Car boot sale advice - updated 2013

Adem_3

I did my first bootfair on Sunday and made £125 which was great. I have no doubt that I could've sold some items for a bit more but people love a bargain and it was all stuff I just wanted to get rid of as I'm moving house.

As someone mentioned earlier, you will usually make a loss on items compared to what you initially paid for them but the fact is that most of the items were sitting in my loft or packed away in boxes so were worth nothing to me really.

I didn't shift all of my goods so am going to have a rummage in the loft again and do another bootfair in 3 weeks time. Looking forward to it!

ElasticKorma

I did my first carboot sale on sunday at HounslowHeath, Middlesex. £12 per car. It was certainly an experience. I sold various things including clothes, shelving, stairgates (brand new), toys, shoes, and some small storage furniture. I was amazed at how cheap people wanted things for but in most cases stuck to my prices. I didn't charge high prices but people wanted bottle sterilisers and storage units for 30p, which they didnt get. Managed to sell the stairgates for £8 each and a travel cot for five pounds. The most popular things were childrens clothes. I tipped two big bags onto the table and put up a sign saying 50p each or three for £1. These sold well. Nobody seemed to want toys and I ended up giving dancing igglepiggle to a little girl for free. My most amusing moment was the indian fellow who was looking for brassiere sets and was extremely open as to why. I made just over a £100 pounds. I now understand why my dad rummages through skips and rubbish in a bid to boost his carboot stock. It was great fun and I will probably do it again.

Furious_George

I have some framed prints and a couple of framed watercolours by different artists that I'd like to sell. They're pretty good. Is it appropriate to take them to a CB? or is there a better way of off-loading them?
I thought about ebay but their size & weight makes postage an issue.

John_Pierpoint

I've seen someone sell a collection of medals (at Wimbledon Dog Track) for a 4 figure sum - but he knew what they were worth.
I would trawl Ebay and sell anything worth more than 50 quid that way.
If it is worth more than 200 quid, a local auction house just might be able to beat Ebay.
Under 50 quid chat away to the dealers/knockers at the boot sale and see if they will give you free advice.
(You could always say "here is a photo I scanned - I'll most likely be back next weekend". That gives the dealer time to check with his potential clients and you time to be told it is worth a 3 figure sum.)

soolin

Some dealers can be very good at car boots. I often acquire jewellery or other bits I can't value and I know the dealers I trust and i let them have a good look using their loupes and ask them to give me a fair price. I suggest a price that leaves them with profit but gives me a good deal as well.

There are others though that I wouldn't trust, I still know which one I suspect of stealing a high end item from me.

I am declared as a dealer though, I make no pretence at having all this stuff in my loft so I expect them to treat me as one of them. If I do have family pieces I usually tell them that I will hold out for a price to a collector as I would prefer to sell to the end user, and they rarely hassle me. I've even had some stop me from selling somehting too cheaply and suggesting I wait for 'Fred' or 'Jenny' to get to my stall as they deal in that item and will give me a better price, and they usually do.

Sid_Wolf

i done a car boot sale with my mum yesterday, she had a lot of old antique stuff to sell and asked if i'd help her and she convinced me to make up some collars and stuff to sell (i make and sell dog products)

Im currently working 2 jobs, and had a lot of collar orders to get through last week so didnt have any time during the week to get any made up for the car boot. So stayed up all night saturday making collars of various sizes/colours.

I gathered up some of the dog's old bits and pieces too, old leads, collars etc that we didnt use any more, and a few random bits to take aswell.

We got there at 5.30 and started setting up, had a bit of a wrestle with the dealers 1st thing, I'd read through this thread beforehand so knew what to expect. Mum is recovering from breast reconstruction surgery (been about 6 weeks since the op and it can still be a tad tender) so I told her to stand back and let me deal with them as I didnt want her getting pushed and stuff. I had to literally pull them out of the boot! It was mental, and i ended up slamming all the doors shut and telling them that they either wait 5 minutes for us to get set up or we wont sell anything to them anyway. They did listen lol, was quite funny seeing all these 30+ blokes waiting patiently while the little 8 stone girl told them off!!!

The actual sale was a bit of a disappointment though, I ended up putting my collars down to £3 and people still tutting and stuff, They take me an hour to make!!!! Sold a few of the used dog stuff and the random odds and sods but none of the collars I made

On a plus side I took the ones i made with me to the dog park later in the afternoon and made a few sales there! Clearly car boot people arent my kind of customers, even though there were plenty of dogs (and we had a water bowl for them which got a lot of use)

It was good fun though, and we're going to be doing another one, but I dont think I'll stay up all night again! I'll just find a load of tat to take instead

loveabargain13

I have sorted out a lot of summer clothing, was thinking about dunton this sunday, however not too sure on the weather forecast at the moment, up to friday its showery then saturday it is sunny. I always say ever year I am never doing a bootsale ever again then I find all this stuff!

Mainly all my clothing is from river island, zara and therapy HoF, hopefully fingers crossed I'll be as lucky as I have done before!

ROOSTER_BOOSTER

How much should i charge for things at car boot sale? was thinking of
Cd albums 50p each
Cd singles 25p each
Books 30p each
Clothes 50p each (mostly mens shirts and t shirts)

annie-c

ROOSTER_BOOSTER wrote: »

How much should i charge for things at car boot sale? was thinking of
Cd albums 50p each
Cd singles 25p each
Books 30p each
Clothes 50p each (mostly mens shirts and t shirts)

Have a look through this thread for tips on selling and prices etc. which vary depending on labels, titles quality etc.

Fridge03

How much would you think a ring would go for?
Nothing flashy, just an aluminium ring with various different designs on them?

I have 50 to get rid of! I was thinking £1-£2 each?
Or maybe 3 for £2.50?
Or 3 for £4?