At car boots, do people haggle over every last penny...?

Enterprise_1701C

Just be grateful you have never come across my OH. We were in the souks in Marrakech and I saw this embroidered tablecloth. It started at more than £100, my OH brought the poor stallholder out in a cold sweat, we negotiated away the napkins that went with it and eventually walked away with it for under £20!!!!!!!!!! Even I felt a little sorry for the poor guy! That ios the pinnacle of his haggling achievements, there have been many more but not quite to that standard!

StaffsSW

I don't do car boots or markets, but on ebay nothing says "put me on your BBL" clearer than somebody offering a stupidly low price, or making offers on listings where I do not have Best Offer enabled.

From my own experience, the buyers who go to the most trouble and effort to get "a bargain", are often the ones that cause most issue after the sale as well, paying the least but demanding the most.

Likewise when I sold one of my cars recently, it was priced to sell quick - 4 months MOT, 3 months tax, full history and spotless, low mileage and I had it advertised at CAP Trade Clean (what a dealer would pay as part ex on the vehicle). which was £500 less than the guide retail price.

I had one guy ring me from Glasgow asked a few questions and said he would come down to look at it the next morning. He turned up with his extended family, went on about how much in fuel it had cost him, and that the car better be good. He started picking up issues like condensation under the bonnet, the fact that the Vauxhall logo was worn on the mats, that the engine bay looked too clean - what was I hiding, the spare wheel had been used (twice for a total 3 days in the last 3 years!) - he then asked for me to MOT it for the full 12 months, wanted some money off for the issues he had found, and then the cheeky 'tard asked me to deduct the cost of his petrol for the return trip down from Glasgow.

I'm not ashamed to say "I created a bit of scene"....

sharnad

Jane_Blackford wrote: »

Just be grateful you have never come across my OH. We were in the souks in Marrakech and I saw this embroidered tablecloth. It started at more than £100, my OH brought the poor stallholder out in a cold sweat, we negotiated away the napkins that went with it and eventually walked away with it for under £20!!!!!!!!!! Even I felt a little sorry for the poor guy! That ios the pinnacle of his haggling achievements, there have been many more but not quite to that standard!

Ive always wanted to go there and haggle but since they mark stuff up so much as they know you will haggle I dont know what to offer for things

mummyfrugal

Ahhhh booty...... a serious waffle is coming over me.....

I love car boots, ive been a seller about 4 times and i go for a 'toot' most sundays if i can.

Selling is ok, but i tell people i wont sell anything to them if they go in the car while im unpacking. Traders are ok, i dont have gold, perfume or mobile phones to sell so they pass by quickly. Me and my mother make a day of it and bring butties and a flask of coffee, loo roll (toilets always run out) wipes to clean hands, chocolate and cans of pop. When no one is at the stall one of us goes on the other side and picks stuff up and looks at it like a buyer would and more people come tooting (try it - it works). We check out ebay the week before and if we have similar stuff we try and sell it for the same (less the postage obviously)! More expensive stuff sits in front of us on the table, less valuable stuff to the sides.

At the end of the day we do a 50p table (pack away the expensive stuff) all the tat goes really quick when you shout EVERYTHING IS 50P, still got some stuff left? easy just ask a regular stall holder to bulk buy it off you!

I like a bit of a haggle and like everything it depends on the seller, if there is something i like i ask the price, if its too much then i politely say oh, thats too much for me, but thanks anyway. Then on another stall someone else will sell something far too cheap, ive had some spectacular bargains! Its nice if the seller has a chat too (i love a bit of gossip).

The only thing i dont like about car boots are people that nick stuff, people that stand on peoples stuff for sale, and the ones that haggle agressively or far too low - how much is that? £10, .... i give you 50p! grrrrr. Or the worst I saw was someone trying to give 70p for a £70 Wii. Anyone who is not friendly pays more when we are sellers, in fact we are too polite, I once saw someone shout "Ive told you four times its £4 now put it down and go away". Helps if you have a thick skin...

My mum once had a bloke who wanted something that was £8 for £2, and she said no, he said i will come back later and buy it cos you wont sell it, he came back later and said 'hah its not sold, here is £2' my mum told him to !!!!!! off and that she'd rather take it home than sell it to him. Yay mum!

I love booties, but what makes them good is nice people having a bit of fun haggling and some decent sunshine!

Cerenia

Sometimes I don't mind hagglers, stopped pricing a lot of my stuff on carboots, its nice conversing, and sometimes made more on items than I thought, but some take the mick, I was selling 2 brand new makeup cases, still with the £5 new label on, and someone offerred me 50p for the 2, I wanted £1.50 each, and she hissed "They're damaged, they won't sell!" (label was a little bent on one). One other lady that overheard bought them both, and when the first woman came back not long afterwards, she accused me of putting them back in the car, refused to accept i'd sold them >.<

Ah well, met some lovely people at carboots, some not so nice, all how it rolls.

amcluesent

>Even I felt a little sorry for the poor guy!<

He'd likely paid £1 for it

flipper_2010

I tried the everything 50p each but no one even paid attention. Put a big sign up and only 2 people noticed it! And it wasn't that the stuff was tat as it sold at the next boot sale for more. Go figure.

spugzbunny

I often buy the small toy cars at boot sales as my nephew loves them and they are great for keeping him amused when he comes to visit. One boy of about 7 rs old was selling his for 10p each. I picked out 8 and gave him a pound and told him to keep the 20p change. Bless him he insisted I had the 20p in change - I felt awful! I kept saying 'no, really, keep it!'

Enterprise_1701C

sharnad wrote: »

Ive always wanted to go there and haggle but since they mark stuff up so much as they know you will haggle I dont know what to offer for things

Starting at about 10% seems to work! Would never do that in spain, tend to start at about 40% there but as things are so overpriced in the Souks then 10% seems to be the mark.

You really should go - it is fun watching them sweat! Make sure you have nearly empty cases though, we went for a weekend and took a big case each, came back full!

Valanita

mummyfrugal wrote: »

Ahhhh booty...... a serious waffle is coming over me.....

I love car boots, ive been a seller about 4 times and i go for a 'toot' most sundays if i can.

Selling is ok, but i tell people i wont sell anything to them if they go in the car while im unpacking. Traders are ok, i dont have gold, perfume or mobile phones to sell so they pass by quickly. Me and my mother make a day of it and bring butties and a flask of coffee, loo roll (toilets always run out) wipes to clean hands, chocolate and cans of pop. When no one is at the stall one of us goes on the other side and picks stuff up and looks at it like a buyer would and more people come tooting (try it - it works). We check out ebay the week before and if we have similar stuff we try and sell it for the same (less the postage obviously)! More expensive stuff sits in front of us on the table, less valuable stuff to the sides.

At the end of the day we do a 50p table (pack away the expensive stuff) all the tat goes really quick when you shout EVERYTHING IS 50P, still got some stuff left? easy just ask a regular stall holder to bulk buy it off you!

I like a bit of a haggle and like everything it depends on the seller, if there is something i like i ask the price, if its too much then i politely say oh, thats too much for me, but thanks anyway. Then on another stall someone else will sell something far too cheap, ive had some spectacular bargains! Its nice if the seller has a chat too (i love a bit of gossip).

The only thing i dont like about car boots are people that nick stuff, people that stand on peoples stuff for sale, and the ones that haggle agressively or far too low - how much is that? £10, .... i give you 50p! grrrrr. Or the worst I saw was someone trying to give 70p for a £70 Wii. Anyone who is not friendly pays more when we are sellers, in fact we are too polite, I once saw someone shout "Ive told you four times its £4 now put it down and go away". Helps if you have a thick skin...

My mum once had a bloke who wanted something that was £8 for £2, and she said no, he said i will come back later and buy it cos you wont sell it, he came back later and said 'hah its not sold, here is £2' my mum told him to !!!!!! off and that she'd rather take it home than sell it to him. Yay mum!

I love booties, but what makes them good is nice people having a bit of fun haggling and some decent sunshine!

You sound like the ideal car boot seller/buyer, Mummyfrugal. I agree & also do most of what you say, though as most, if not all the dealers around here know us & we know them, we don't get a lot of hassle from them, well, the odd cheeky comments do fly when we are selling, but it's all in good fun.:D
We don't sell 'good stock' anyway, just household things & things we need to clear. Though when we had to dispose of my late Mothers items on clearing her house, we did sell some good things that we don't usually sell at car boot sales, to the dealers who do sell on, mainly because we had so much of it. They were very sympathetic & didn't haggle too much.
My late Mother was a hoarder, just like I am.:D

We hope to do a car boot as sellers this W/E'd.