Car boot alternatives

mrspanda_2

We are moving abroad soon and are having a huge clearout in preparation (we haven't got room to ship everything). Lots of things are going on ebay, several boxes have gone to charity, some things are going to friends/family and we have a lot of other things left over suitable for a car boot. Trouble with the latter is that the weather has been very much against me whenever I've had free time to car boot.

Time is running out now and I wondered if anyone has any ideas for how I could shift my stuff? I can't afford to give it all to charity and thought about selling items in bundles either grouped by theme e.g. Kitchen items or as mixed lots. I know I will take a big hit on prices this way but I wondered if anyone had any experience of this and could suggest ways/sites to use to shift everything. As I mentioned before, time is limited (3-4 weeks left) and I work full time so just have the evenings to use (weekends are full unfortunately).

Thanks

paddedjohn

Call and see if a second hand shop is interested in buying it all. They do bootys as well so are always looking for stock

dktreesea

You could try the local auction houses, though you might not get good money. How about having a "garage sale", where you keep everything in the one room and advertise, say, to come around from 2pm to 4pm and then just sell the stuff directly from your house?

Gumtree can be good for shifting stuff.

peanut_34

How about a garage sale? I have been to a few where all the stuff you want to sell is put just at the front of your property and people buy it from there.
You could post leaflets advertising this to neighbours or even put in local paper. This would probably be cheaper than a pitch at a bootsale.
You could even drop in leaflets to local shops/second hand shops!

Good luck

porto_bello

The problem with car boots, garage sales and local leaflets is that you are restricting your items to just a small fraction of the market, so your items are only going to obtain a small fraction of their market value. (And Gumtree is renowned for its scam artists).

If you had asked the question a few days back, I would have suggested utilising the 4-day free listing weekend on eBay. Starting with what you consider the most attractive and valuable items, I would have suggested listing as many items as possible at bargain - but not giveaway prices.

If you do have time, I would utilise the remains of today to do exactly that ... you can always amend the listings to finish writing descriptions later.

If things don't sell on eBay, then think about the carboot/garage sale option, but if you get a decent price for some of your items on eBay (where virtually anything sells), it probably won't be worth investing any more time for just a few measly quid extra.

One extra benefit of eBay is that once you've got your listings up and running, you can work flexibly around other commitments - you don't have to be somewhere at a specific time, on a specific day, in order to sell your items... they will sell themselves.

Crowqueen

you don't have to be somewhere at a specific time, on a specific day, in order to sell your items... they will sell themselves

I wouldn't sell it like that tbh - eBay is deceptive - it looks like it could be done flexibly but you need to be prepared to send out immediately on payment, so you need to plan a bit in advance around other issues such as job, kids, home, etc.

Too many people get caught out thinking they can send 'whenever' and people will be OK with it.

That said, most of your post is spot on.

prowla

cheapcycle & freegle

mrspanda_2

Thanks for all the replies! I think I will plod on with ebaying though we have a lot of largish items that would be a faff to post, but these might be good for a garage sale. Will definitely give that a go - at least we won't need to get up at 5:00 :j

Never heard of cheapcycle... will look into that too.

prowla

If you are a memeber of a cashback site (quidco, topcashback, etc.) you can even get paid for posting an ad on VivaStreet. There's Gumtree too.

*niptuckfan*

Facebay - if your on facebook theres bound to be a local facebay site (just like ebay but free) stuff sells quick you post a photo and the price yo want

rainbow14

Try gumtree its free,you can post as many pics as you like(6 or 7) and people can come and pay on collection you can also negotiate some times There is the additional benefit of not having to post and saves time (first to collect etc.)