Spot & flog from car boot/jumble sales... official MoneySavingExpert.com discussion

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Spotting & flogging items bought at car boot/jumble sales

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  • I used to make £2,000 a year extra selling stuff on eBay that I'd picked up at carboot sales. Mainly rare videos, that hadn't made it to DVD. But as more and more of them did, the money dwindled, and it was no longer worth it.

    Probably took about 10 hours a week on average as well, outside the real job. Now that I've got family it just didn't seem worth it.
  • i used to buy and sell rare consoles from car boot sales, specialised in the nintendo snes console as i had a friend who was always willing to help me.

    typically these were worth £20-£25 in top condition, to get them to that stage i would make sure the rf leads were in top condition then clean the outside of the unit with bathroom cleaner and an old cloth and the cartridge slot with a dry cotton bud, they came up a treat and the materials cost pence, i typically bought these for £8-10 and would sell them for £15-£20, small profit i admit but i had been known to buy one with 3 rare games for £14, and sell the games for £18 and the console for £15.
    things arent the way they were before, you wouldnt even recognise me anymore- not that you knew me back then ;)
    BH is my best mate too, its ok :)

    I trust BH even if he's from Manchester.. ;)

    all your base are belong to us :eek:
  • I do this but I have to say it is abit hit and miss. I buy old clothes and re sell on ebay. I don't make a fortune but I whack all the money I make in a savings account - more of a way of saving I supose.

    I just love doing it - I am sad that I find it fun.
    Lydia

    :T :beer:
  • Hi I make my living on Ebay
    in two ways
    one is carboot sales Musical instruments such as fluted clarinets trumpets guitars
    buy for around £10.00 to £25.00 sell on ebay for between £50.00 to £250.00

    Victorian wooden boxes especially musical ones by best buy was a small wooden alms box i paid 20p for and sold to a buyer in the USA for £395.00
    How do i earn in the winter?
    Easy i am a member of ATS distribution get an account as a drop shipper out lay is £5.00 but they send you approx £30.00 in goods as a joining pack

    you then log into ATS find cheap items put them on ebay for twice the price you dont pay ATS until the item sells you then fill in the buyer address and ATS do the rest
    On average i make approx £100.00 a week like this

    One thing to remember with people that buy on ebay they tend not to look else where so play.com is also a good source whoop a fiver on the price of older tv series dvds such as last of the summer wine and whamo another £50.00 profit per week

    Downfall ebay fees, down load turbo lister 2 open a photobucket account
    place all pictures in photobucket and just paste the HTML code in to your auction
    Load using turbo lister then you wont pay ebay for pictures or trimmed pages

    If your new to online auction try ebid.co.uk this is totaly free unless you sell something but will give you some practice before doing ebay

    hint keep auction simple
    example Old wooden box poss late 18th century measures 10 cm by 10cm detph 5 cm, This lovely old box is seeking an owner who will cherish it

    there is no need to go into detail if you have a few pictures

    weigh all items then add 300grams before checking on royal mail for postage costs

    I wish you luck i average £1000 pound a week earnings on ebay
  • mini_baz
    mini_baz Posts: 14 Forumite
    On the ats site it says join up fee is £40?
  • Hi sure was a fiver when i joined you are clicking for the drop shippers account? I will double check But was defo a fiver when i joined but i joined approx 5 years ago

    Dont shell out £40.00 on member ship its not worth it
  • HugoSP
    HugoSP Posts: 2,467 Forumite
    Before e bay was born I used to buy and sell car workshop manuals. I used to specialise in Haynes ones but did get offered the odd original BL Triumph etc.

    I used to have a regular punter who would sell me what he had duplicates of and also give me a list of what he wanted. I just checked the list when I got a load of new ones in.

    I never could retire on the proceeds but very quickly I got known as the man to ask before one went down to Halfords etc. If you work in a large company that really helps as you get loads of punters that way.

    More recently I ended up with a number of slow movers so I simply lotted them to gether on e bay and got £25, which was more that I had paid for them individually.

    I also had my own website where people could go to. I sold to such far flung places as the Dominican Republic, Japan, the States etc. I had one chap from Holland who would buy all the Citroen GS and GSA manuals I could get my hands on. The best thing about this is that those were among the ones that were virtually being given away by car booters etc all the time.

    More recently, I flogged all the leftover ones on e bay and went back to having a life ;)
    Behind every great man is a good woman
    Beside this ordinary man is a great woman
    £2 savings jar - now at £3.42:rotfl:
  • HugoSP
    HugoSP Posts: 2,467 Forumite
    Scrap metal.

    I tend to gather more rubbish than most in what I do. Recently we just took possesion of a house where the seller left pretty much everything (with our permission) as he didn't have transport.

    The cooker, the washing machine and various other ferrous metal items from the house fetched £7.00 at the scrapyard. The fact that I also had a small quantity of copper, lead and other stuff (I am a builder) meant that a trip to the scrap yard was in order.

    He also left most of his furniture. Most of what he did leave got put on Freecycle, as it was not worth selling via the auction room but was still perfectly servicable.
    Behind every great man is a good woman
    Beside this ordinary man is a great woman
    £2 savings jar - now at £3.42:rotfl:
  • I have so much toys, books and clothes etc to sell that I just dont know where to start.

    I always plan to go to these carboot sales but never make it. I have never been to one to sell things only buy.

    E-bay is so easy these days.
    :oCurrent Debt £38,000:o


  • This time last year I was making £400 a month on ebay, took me 2 evenings a week. Not bad as I was working then too. I had nothing to sell. Instead, I offerred a service for my friends selling their unwanted ites, I took a fee, usually a percentage unless it was a large item, in which case we negociated a fixed price before listing. Not as easy as it sounds as you have to decide what to do if item doesnt sell (you will still have listing fees). I even sold a car for my dad, made £100 just on that. Prob worth doing if you work for a large firm or can get a lot of potential customers. You must know ebay well though to do this, enjoy ebaying, sometimes the money was barely worth it for the effort required, must be good at book keeping and I ended up with items that were all over the house.
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