Car boot - stuck on pricing, help pls!

wigginsmum

Well done! Chaos does indeed reign at carboots. My Mum does them regularly for her animal charity, and she says as soon as she opens the back of the van to put stuff on the tables, there are professional dealers pushing past her to get into the van to rummage through in case she's got any antiques!

I only ever did a carboot once in 1994. I dumped a boyfriend on the Friday because I found out he'd got his former foster mother pregnant and he owed me money, so I said I'd take his stuff round on the Monday but sold the best of it on the Sunday to recoup my money. One of the things I sold was a home hair trimmer thingy; one guy asked if I thought it would work on his dog, and I said 'Well it certainly works on rats ...'

linda7

i would put them a little bit higher so it gives people room to knock you down a bit.

Ali-OK

wigginsmum wrote:

Well done! Chaos does indeed reign at carboots. My Mum does them regularly for her animal charity, and she says as soon as she opens the back of the van to put stuff on the tables, there are professional dealers pushing past her to get into the van to rummage through in case she's got any antiques!

I only ever did a carboot once in 1994. I dumped a boyfriend on the Friday because I found out he'd got his former foster mother pregnant and he owed me money, so I said I'd take his stuff round on the Monday but sold the best of it on the Sunday to recoup my money. One of the things I sold was a home hair trimmer thingy; one guy asked if I thought it would work on his dog, and I said 'Well it certainly works on rats ...'

:T :rotfl: Brilliant!

There were quite a few people crowding the car as I parked up asking if I was selling mobile phones, jewellery and perfume, I wasn't, so that got rid of them pdq! I did however sell stuff before I'd got the boot open, as they were picking stuff up piled on the front and back seats through the open windows!!

Most people were chatty and friendly - some buying to re-sell on eBay, and probably on their own car boot stall too. Worst were trying to barter at the same time (like all duvet sets for £2!! Joke, right?! Nooooo....) :rolleyes:

Lots of foreigners (very multi-cultural here), who couldn't spot large flurescent (sp?) orange stickers with the prices on :rolleyes: , or speak good English. I think it was their way of bartering!

I took some advice seen on here - bowl and water for dogs and it worked! Got 2 buyers out of that!

Lost my car keys in the middle of everything going on, but had a great social time with the neighbouring sellers who helped with the keys hunt - found them hanging out the boot lock!

I'm buzzing to do another one now, as the good certainly outweighed the bad. First the housework, DS is due back in a few hours and I've still got washing on the line from Friday eve! :rotfl:

Contains_Mild_Peril

Ali-OK wrote:

I've still got washing on the line from Friday eve! :rotfl:

I bet it smells lovely now!

rose_sparky

Well done Ali !!

twink

best bet is to get there really early anybody sees a car coming in they all crowd over before you get stuff out and thats when it can get pinched my aunt and uncle used to be at car boot before seven am to get stuff out in peace

Ali-OK

twink wrote:

best bet is to get there really early anybody sees a car coming in they all crowd over before you get stuff out and thats when it can get pinched my aunt and uncle used to be at car boot before seven am to get stuff out in peace

I did! I was there at 7.20am (first in the sellers queue) and it opens at 8.30am for sellers and 10am for buyers. What they don't advertise and I didn't know, was that they let buyers in BEFORE the sellers (2 walk in entrances) so they're milling around everywhere and just latch onto a car as you drive in. Nightmare!

There are lots of venues around here, so I'm going to try somewhere else and see whether they do really let the buyers in before the sellers!

BargainJunky

I doubt you will find anywhere that will let the sellers in before the booters - the only chance you may have is a table top sale in a hall etc. Just try to get your stuff packed well in the car - paste table out first etc - if people start to mooch through before you have chance to unpack properly we tell them to buzz off (politely - it does work and they do come back I promise - take more helpers with you to at least guard your stuff.

One tip tho - if you have new toiletry sets that come from Boots they will do an exchange for you without a receipt.

Raspberry_Swirl

i did one a couple of months ago and it really annoys me when the organisers let people in an hour before they're supposed to.

it can be quite intimidating when you're surrounded by people literally trying to get in your car before you can unpack everything.

i find that my stall isn't very popular because i have no kids stuff though...

Contains_Mild_Peril

I've been to a few boot sales in open areas where there is no single entrance which everyone has to go through, so buyers and sellers just enter whenever they arrive, and most of the customers have already been and gone by the official opening time!