Furniture shopping at car boots

jimbo83

I'm in the process of buying a house and as a FTB I dont have a lot of furniture.

Have people got positive/negative experiences if buying second hand stuff from car boots? I am thinking about smaller things such as coffee tables, side boards/tables, lamps, bookshelves, lamps etc

Would it be worth going for a look?

Cheers!

RFW

Not at car boots but had a couple of good buys on Ebay with items that were local collection only and not too far away. Quite often people are happy to get rid, possibly more so than car boots. There's also Gumtree and Freecycle that could be useful.

As an aside I recently gave a bed to a charity shop and they actually sold it for double what I paid for it new, it was hardly used but I was still fairly staggered.

Strapped

Another vote for Freecycle. Lots of furniture available if you will collect it.

Chocmonster7

We've sold quite a few small bits of furniture chairs/tables, etc and only yesterday sold a glass TV table at a car boot. Always worth a haggle as people won't want to take that kind of stuff home again!

barbiedoll

Car boot sales probably aren't so good for furniture but they can be very good for crockery, cutlery, glassware etc etc.

I'm still using some pieces from the 6-place dinner set that I bought at a car boot, over 15 years ago when I bought my first flat. The whole set cost me £3! That day, I also got a huge piece of net curtain which I cut down to fit all of my windows (£1), four lovely cushions for (I think) 50p and an immaculate bedside cabinet for a fiver.

Freecycle can be good for furniture but be prepared to refuse if the item is not up to scratch. Just because you aren't paying for an item, doesn't mean that you're responsible for carting away someone else's rubbish!

jimbo83

barbiedoll wrote: »

Car boot sales probably aren't so good for furniture but they can be very good for crockery, cutlery, glassware etc etc.

I'm still using some pieces from the 6-place dinner set that I bought at a car boot, over 15 years ago when I bought my first flat. The whole set cost me £3! That day, I also got a huge piece of net curtain which I cut down to fit all of my windows (£1), four lovely cushions for (I think) 50p and an immaculate bedside cabinet for a fiver.

Freecycle can be good for furniture but be prepared to refuse if the item is not up to scratch. Just because you aren't paying for an item, doesn't mean that you're responsible for carting away someone else's rubbish!

Thanks!

ps LOL at the quote in your profile