The Great 'top-selling items at car boot sales' Hunt

lindseykim13

It would be easier to note the things it's not worth taking though-like as above videos ect
You could take most household things and they would sell but it has more to do with price and condition than anything in particular.
I could take a ps3 and try and sell it for £100 won't sell though as people are looking for a bargain plus you have no way to show it works.
Now if i took it and asked £20 someone would have it.
I could sit here all day and list the things i've bought and sold at car boots but if you take said items and ask more than a few quid for something it won't sell anyway.
For me car boots are for selling stuff that isn't worth enough to put on ebay so 50p-£1 items. Or for slightly bulkier items that wouldn't be worth the postage.
More to do with what the item is worth than what it actually is.

Imo not worth taking
Baby clothes (unless your prepared to only ask 10-20p an item)
Adult clothing (unless you have a good way to display them and are cheap)
Books (10-20p they will sell)
Videos
Records & Cassettes
Electrical goods (unless you can show it working you won't get a good price)

You will always have some stuff left over that eventually you'll give up to the charity shop but then again i have had some items that i thought would never shift and have gone quickly. Take what you've got-no loss if it doesn't sell, if you really are pushed for space don't take the above items.

robertoegg

what about old mobiles? I have a number of older sony ericssons in a definite used condition from over the years.

brighterhue

robertoegg wrote: »

what about old mobiles? I have a number of older sony ericssons in a definite used condition from over the years.

I'd have thought one of the mobile phone recycling sites would be better for that?

Morgy9

Since having kids I have done a few car boot and tabletop sales. I am always surprised by what goes and what doesn't! But I think displaying your stuff at its best and laying stuff out so its clearly seen is important.

Most branded children's toys sell well - if you have original box even better. Also baby equipment - baby back packs, sterilisers, slings, maternity pillows etc. Once you get people stopping off to look and buy from you the others tend to flock.

I know this sounds obvious (and don't shoot the messenger) do please clean well- baby wipes are fabulous for most stubborn toys and dry fairly streak free (dry cloth after will help if streaks showing). I have organised baby table top sales for charity and generally tables that didn't do well usually were sellling items still covered in dried god knows what, looked like literally whipped from kids and put straight on tabletop and they were surprised it didn't sell.:eek:

Children's hardback books sell well if displayed well. Put any good one's on display for £1 or more (ie Jolly Postman or compilation boxes llike Appletree Farm etc) on main table. The rest go in a box of books - fine on floor but often get missed so I move them on to table or have big sign pointing to them. With books I offer bargains so - 50p each or 5 for £2 (as the morning goes on this becomes 3 for £1 or eventually 20p each in last half hour/hour). Any left over go to charity shop. Some days books don't do well - somedays you sell out, depends on weather, how displayed etc.

Same with prices - I sticker them on what I would ideally like or put 50p more on - then right from get go if I see someone very interested in something but dithering - I may say I can see you're interested in that I did want £6 for it but for you £5 (which was probably price I had in mind) works quite well.

Kids clothes go well if on hanger - better to be less on rail so people can see items easily, add more from box in car as you sell items and reuse hangers. Kids shoes do sell well but wouldn't get more than £1 or £2 (in boxes) or slightly more for boots - even if designer. However I view 8 to 10 pair of kids shoes sold as covering price of pitch. Any not sold I would rather take to charity shop then let go for 20p at end of the day.

Bigger items - I find people don't take large amounts of money to carboots generally - so if you have bigger more expensive items putting a poster on your store with contact number can be more effective ie wooden trainset with its own table etc.

As you sell keep looking at table and rejigging it so items are displayed at maximum effect.

• Always take marker pen, paper and sellotape so you can reduce when others do
• extra sheets of plastic for wet ground or covering books/clothes when the odd unforecast rain shower goes over.
• Make sure you have a float of change - especially for those first purchases (always a £20 note for £1 item!).
• Great way to get rid of all those plastic supermarket bags.

If you are wanting space back in house be prepared to go very low at the end of the day to get rid of most things. But some people do take the micheal early on - don't let anything go for less then you are prepared to - ut do be prepared to haggle. I have seen people knock prices way down early on then take item and put on their own table and sell at higher price. If you are happy to do a number of carboots and have the storage space then keep for another day and stick to your prices.

A few more remembers - take ...

• sunglasses - nothing worse then being given a pitch facing the sun all day without glasses and squinting all day - really hurts!
• sun tan lotion - as above
• rainmac
• bum bag for money
• a drink and a snack (really important if doing carboot on own - as no one can cover your stall for you to go and buy some elsewhere). Don't forget to go to loo before leaving house and if on own don't drink too much.:rotfl:

if doing carboot on own see if you can get someone to help set up (my hubby and kids help with this) but then they go home and come back later.

HTH

jasperpop

hi everyone, i am a manager of a charity shop and we are inudated during the summer months on monday morning with everything that didnt sell at the car boot sale and the vast majority of it is unsaleable.
NO one wants videos anymore, and as yet there is no way to recycle them, so they go in the bin and then landfill, books can be recycled but again thats usually LOTS of them. stuffed toys end up in bin. old clothes are recycled. but its lots of very hard work for the sake of taking it all to the tip. so please think before you leave it outside the shop sunday, but just to let you know the stuff is often (not always) stolen by the time we open, or strewn around the street.
i appreciate people wanting to give us their stuff but sometimes its just easy to leave it outside a charity shop.
thanks in advance and good car booting this summer.

StumpyPumpy

Whilst I don't have a car suitable for selling at boot fairs at the moment, I go to a lot during the season and as a buyer one thing I hate is stalls that have no indication of how much things are and when you ask the person behind the stall they don't know either! My OH won't even ask a lot of the time unless it is something she really, really wants.

On the otherhand I love a rummage through £1 boxes and the like and often pay money to store someone else's unused junk in my shed (unused) just because it was only £1

The best system for labelling I have seen is through colour coding: add red, green, blue, yellow stickers to everything and have a preprepared sign saying red=£1, green=£2 etc. Then, as the day progresses... swap the sign for one saying red=50p, green=£1 etc. Stops people "accidentally" swapping something from the £5 basket into the 50p one too.


SP

onesixfive

Good, clean, bedding & towels, bath mats etc sell well - usually to landlords of furnished lets. Bag them up with sizes clearly marked - otherwise they get opened up, & split from pillowcases. Alternatively - staple / clip together.

Likewise, good quality kitchen goods (not electrical) sell well ie: pans, plates, knives, forks etc.

Seasonal goods - Xmas trees, holiday suitcases

All these items are too big/heavy to sell/post on EBay but sell well on Car Boot.

Put all part/unused bubble bath, shower gel etc in a "4 for a £5" box - again - too heavy to sell on EBay - dont sell individually, get rid of in bulk.

Books - dont take non-starters such as cookbooks - but best-sellers, again, box & sell at 3 for £5 - dont sell individually, get rid of in bulk. Some bookshops may offer you a price for a box - take it ! Unless you want to take them home.

At the end of the day - offer your leftover stock to the die-hard professional car-booters who turn up week-on-week. Some will take everything off your hands for a price.

ookle

The first one we did my Dad said lets take the old bedding. Mum thought who would want that, but they sold the lot.

Hubby is the Car Boot King though. He has sold loads of computer bits and bobs, even buying the penny line stock in Tesco (cables) all still packaged and selling them for £1 each!

He also sold a 16 year old t shirt for £1.

Never ceases to amaze me what sells and what doesn't.

Contains_Mild_Peril

sng165 wrote: »

Put all part/unused bubble bath, shower gel etc in a "4 for a £5" box - again - too heavy to sell on EBay - dont sell individually, get rid of in bulk.

Books - dont take non-starters such as cookbooks - but best-sellers, again, box & sell at 3 for £5 - dont sell individually, get rid of in bulk.

4 for £5 for toiletries? Must be really posh ones! I would also say that most sellers won't have enough in-demand books (e.g. recent bestsellers) to make your pricing strategy feasible. Good for you if you have the stock to make that realistic, but most of us don't, and some of the hardest books to sell are those which have been bestsellers some time ago but have since flooded the secondhand market (e.g. The Da Vinci Code).
I usually find that decorative items sell well for me, e.g. old silver plated stuff (I suspect some customers mistake makers' marks for silver hallmarks) and popular brands like Hornsea, Doulton, Wedgwood etc.
When my son was younger, I encouraged him to sell his own stuff: adults buying toys for their kids are less likely to try to beat the price down when buying directly from a child.

[Deleted User]

Down in the Surrey area video tapes do NOT sell and our local charity shops wont take them. We ended up putting them out for the dustman in a black bag.

Had varying success with Beanie Babies and stuffed toys however...I suppose it depends on the crowd on any given weekend.