Car boot sale advice - updated 2013

soolin

I did my first car boot of the season yesterday and it was really busy. Locally things haven't changed though, clothes for me never sell and I'm going to stop wasting room in the car with them. I didn't sell a single CD at 20p but I did sell some football and cricket hard back books at 50p a go.

The stuff for me that goes is vintage nick naks, I sold two very old tea sets for £3 a go and a full set of Denby (with side plates) for £6- I know that was cheap but it didn't even get an offer for most of last year so was pleased just to see the back of it.

I talked to a couple of other stall holders and they said the lady who used to deal in baby and childrens clothes (she always came in a van and had rails and several tables) has given up as she was barely covering pitch fees last year.

trolleyrun

Smamfer wrote: »

Hiya

Recently started doing car boots well trying anyway, There is a big one near me running 2 times a week at mo but soon changes to 3, and always worth a pitch

After doing a few so far this yr have realised how many adults clothes are shifted, so wanting to get rid of some of ours. We had a basic rail that i bought when moving into my house but its a bit pants and not big enough. I noticed a lot of people have proper market style ones or even round ones, does anyone know where i am able to get these please?

Thanks

Not sure if this is something you're looking for, but it's what I use when shifting clothes at a car boot sale:

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=free+standing+rotary+clothes+dryer&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=3815886809741786243&sa=X&ei=Hw5nT_a3EsmX8gOUjbWXCA&ved=0CD4Q8wIwAw

It's easy to put up, is fairly sturdy and holds lots of items. You can also organise the clothes easier

MoaningMyrtle

I did my first one of the year yesterday. It was quite successful. Made £90.00 profit. The pitch fee had increased to £8.00 from £6.00 last year.

I took about 50 books and only sold about 5 - gardening and cooking ones for 50p-£1.00 each. My clothes sold well, got £4.00 for a Boden jacket, £3.00 each for three other coats, Nike trainers £2.00, tops £1.00, M & S linen shirts £2.00, summer dresses (H & M) £2.00. All clothes were excellent condition, some on a rail and some on the groundsheet. Sold quite a bit of bric-a-brac, new toiletries and household items, everything sold for £1.00. I had two radio alarms that didn't shift for £2.00 each (Sony and Phillips).

So if you are prepared to let our goods go cheaply, they should sell. Some less experienced sellers were asking too much and weren't selling much. People moved on to the next stall. I got chatting to the seller next door and she told me she worked at the local tip and was selling stuff people had dumped.

poorgirl-54

loving this thread.
please can u anyone tell me if there are there any good/big car boot sales in central london and if so the times or when they are on?

John_Pierpoint

trolleyrun wrote: »

Not sure if this is something you're looking for, but it's what I use when shifting clothes at a car boot sale:

http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?q=free+standing+rotary+clothes+dryer&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari&um=1&ie=UTF-8&tbm=shop&cid=3815886809741786243&sa=X&ei=Hw5nT_a3EsmX8gOUjbWXCA&ved=0CD4Q8wIwAw

It's easy to put up, is fairly sturdy and holds lots of items. You can also organise the clothes easier

You really need two stout shop type rails so you can strap one at right angles to the other. Sacks of sand over the feet can be useful too.

There is nothing worse than seeing a squall approaching, throwing "tarpaulin" over the clothes and then desperately having to hang onto the rack in the rain to stop it blowing over into the mud.

I also have a piece of pipe that can be wired to hang from the open "tail gate" plus a couple of wood blocks to jam it in the "up" position.

ch-ch-changes

I'm doing my firsst ever car-boot tomorrow :eek:

Going with my niece who's done them before - relying on her for guidance - we were going to share, but I already filled my car! I have a variety of stuff I hope will sell, clothes, household stuff, kitchen items also some trinkets and things - I don't know - I've held some stuff back for eBaying and haven't bothered with cds, dvds or books

I'm dreading not getting my £7 fee back tbh, reading all the stories about how carbooters want everything for pence - fingers crossed it goes aok - wish me luck please!:))

Also, putting the clock forward an hour is going to kill me off lol

Wesker

ch-ch-changes wrote: »

Also, putting the clock forward an hour is going to kill me off lol

I did a boot fair today and went to bed an hour earlier last night to compensate lol

I only decided to do one today at short notice cos the weather has been so nice but all morning we had thick fog and it was bl00dy freezing :snow_laug
At least i made a bit of money and got rid of some clutter

ch-ch-changes

Haha, I think I over compensated for the hour and kept waking up

Still, I was really pleased, made my fee back and then some!

It was the A47 car boot in Leicester, I thinked it had to help it was a nice morning (no fog, unlike the day before)

John_Pierpoint

I would just add, that when you get one of the types who really tries to push the price down (probably because they know where they can sell it (or them) on at a nice profit) - tell them it is far too early in the day to give stuff away and come back at XX:XX, which is half an hour before closing time. I have even managed to get people to come back next week.
It depends how much you want the space - as it has tended to be when acting as an executor that I have used boot sales, then my calculation is that almost any price is better than paying someone else to take the stuff away.

MoneysavingArthur

my other advice would be to close your boot and lock it as you get old romanian women wandering around trying to get in your car and buy the gear stick or whatever.

try and have clear bounderies separating the front and behind ends of your stall!!!!

I love doing bootys, brings out the market trader in me.