Spill the beans...on your car boot sale tips, tricks and steals

Hezzawithkids

Travelqueen wrote: »

I HATE the people that follow you as you're pulling your car up, and then try and rummage around in the back whilst you are unpacking. Most of the time its people asking for mobile phones, computer consoles and electric guitars though and I quite politely tell them to b*gger off.

Wait until the seller is looking a bit less harassed by these vultures and generally they will be more open to bargaining.

Tip for sellers to avoid the scavengers who leap on you as soon as you pull up to your pitch. Get out of the car and lock the doors. Tell the scavengers politely that you're not ready to start unloading yet and ask them to come back later. Go for a walk for 5 mins. By the time you get back to your pitch they will have moved on and you can set up in peace!

StaffsSW

Look to see what everyone else is doing/selling and then copy their ideas as your own in the coming weeks.

Some call it enterprising, many just think it is lazy and underhand though.

Maddox

I usually head for the bottom of the field first - the top end is for the early arrivers, who are usually traders and not genuine booters. The traders have large vans and multiple pasting tables (most genuine booters only have one table and a family car) If you're a regular booter, you'll soon get to know the traders' faces! That's not to say the traders don't have the odd bargain, but they are rare. Looking for anything specific, like curtains? Measure all your windows before you go - and yes, take a tape measure. I've bought big items and asked the vendor if I can come back to collect it at the end - and then forgotten to pick it up. It can happen! But now I give them a small pre-printed address label to stick on the item, and ask them to give me a ring if I forget to return. Then it's up to me to go and collect it from their home. It's still worth it.

crazyloon_2

Hezzawithkids wrote: »

Tip for sellers to avoid the scavengers who leap on you as soon as you pull up to your pitch. Get out of the car and lock the doors. Tell the scavengers politely that you're not ready to start unloading yet and ask them to come back later. Go for a walk for 5 mins. By the time you get back to your pitch they will have moved on and you can set up in peace!

I second this tip, i usually just go look at a couple of other stalls that are already set up and come back to a much calmer scene .Also try and price up as much (or all) your stuff before you get there.Ive quite often seen people getting flustered by lots of people haggling as they are trying to put their stuff out, and they end up selling things too cheap as they are making prices up on the fly. (good if you are the buyer though )

megamezzosoprano

As the daughter of an antique dealer, I've been both sides of the table at car boot sales many times.

Yes, be polite, whether buying or selling. As a buyer, I hate being ignored or dismissed. As a seller, I loath having bank notes waved under my nose as if that will magically change a price from £40 to £20. The answer to that is always "no, the price is £40"!

Talking of prices, mark up higher value items with prices in advance, especially if your friend/cousin/spouse is on the stall with you. That way, you won't undersell your best stuff.

Equally, the psychology of pricing is that if it's marked £20 and your best offer is £10, the buyer thinks they are getting a bargain. (And should be getting a bargain - greed is definitely not good at a car boot!)

Make sure all prices are clear - I use A4 sheets and a thick black marker pen for large items and stick the price on with paper masking tape - much easier to tear than sellotape. Remember, people need to see the price from a distance, so mark up the end of book boxes with a fixed price, etc.

Take a large red marker pen too, so you can discount those big black prices as the boot sale draws to a close or rain clouds threaten.

The early morning bun rush of dealers can be intimidating, but do as prevously suggested; put out the majority of your stuff, lock the car doors, and cover the rest of the boxes in the back of the car with a rug. Yes, some cheeky dealers will look in the side of the car, but a polite "All my stock is out here, sir" usually pulls them back. Calling a dealer sir or madam completely disarms them in my experience!!

Save your supermarket plastic bags for weeks beforehand so you have a good stock, and also have a stack of newspaper to wrap fragile objects. Keep both to hand in the back of the car, so you can wrap items on a flat surface (much easier and safer).

Finally keep your cash safe at all times; I use a 'bum bag' like market traders do, so cash is always to hand. Bring plenty of change with you.

Finally finally, bear in mind that a bargain is only a bargain if you need it, or can definitely sell it for at least 100% profit. Otherwise, let someone else take it home and treasure it!

eadieb

I recall a useful tip from the forums some time ago, which was to arrive very early, have your table/rails/mat etc ready to get out of the car first. Set these up to stake your space but put nothing out on the tables and shut the boot until the people that hassle you, move on to the next rows.

I've also found that it is just not worth me doing car boots unless ive got a couple of items that I am confident are going to sell for about £5 or more so that I will cover the sellers fee and make at least a little profit if little else sells. I've also sold more expensive items easier when I have put less items out on display so they stand out.

When buying at a car boot - if I am after certain items in particular - then I dont take children. I have 3 and they slow up the process of a quick scout round, by having to find an affordable toy for each of them to spend their pocket money on. Usually one of them cant find something and we spend ages on this.

At one car boot, a guy on his stall next to mine was selling fishing stuff and he made several hundred pounds in a few hours and had crowds around his stall.

Melanie794

I love car boot sales and have bought countless bargains (and a few mistakes) over the years. If you are a keen gardener like me, you can fill your beds and borders with car boot purchases, Why pay garden centre prices when you can get much better plants and shrubs from car boot sellers, at very reasonable prices? Most of the best shrubs and plants in my garden have come from car boot sales, and it's a good way of trying new varieties. It's best to stick to sellers who have stalls every week, though it's worth taking a chance on healthy-looking plants from people who are selling them as a sideline to the usual bric-a-brac. One of my favourite sellers runs out of his best plants within a short time because of the price and quality, so I head for his stall first. As a bonus, most plant sellers are very pleasant people, who are more than happy to give advice on plant care. As well as plants, you can pick up garden tools, pots and baskets etc., and occasionally you may find other items like plant food or bug spray. Recently, I found a roll-along lawn aerator for the grand sum of £1! :T Just a few days ago, I bought two sturdy metal shelving units to store my garden equipment in the garage, for £5 each.

mum2one

unfortunately its not just £20 notes that are fake we got given a £10 note, the purchase was around £3.

A quick tip to check the notes if you dont have a pen, is look at the front of the note and near the top the wording bank of england run your fingers across this and this wording is raised, its the same on all notes whether its £5, £10, £20 or £50.

-
What to look for on a note

-feel the paper
-look at the watermark -should be see through
-the silver thread, - should be look likes ins running down as though its been threaded throu.

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Thou some buyers can be a bit funny if you hold the note up to check it, which is what you would need to do to check the line, and paperwork
==

Also if your going to check the note make sure that your hands are above the table and its before you have the zip of the bumbag etc open, - if you do get a fake note the person may not realise its fake and accuse u of swopping it, x

porto_bello

I have to admit, I can't stand bootsales and try to sell anything on eBay or gumtree or anywhere else before resorting to the dreaded early morning start, off to a drafty, wet airfield!

But very occasionally, I get roped into doing one. The golden rule is to have your wits about you and trust nobody:

One particular technique is that whilst someone very friendly and humourous chats away to you at one end of your stall, their partner fills their bag and pockets from your stall at the other corner. If someone attracts my OH's attention at one corner, I cover the other one.

As others have mentioned, as soon as you open the boot, scavengers will fall upon you from all directions. Again, with so much going on, you are vulnerable to theft. We let them pass and unload in our own time.

I wouldn't ever buy anything electrical from a bootsale. A friend of mine once bought a coffee maker and was delighted when it worked... flushing it through once with plain water, she returned to a smoke filled kitchen! If you do buy anything electrical, assume it doesn't work - whatever the story that the seller pushes onto you and buy it for no more than the price of a broken one.

Be very wary of large bank notes - some of them are very good copies. If someone dodgy has only large banknotes, tell them you haven't got any change... even if you have.

If someone buys something in a box, which can't be seen without opening the box, like a CD, DVD, model toy etc, make sure you open it in front of them and show them it is in the box. A scammer's favourite ploy is to buy something, remove it and return with the empty box, complaining that they've been robbed.

Fortunately, (particularly with regular free listing days) we manage to get by and get a decent price, without resorting to bootsales. I'd recommend trying all other options, before resorting to the cold, wet and tired Sunday in a muddy field, full of vultures!

StaffsSW

Also be aware of the same faces turning up week after week but never buying anything.

They are the HMRC spies, and they are kept very busy through the car booting circuit.