Carboot, profit £2.20!

jago25_98

We had a room full of stuff left over from after my brother and I moved out, so I came home one weekend and filled up the van by the shovel load. (this was in the Bournemouth area)

The fee was £5.

Then the rain thundered down.

By the end of the day I couldn't give it away. I actually couldn't give away free CRT monitors, current textbooks, CDs and PS/2 keyboards. My mother rang me to see how I was doing and heard me shouting `help yourself` `everything free`. In hindsight a better approach would have been saying everything 5p or something.

The only things that sold were the minidiscs, an old text book and drumming books. The polish students ignored the new textbooks but seemed to like the old textbooks but thought 50p was too much.

So I had to throw it all away at the tip. What a shame!

I did keep the monitors though. I now have 6 of them! Perhaps I should get some PCI graphics cards and make my own flight simulator! If anyone's in Plymouth, help yourself!

I really wouldn't recommend doing a carboot at all. Instead you could do this:

- give some away on your local Freecycle list. This is the easiest thing to do. Is it worth packing something up for ebay for a profit of 20p?

- pick out stuff to ebay; light stuff

- pick out big and valuable stuff - put that in the local freeads or classifieds

- leave it outside your house with a free- help yourself notice

- charity shops. Again, you got the pain of sorting out what to keep or whether to annoy them by giving an unsorted pile of mess

- magazines and toys can go to doctors waiting rooms

- then go to the tip


When I saw the wastage going into the tip I was shocked, but at least I knew that stuff was from my childhood and I don't waste stuff like that anymore. And next time I'll be more prepared

rose_sparky

A couple of weeks ago I did a car boot sale and at the end had about three boxes of items that I didn't want to take home.

I left them alongside the wheel of my car (to put in the bin later) and went for a look around. On my return all of the boxes had disappeared!

Put FREE on the boxes and they are not interested, let them think they are thieving and they're happy.

Contains_Mild_Peril

I empathise with your experience. I once had a similarly disastrous car boot sale, but they can be profitable sometimes. The last time I did one I didn't make a fortune, but came home with about £25 more than I left with, and I bought a few things too, so probably cleared closer to £35, and my son made about £5 from his outgrown clothes and toys (I decided to be nice to him and not charge him his share of the stall fee!)

So I had to throw it all away at the tip. What a shame!

I'm a bit confused that you would say that, but then follow it up with all that good advice about how best to get rid of stuff that didn't/ won't sell at a car boot sale. It seems a little self-contradictory.
Current textbooks can make good money on Amazon, so that could be worth a try next time.

frivolous_fay

Out of interest, were the minidiscs blank ones or recorded?

babes21

People expect to buy really low priced items at a carboot, in my opinion ebay is far more successful.

Contains_Mild_Peril

I think a lot depends on the items for sale. Things like cheap secondhand jeans and videos will generally not sell on eBay because they cost more to post than they're worth, but they can sell OK at car boot sales (for about 50p each), whereas other items, such as posh label clothes and CDs, often do better on eBay. I know that when I go to boot sales as a customer, I'm generally looking for low prices - sometimes even to sell stuff at a profit on ebay.

LizD_2

babes21 wrote:

People expect to buy really low priced items at a carboot, in my opinion ebay is far more successful.

Yep, the last boot sale I did, I had a nearly-new juicer marked at £10, a woman came up to my stall-minder and said "I don't know what that is, but I'll give you 2 quid for it". The stall-minder politely declined her offer.

elsien

I've done ok at car boots, but find that its the stuff I think is rubbish that goes first, and the decent stuff I take home again.
Depending on where you live - I'm currently in a Worcestershire outpost of eastern europe, with lots of houses with rooms rented out - the stuff that the charity shop doesn't want, I put on the pavement with a help yourself sign, and it vanishes quite quickly. Probably wouldn't work in the posher areas though.

frivolous_fay

You have to be careful, in some parts of the country you'd be done for littering! :rotfl:

mclaren_2

carbootsales are good - but if its raining or that, no1 will want to go! you need to choose a nice day, WARM day and make sure its a good day, then go and set up the stall - ive had 4 of them and each one, made well over £70 just selling "junk" that i didnt need.

manhattan

we done a car boot last week as a fund raising event for a new cooker,selling junk out of the loft,old clothes,games,and a few tools and cheap unwanted electronic items and made over £350 we couldnt believe it,especially with all the crap we took.

it wasnt fit for the tip!
we still have loads more skip material,lol heaving in the loft so may do another one on a good weather day.