Selling at a boot sale - first time advice needed.

Plushchris

Whenever I do a boot sale I price everything at least 50% higher than what I want for it for the first half an hour of being there. I hate being pestered by all the traders wanting stuff stupidly cheap.

The first time I did a boot sale I sold most of my stuff in the first hour, when I walked around I saw most of it on other stalls for more than I sold it for (and people were buying it too)

If you have nice stuff you will sell it at a boot sale, just stick to your guns and dont let stuff go for next to nothing.

I'd take a boot sale over Ebay any day. My days of selling on Ebay are long over, far too much hassle.

porto_bello

Over the last year or so, I've sold 8 household items for collection, which collectively sold for around £1,000. There's simply no way they'd have sold for anything like that at a car boot, where, I suspect - at best - they'd have made nearer £100, after a number of attempts.

Yes, it was hassle to write out the descriptions and express the collection details/formalities to prevent being the victim of a scam - though most of the time, I was saving time by recycling previous listings.

On the plus side, once I had written the listings, I simply relisted when an item was unsold, and (for me, a large bonus) I wasn't having to get up at stupid o'clock every Sunday to spend the day getting soaked and windswept on an airfield.

The bottom line is I'd rather spend one day photographing and listing items at home, and eventually obtain £1,000 than spend an unknown number of Sundays in all weathers, and eventually obtain £100.

I appreciate others might disagree and might be happier with doing bootsales making only 10% of the potential selling price on eBay... then most likely see their stuff on eBay for 10 times the price!!! :mad:

JimmyTheWig

porto_bello wrote: »

express the collection details/formalities to prevent being the victim of a scam

You listed bulky items on eBay and didn't get scammed.
We have done the same in the past.
But that doesn't mean that scammers aren't out there.

See Crowqueen's post #7 and Soolin's post #13. It is a real issue that you have to risk.


Obviously if you are able to make £1000 rather than £100 you may well see it if you get scammed for one of the 8 items and only make £875 that's still an awful lot better than selling all 8 for £100.
Like I say, we've used eBay for bulky items in the past, too, with no problem.
But to pretend that there isn't a risk, and to think that you can bypass eBay's rules with a bit of text on your auction, would be wrong.

Plushchris

porto_bello wrote: »

I appreciate others might disagree and might be happier with doing bootsales making only 10% of the potential selling price on eBay... then most likely see their stuff on eBay for 10 times the price!!! :mad:

Why would anyone be looking on ebay for stuff they have already sold?

I'd look on ebay to get an idea of price before I sell the item at a bootfair, not the other way round...

porto_bello

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

But to pretend that there isn't a risk, and to think that you can bypass eBay's rules with a bit of text on your auction, would be wrong.

I did not pretend there wasn't any risk...

porto_bello wrote: »

Obviously there's a risk attached to EVERY transaction on eBay - if you discount risk, you're bound to hit serious problems sooner or later.

As a seller, there will always be an added level of risk. For a start, unlike buyers, you can't choose who you deal with, unless their policy breaches automatically prevent them from bidding on your items.

You can minimise risk. When listing my (likely to be) collected items, I try to explicitly cover all the known risks in the description - most obviously offering cash & collection OR Paypal & postage but NOT Paypal & collection.

Equally, I'm not sure where you get the idea that quoting and strictly adhering Paypal/eBay rules represents bypassing them.

eBay and Paypal specifically instruct sellers to despatch items via trackable delivery, so Paypal payments are inappropriate if the buyer wishes to collect.

Plushchris wrote: »

Why would anyone be looking on ebay for stuff they have already sold?

I guess it lost something in translation. My point was that if you flogged everything at a car boot, at a tenth of its market price on eBay, there would be a pretty good chance that you could spot much of it a week later, on eBay - obviously at a dramatically higher price!

Plushchris wrote: »

I'd look on ebay to get an idea of price before I sell the item at a bootfair, not the other way round...

That's good advice. If you know the market price on eBay beforehand, when you get to the bootfair, a dealer might give you 20%-30% of what they can resell it for on-line.

Plushchris

porto_bello wrote: »

I guess it lost something in translation. My point was that if you flogged everything at a car boot, at a tenth of its market price on eBay, there would be a pretty good chance that you could spot much of it a week later, on eBay - obviously at a dramatically higher price!

It didnt lose anything in translation, it just doesnt make much sense..

Why would someone sell something they dont want at a boot sale then look for the same item on ebay a week later??

Ebay is a bit different from my scenario where I sold stuff at the boot sale early on then when I walked around later in the day I saw my stuff for sale on another stall.. you dont "window shop" like that on ebay. You would actually have to look for the item to see it selling for more on Ebay..

Anyone that lets stuff go for "a tenth of the ebay market price" isnt likely to look on ebay anyway. People who use ebay would surely know the ebay market price and sell it for that?

porto_bello

Plushchris wrote: »

It didnt lose anything in translation, it just doesnt make much sense..

Why would someone sell something they dont want at a boot sale then look for the same item on ebay a week later??

Maybe they were getting withdrawal symptoms from missing the bracing wind and rain of the previous week's carboot washout, and tried to relive the experience by searching for the items they sold last week?

Plushchris wrote: »

Anyone that lets stuff go for "a tenth of the ebay market price" isnt likely to look on ebay anyway. People who use ebay would surely know the ebay market price and sell it for that?

The point surely is that the marketplace on eBay is almost infinitely larger than any car boot sale, so on average, you're far more likely to achieve a dramatically higher price on eBay?

JimmyTheWig

porto_bello wrote: »

The point surely is that the marketplace on eBay is almost infinitely larger than any car boot sale, so on average, you're far more likely to achieve a dramatically higher price on eBay?

That would be true if the number of sellers were the same in each case.
In reality on eBay you've got many buyers and many sellers while at a car boot you've got less buyers and less sellers. So it sort of balances itself out.
You might be the only person at the boot sale selling, I don't know, windscreen wipers for a Vauxhall Astra. If someone there wants to buy them you can probably ask more than they would sell for on eBay as they don't have much choice. But equally, if no-one there wants those windscreen wipers (or the person who does want them doesn't notice them on your stall) then you won't sell them at all. Swings and roundabouts.

Plus on eBay the shipping costs have to be paid for.

go_cat

At a recent car boot near us brand new toys in boxes rrp £40 were only selling for £1-2.50, people just wouldn't pay more

i know they would sell for way more on ebay if you can be bothered. Most people see it more as a platform to get rid of stuff

porto_bello

go_cat wrote: »

Most people see it more as a platform to get rid of stuff

I think that sums it up rather well.

I'd add that by it's very nature, selling at boot sales suggests a need to quickly turn possessions into cash - hardly a likely scenario to command the best selling price.