Ebay, Amazon or Car Boot? Total Newbie...!

dktreesea

kates2787 wrote: »

Thanks so much for all your help. I'm in Fife, Scotland so been having a look on the net and the best ones round here seem to be Kinross and Inverkeithing. The Glasgow ones sound good too but that's at least a 2 hour drive away and if you have to be there about 6am.... I'm not a morning person lol! How cheap is cheap at a car boot sale? I was hoping to sell most things for between £1 - £10 but from what I've read most people want everything for 50p!

Kinross is okay. It has the advantage of being under cover. It's not as good for selling as it used to be, i.e. the Saturday car boot. Mostly traders these days. The guy who took it over no longer advertises in Edinburgh, and further afield on the Fife side of the bridge, so it's not as busy as it used to be.

The Sunday car boot at Inverkeithing is quite small, and quite restricted for parking from a potential customer point of view. I sold there only once. Made about £20. Not really worth it, imho.

Further afield, the one out at Crail airfield (once a fortnight on Sundays over the summer months) is usually quite large and busy. Plenty of people buying and selling there. If you like outdoor car boots, I would say that is the best one in Fife.

Going north, there is a really big one at Errol, also on Sundays. Mmm, you have to get there really early, there's heaps of competition and I found it exhausting. A bit like playing golf. Fun to swing the ball, but no one mentions the 6km trek between the balls!

We usually sell at Omni, the Sunday indoor carboot in central Edinburgh. (Top of Leith Walk, going south cross over the roundabout, then turn left at the lights opposit John Lewis. The car boot is on the 4th level down of the underground car park attached to the Omni centre. £15, but very well attended. Not as well lit as an outdoor car boot, and no toilets within the car park (nearest and swishest and in the Omni centre at Lloyds bar (open from 8am), or, if before across the street and up the hill, at the back of John Lewis'.

There is another one, on Saturdays and Sundays ( I prefer Saturdays for this one) at Chesser, just opposite Asda, in the Corn Exchange. Outdoors, but well attended, and has the advantage of not many sellers compared to Omni so not as much competition.

Prices? I've sold books for £0.50 to £1 each, jewellery from 50p up to £3-£4 per piece. I don't recommend selling precious metals like gold or silver gold though - customs raided Omni the weekend before last and confiscated some stuff from the jewellery traders. Second hand clothes like GStar, Bench and the like I've seen go for around £2 to £3 a piece.

I don't go to this one all that often, but if you fancy a weekday one, Cowdenbeath market has car booters on a Thursday. Most are traders, but it is a different buying crowd to the usual weekend crowd.