower class people as it brings them out in a rash.

[Xenocide]

When the pikeys turn up when you're unloading just shout "IM NOT SELLING ANYTHING UNTIL IM UNLOADED COMPLETLY" and just say that to anyone who offers anything.

orrible fkers

[Justayellowbadge]

www.thetedvertiser.com

[Noel]

Thanks for the feedback and sorry Mods wasn't sure if it was a Lounge or General Gassing Topic.

I thnk I might pass. With only perhaps 10 items to sell I could be wasting my time. I'll try the gum tree/ebay route (and take the old Hi Fi's to the charity shop).

[TwistingMyMelon]

As already said, car boots as a seller are a PITA, unless you like flirting with old laidees trying to get 50p off your early 80s fondue set.

My misses loves them and can make a decent wad of cash selling tat, but you turn up and there will be a scrum over your stuff, literally people pulling stuff out you car. I once turned up to meet her on my bike, I carefully placed out the way, locked in front of the car, with a sign saying "not for sale". Straight away people were pulling at it offering me £20 for it (it was worth £750) even though it had a sign saying "NOT FOR SALE" In the end I had a lovely man who couldn't speak English tell me he was taking it regardless and shoved me a tenner....my temper well and truly went then

As a buyer they can be good at times. The other day I needed a new drill and some heavy duty speaker brackets, I stopped at a boot sale on way to shops. Managed to get some really nice quality brackets for £2 and then a ggood quality Black & Decker hammer drill for £2. Both are still working fine now 1 yr on, saving me circa 50-£100

[Tony*T3]

The scrum at the start of a sale is simply other (professional??) car boot sellers that do it regularly, trying to get a bargain that they can turn around cheap later on for a profit. As has been said, the best thing you can do is simply not unpack immidiatly, just keep the car locked, go for a cuppa perhaps. These people soon rush off when there are others unpacking, leaving you to come back later, unpack without this attention, and sell to genuine buyers only.

It really really helps if you are there an hour before the punters are let in though. If you turn up an hour after everyone else you will find the scrum unaviodable.

[K50 DEL]

Tony*T3 said:

The scrum at the start of a sale is simply other (professional??) car boot sellers that do it regularly, trying to get a bargain that they can turn around cheap later on for a profit. As has been said, the best thing you can do is simply not unpack immidiatly, just keep the car locked, go for a cuppa perhaps. These people soon rush off when there are others unpacking, leaving you to come back later, unpack without this attention, and sell to genuine buyers only.

It really really helps if you are there an hour before the punters are let in though. If you turn up an hour after everyone else you will find the scrum unaviodable.

I love them, they're a part of my Sunday life throughout the season and I normally try and get to 3 each Sunday.
I don't necessarily buy anything, but they are a great source of books and DVDs and just occasionally you can pick up a bargain (Reinhard Klein's book "Rally" for £3 - a book that sells on Amazon for well into the hundreds)

Selling can be more of a chore, but if you arrive early and enjoy a haggle then it can be a good way of making money.

[sday12]

If you wish to spend the weekend in a field full of chavs looking over your waste then feel free.

No amount of cash could would allow me to degrade myself in such a way.

A large bomb landing on the field would help the country no end.


IMHO.

[10 Pence Short]

I would go, but there's bound to be some sad Middle Englander being followed round by a daytime TV crew trying to make 40p so he can take his aged grandmother for a spa weekend where she'll no doubt cark it anyway at which point the end credits of the program will go down with some sad music and a little piece of text about how she popped her clogs after filming not that you'd be bothered anyway because by then youd be looking forward to the next episode of cash in the attic.