Anyone been to the Twin Oaks Hotel car boot J29 M1?

notlongnow_2

Hi, this may be a long shot I know, but has anyone been to this car boot? It is on saturday afternoon and I wondered if it was worth selling there as then I wouldnt need to empty the car for Oldcoates car boot on sunday morning.

How big is it? Would it be worth doing it do you think? Its about half an hour from me so dont want to go to make pennies. Im happy with £40+.

Thankyou.

go4it

On a nice day normally very busy. Swarming with vultures - they'll be inside your car before you've even parked up chuntering 'any mobile phones'. Most other buyers are quite picky and are reluctant to part with more than £2 for anything. Depending on the stuff you've got it might be worth it - just price it cheap like 50p box, £1 box, £2 box. If you've got some stuff more expensive then save it for a school car boot where they buyers tend to be a bit more civilised.

notlongnow_2

Thats excellent thankyou. How big is it? I think we might give it a go anyway. We have got SO much stuff to get rid of and had a brill morning at Oldcoates yesterday so I thought if we went to the Sat afternoon one then I can just top up the car ready for sunday morning...weather permitting of course.

Website says it starts at 12 for second hand sellers? Is this right or can we get there earlier?

Thanks for replying.

gossipgirl123

I did this car boot in June 07 and it turned out to be a great day. You can set up at 12 noon for £10 charge and the public are let in at 1. I sold LOADS of stuff, made 50 quid and took about a 1/4 of it home. The field it's held on is massive and gets very busy but the majority of buyers are friendly. There are many facilities available, e.g. toilets, food/ drink vans, bouncy castles for the kids and, of course, the bar in the hotel! The only bug-bear for me was as soon as you pull up people are peering through the windows, " Have you got any gold?", "Have you got any mobile phones?" but I just said no and they moved on. Some buyers wanted me to virtually give things away but I held strong! All in all, the weather was gorgeous and my family and I had a laugh whilst making money from things we don't need. I would definately recommend having a go. The best point is it's not a 5am start!!! But be warned, if the weather is going to be good, I advise stocking up on sunblock because I ended up getting burnt!!!!

reeree

notlongnow wrote: »

Hi, this may be a long shot I know, but has anyone been to this car boot? It is on saturday afternoon and I wondered if it was worth selling there as then I wouldnt need to empty the car for Oldcoates car boot on sunday morning.

How big is it? Would it be worth doing it do you think? Its about half an hour from me so dont want to go to make pennies. Im happy with £40+.

Thankyou.

this carboot is huge on a good day it takes us at least 2 hours to get round the whole thing, if you do stand it come back and let us know how you get on as l wouldnt mind standing this on myself

[Deleted User]

i know this is an old thread, but i just need to add this.

we live very close to this car boot, and in the last year we have seen 5 police raids on this car boot, and they wern't all for dodgy d.v.d's, we saw 2 people get arrested for selling stolen goods.

it is know localy as the place to go look if you've had something stolen, so be very careful if buying from anyone at this boot sale

DataMiner

Living little more than a mile from this event, the fact that I'd never been before yesterday clearly shows I am not a car boot regular, either a seller or buyer. I am however a man of my word and having made a rash promise to my daughter about getting rid of some of her (and our) clutter, we loaded the car and set off. The little research I did beforehand, and the first reply in this thread, did little to help my gloomy view of what to expect.

We arrived at 10:25am and were quickly and efficiently directed to our pitch. We didn't encounter "vultures" peering in through the car windows and/or opening the car doors before we parked up. As we were setting up we had two or three visits from stalkers asking if we had any jewelry, but these were without exception very polite people who simply moved on when we said we hadn't.

The fair is huge. In the main the customers were good natured and friendly. More of the enquirers we had were willing to consider the price we were asking rather than wanting to barter us down merely for the sake of it. The pitch was �10, we took around �150 and returned with far less than we brought. It was a fine, warm, dry & sunny day which of course helped. If it was wet and dull I might have had a different tale to tell, but that would be a comment on the weather rather than the venue.

Lessons learned from our experience and from looking around at other stalls which will help us if we do it again, so might be of help to others too.
Don't bother taking books, they're very heavy to take along and you'll bring virtually all of them back with you. Ours were well displayed in two crates marked "all books 50p", but 99% of browser didn't give them a second glance.
Every other stall has an inkjet printer. Just take it to the recycling depot. The same goes for many technology items more than a few years old. Compact cassette players, CD players, calculators, CRT TV's or computer monitors, music centres - don't assume that someone will be glad of that 28" colour TV in perfect working order. They won't, and you'll be stuck with it.
Have an eye-catching item prominently displayed, even if you price it not to sell. Bargain hunters tend to walk up and down the aisles glancing at the tables without stopping, they'd never get through the fair otherwise. When we put a pair of brand new Converse trainers on display (for �10, but not marked) people stopped to examine them and ask the price. Just the fact of having someone examining an item your stall attracts others to stop and look too - "What am I missing?"
Be aware that if any of us need to make a purchase we maybe shop around, but certainly go to the appropriate store(s). Car boot browsers in the main do not go to buy anything specific, but are just browsing for bargains. A brand new 2.4m antique brass curtain pole might well have a certain price in a soft furnishings or DIY store, where you have a choice of length, diameter and finishes. A car booter will only buy it if it's a bargain, so price realistically.

DataMiner

corburn

Hi yes i have sold at the car boot at twin oaks aswell as been a buyer. Yes it is big (most of the time) and usually busy. There is alot of traders too. I would say you would make £40 like you want.:j