Bootsale/Charity Shop buying and selling

DaveTheGeordie

I've made a little money this way. It's a bit hit and miss and I need to get much better at it too. I'm looking for some consistent, really steady, safe items to buy regularly, as in you will find them most weeks and be able to sell on? Anyone care to share a really good secret item?

I'll tell one:

Harry Potter books. I think most resellers ignore them because they are books. Buy them up. They are all over the place. 25p, 50p, £1. Make sets (7 in a set). Even mixed hard/soft backs, mixed publisher sets will sell steadily at £15 on Gumtree.

Also, a thought exercise for people: You have £10. You have £100 and you have £500. You aren't allowed to put it in an ISA or stocks etc, and you aren't allowed to buy stuff for yourself. You have to buy second hand items and sell them on with the aim of making a profit. What do you buy?

MollyDolly

I agree about the Harry Potter/J K Rowling books - many are for sale in the charity shops. My mum recently bought a copy of JK Rowling's first adult novel 'A Casual Vacancy' hardback for 75p and it was good as new. A fantastic read BTW - it was dramatised on the BBC earlier in the year.

Books in general are a good idea - all the charity shops near me are full of books starting at 10p each and most are immaculate. You can often find many of the same author together as people hand them in as a job lot.

People often donate books back to the charity shop they bought them from within a day or so - my Mum does this all the time.:)

A good tip is to buy end of season - B&M Bargains (amongst others) have been selling off gardening stock such as hanging baskets, canes, watering cans, gloves, seeds, tools etc from 10p per item. I have bought heavy duty (ie not rubbish) spades, forks, loppers, secateurs and lawn edgers etc for £1 each.

asajj

There isn't a secret. Most charity shops are aware that they can sell items on Ebay or Gumtree themselves and will price things accordingly. Books are hard to sell on Ebay. I haven't tried Gumtree but you won't get a lot of people to pay for a Harry Potter set. Pretty much everyone has it if they wanted to keep them anyway.
Clothes are also the same. If you buy a designer piece you sure that is genuine, it might be different. However it would be hit and miss again.

Also if you are buying things with the intention of selling, it would be a business thus you'd pay tax.

I volunteer at a charity shop and people will often buy valuable vintage items, porcelain etc but also they know what they are buying. They will know about the markings, prices, whether it would worth anything, if it is collectible etc.

DaveTheGeordie

MollyDolly wrote: »

A good tip is to buy end of season - B&M Bargains (amongst others) have been selling off gardening stock such as hanging baskets, canes, watering cans, gloves, seeds, tools etc from 10p per item. I have bought heavy duty (ie not rubbish) spades, forks, loppers, secateurs and lawn edgers etc for £1 each.

I've never thought of this. Have you managed to resell any? Or were you just buying in general?

DaveTheGeordie

asajj wrote: »

There isn't a secret. Most charity shops are aware that they can sell items on Ebay or Gumtree themselves and will price things accordingly. Books are hard to sell on Ebay. I haven't tried Gumtree but you won't get a lot of people to pay for a Harry Potter set. Pretty much everyone has it if they wanted to keep them anyway.
Clothes are also the same. If you buy a designer piece you sure that is genuine, it might be different. However it would be hit and miss again.

Also if you are buying things with the intention of selling, it would be a business thus you'd pay tax.

I volunteer at a charity shop and people will often buy valuable vintage items, porcelain etc but also they know what they are buying. They will know about the markings, prices, whether it would worth anything, if it is collectible etc.

Book are hard to sell. That's the beauty of it, I think in a sense. There are certain books which are largely ignored by the reseller market, I imagine because they think 'Books,.. hard to sell. Too much weight' and such. Yet they are hugely popular and abundant enough to be bought and sold. And with the right set they still sell at a reasonable price. I couldn't do that with LOTR or The Hunger games, or most sets but there are ones out there, and I'm trying to find them. I tried with GoT. I imagine it would work with that one but the books are much harder to find second hand. They get snapped up.

iammumtoone

In my experience you wont make much profit to sell from buying from a charity shop when you factor in the selling fees. Charity shops are cheaper for a buyer as you don't have to pay postage.

Most charity shops check ebay before pricing. I brought an unusual money box the other day from a charity shop and was speaking to the manager (she was on the till) about it, I said I wonder how you would describe it and she replied with telling me the terms she used to search ebay for it before she put it out.

You might have better luck sticking to car boot sales as people tend to sell cheaper if they are just looking to get rid of stuff quick.

asajj

DaveTheGeordie wrote: »

Book are hard to sell. That's the beauty of it, I think in a sense. There are certain books which are largely ignored by the reseller market, I imagine because they think 'Books,.. hard to sell. Too much weight' and such. Yet they are hugely popular and abundant enough to be bought and sold. And with the right set they still sell at a reasonable price. I couldn't do that with LOTR or The Hunger games, or most sets but there are ones out there, and I'm trying to find them. I tried with GoT. I imagine it would work with that one but the books are much harder to find second hand. They get snapped up.

Yes but whether it is worth the effort is the question.

DaveTheGeordie

asajj wrote: »

Yes but whether it is worth the effort is the question.

What's worth it to me may not be worth it for others. And for me personally, I think about it like building a knowledge base. The sum of the parts type of reasoning too. Discovering an item I can make a fiver on once after a days research may seem stupid. I appreciate that.

Yet factor in if it can be done weekly or every other week, even be able to sell once a month. Then factor in 20 other things you've learnt that are fairly easy to get and sell, and doing these simultaneously and regularly. And being able to spend a low amount of time doing that once you've figured it out.

lessonlearned

I think it's all about practice and learning about mAkes, designs etc

I know a couple of people who specialise in clothing and they do quite well.

I used to volunteer in a charity shop and we had a couple who came in at least once a week and they would tour all the charity shops too, they made a steady living.

Ive dabbled a bit, it's fun. I regard it as a hobby which makes me a bit of extra income now and again. Problem is I buy things and then struggle to part with them......

Most charity shops will try and sell more valuable items through an auction house.

We used to keep one of those jewellers eye glass things so we could check for hallmarks etc.

Go for it, it might not make you rich but it can be a nice little hobby which brings in a second income stream.

lincroft1710

lessonlearned wrote: »

it might not make you rich but it can be a nice little hobby which could bring in a second income stream.

I think this is the best you can hope for, note I have inserted the word "could" .

Wizzbang

DaveTheGeordie wrote: »

I've made a little money this way. It's a bit hit and miss and I need to get much better at it too. I'm looking for some consistent, really steady, safe items to buy regularly, as in you will find them most weeks and be able to sell on? Anyone care to share a really good secret item?

I'll tell one:

Harry Potter books. I think most resellers ignore them because they are books. Buy them up. They are all over the place. 25p, 50p, £1. Make sets (7 in a set). Even mixed hard/soft backs, mixed publisher sets will sell steadily at £15 on Gumtree.

Also, a thought exercise for people: You have £10. You have £100 and you have £500. You aren't allowed to put it in an ISA or stocks etc, and you aren't allowed to buy stuff for yourself. You have to buy second hand items and sell them on with the aim of making a profit. What do you buy?

The problem is that you can never guarantee supply from secondhand sources- either charity shops or car boots. In the same way, you can never guarantee prices from shop-to-shop or car boot seller to car boot seller.

I am a charity shop regular, looking for stuff for myself but sometimes to sell on. I see so much stuff that is overpriced because they've not researched it carefully enough and seen something with the same name sell for loads on eBay. You need to look at the nitty gritty, such as edition, label (to date it), fabric, attractiveness etc etc). The thing these charity shop staff don't realise is that they don't reach the same market as eBay. If they want top dollar, then they should sell it on eBay where there is the World as a marketplace.

The other problem is that pricing is irregular- I used to live in a 'posh' town (horrible place!) where all the toffs that volunteered at the charity shops thought they were giving people a bargain by putting high street stuff up at ridiculous prices. They just weren't living in the real world. I frequently heard the normal towns folk complaining about the awful prices.

Next point, no-one is going to tell you what their best sellers are because they don't want competition. I have stumbled across my best sellers sometimes by chance and sometimes because its a personal interest of mine. To be honest, I think that's the best way- if you are genuinely interested in a certain type of item, then you won't mind doing all the research and remembering it all by heart. That way you know instantly what you should buy and what's a good price.

With Harry Potter, you may well have found something that works well for you and in your area. Sounds like from the comments here, that wouldn't work for everyone, everywhere. Another reason why you're better to figure this out on your own.

Finally, good luck- there certainly is money to be made and bargains to be had!