Car boot sale advice - updated 2013

Weary_soul

I don't know If this has been asked before, but does anyone here know of any good CB's in the north London area?

Thanks.

angieloo

Im preparing to do my first car boot in Liverpool. I dont want to make a loss on my stuff tho. I have an enormous amount of ladies clothing mainly unworn, some good labels some not. All in perfect condition. I would like to price everything before hand as I dont want someone offering me a penny for a hundred quid dress!!! After reading this thread Im beginning to think that Ebay would be better for higher priced items? Ill be doing it in Liverpool so hearing about the muggers is putting me off!!!!
I was thinking off using my paste table with a cover over it and a rail with clothes sorted according to size and pre labelled? does this sound ok?

annie-c

angieloo wrote: »

Im preparing to do my first car boot in Liverpool. I dont want to make a loss on my stuff tho. I have an enormous amount of ladies clothing mainly unworn, some good labels some not. All in perfect condition. I would like to price everything before hand as I dont want someone offering me a penny for a hundred quid dress!!! After reading this thread Im beginning to think that Ebay would be better for higher priced items? Ill be doing it in Liverpool so hearing about the muggers is putting me off!!!!
I was thinking off using my paste table with a cover over it and a rail with clothes sorted according to size and pre labelled? does this sound ok?

Hello and welcome!

First off - you almost ALWAYS make a 'loss' on boot sale stuff, unless you bought it as a job lot yourself.... people expect a bargain and won't generally pay more than a few quid for clothing, unless it is very special. If you have good labels and are confident that the condition is immaculate then ebay is a good way to get fairer prices.

Wherther you price things or not, there will always be people making cheeky offers. Personally I tend only to take cheapish clothes to bootsales and let them go for £2 or less (usually by the end of the day we let stuff go at 3 for £1 to get rid of it)

Paste table and clothes rack sounds good. I wouldn't worry too much about sorting and labelling as people will rummage and mess them up anyway.

Read through the first few pages of this threads for tips about preparation and dealing with "muggers" - it is not scary if you are prepared!

Good luck!

John_Pierpoint

Are you on your own Angie?

There are two nightmare situations with selling clothes from racks in my experience:
1. you just have got to have a "P" and can you trust your neighbouring stall holder?
2. are you ready to throw a big sheet of polythene over the rails complete with weights and sand bags to hold the racks down in the squall?
(If you have two rails and put then at right angles and tape them together with cable ties then that helps the stability)
I've only got one proper shop type rail (tried to get another when Woolies closed down, but they still wanted silly prices for them.) and I have vivid memories of grasping a loaded rail in a gale of rain to stop it toppling over into a river of mud.
The storm came from nowhere and was all over in less than an hour.

I also have fond memories of a heavy sudden shower - I was ready with polythene and heavy round stones - after a sudden 15 minute down poor - I could whip off the covers and was away selling, while less prepared stallholders were still dithering about and trying to go home.

There is nothing wrong with tough cardboard boxes until they get wet! That is why the semi professionals invest in stacking plastic boxes.

Have fun,

John

lucy247

sorry if i am in the wrong place does anyone know if waterford crystal has increased in value over the last 8 years as i paid 65.00 for candlesticks that dealers are offering me much more for. Afraid to sell in case I am doing something wrong. Also do you think 2.50 a roll is too much to ask for m and s wallpaper which costs a tenner a roll. Someone offered me 2,50 for the 6.

soolin

lucy247 wrote: »

sorry if i am in the wrong place does anyone know if waterford crystal has increased in value over the last 8 years as i paid 65.00 for candlesticks that dealers are offering me much more for. Afraid to sell in case I am doing something wrong. Also do you think 2.50 a roll is too much to ask for m and s wallpaper which costs a tenner a roll. Someone offered me 2,50 for the 6.

I don't know anything about wallpaper so can't help with that. However I have bought and sold a little Waterford, and I thought the prices were lower than they used to be, at auction I am paying a small percentage of the original RRP .

However, dealers often sell direct to collectors so if a dealer knows a collector wants a certain item he may be willing to pay more than market to get them.

Have you looked at ebay and generally on the net for current prices on the ones you have?

lucy247

Yes I have and i dont see a great increase. Im afraid I dont know much about waterford crystal. Just bought them cos i liked them. A couple of the people who are after them indicated that they were a hard to come by design. Tempted to let them go I had a very nice pair of stewart crystal dont know if that is spelt right that I got as a wedding present. Spent five years worrying that someone was going to knock them off the fireplace. Eventually put them on auction on ebay started at 24.99 sold for 186.00. i was quite surprised but the buyer seemed delighted with them.

JesaRose

Do you have the design name lucy247? If so I can check past auction prices for you if you like

awaytogoyet

angieloo wrote: »

Im preparing to do my first car boot in Liverpool. I dont want to make a loss on my stuff tho. I have an enormous amount of ladies clothing mainly unworn, some good labels some not. All in perfect condition. I would like to price everything before hand as I dont want someone offering me a penny for a hundred quid dress!!! After reading this thread Im beginning to think that Ebay would be better for higher priced items? Ill be doing it in Liverpool so hearing about the muggers is putting me off!!!!
I was thinking off using my paste table with a cover over it and a rail with clothes sorted according to size and pre labelled? does this sound ok?

I always try any Designer or good Label clothes on Ebay first. Generally you will get a much better price for them there than at a Boot Sale where buyers seem to lose complete touch with reality when it comes to pricing! I think the most I have ever sold any clothing for at a Boot Sale was £5 - & that was for a brand new Winter Coat. Mostly you are looking at 50p to £2!

Having said that I'm finding Ebay very slow at the moment for clothes - I'm wondering if the market-place is just flooded with them? I only list them on Free-Listing Weekends, so if they don't sell I haven't lost any money & re-list them up to 4 times (on future re-listing days) if they haven't shifted. Sometimes they'll go on the 2nd or 3rd Listing. Then I admit defeat & it is the Boot Sale for a quid :rotfl:

The other option are 'Nearly New Shops' where they sell them at a reasonably high price & take a percentage.

Interesting to know if any other peeps are having probs selling clothes on Ebay lately, though?

JesaRose

This week my clothes didn't get many bids but generally I still do ok when I have a wardrobe clearout. I take lots of photos of all angles, details, any flaws etc to make sure the buyers can be confident that the item is in good condition