outatime Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Anyone here got some handy tips for selling at car boot sales? I've got a load of stuff I don't want from a house i've just moved into - records, ornaments, books, pictures etc. Rather than selling on ebay with the all hassle of p & p, i'm doing a couple of local car boots over the weekend - one is a big one. I can think of better ways to spend my holidays, but the fun tickets might come in handy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
geoffvalenti Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 I'd check out the value of records first, some of these can make silly money and you don't want to be giving it away at a boot sale. As for the rest of the stuff, if you don't want to take it home, price it reasonably and be ready to haggle. I've seen people walk away when the seller isn't willing to knock 50p off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Get there early, price stuff up before hand to avoid a million "how much mate?" questions, take LOTS of carrier bags to put your wares in when sold and £1, 50p for changing notes. Arrange all the stuff so it can be removed from the boot and put onto tables quickly. Setup in boxes. This means your stall is up and running in maximum time. You'll do 80% of your sales in the first 20 mins and it'll be chaos. When I did them for Vickis mum I hated the way the vulchers swoop in as soon as you arrive. It's worth enlisting the help of others just for the first half hour to cope with this and setup. Bundle the crap with the good and don't split. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Charlotte Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Don't do like my brother did and take your sister's 2 full series' of Sweet Valley Twins books. I cried for about two weeks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outatime Posted April 13, 2006 Author Share Posted April 13, 2006 I'd check out the value of records first, some of these can make silly money and you don't want to be giving it away at a boot sale. As for the rest of the stuff, if you don't want to take it home, price it reasonably and be ready to haggle. I've seen people walk away when the seller isn't willing to knock 50p off Cheers. Do you have to price everything up, or just wing it? Most of the records are stuff like 'Irish Folk Songs Vol.7', i'll sort them out later and get on the interweb for some values. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pete Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Cheers. Do you have to price everything up, or just wing it? Most of the records are stuff like 'Irish Folk Songs Vol.7', i'll sort them out later and get on the interweb for some values. Stick stuff in the box and label the box "Everything is 50p", label another box £1...just mind people aren't swapping it all about. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ark Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Get a stall close to the entrance - people will buy off you before they've wandered much further round the site, so you'll sell items that others further in won't be able to shift. Also, if you take a friend and take turns, don't be at all surprised if some of the crap you sold shows up on other stalls later on!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outatime Posted April 13, 2006 Author Share Posted April 13, 2006 Thanks for the advice people. I'm dreading the first bit, i'm doing it in a pick-up so they'll probably be in the back trying to find stuff while I unload. If a fellow trader wants to buy stuff to sell on, i'll try to bump the price up a bit. I've been told to arrive at 7, its an hour drive away! On a holiday Monday as well. Should be fun. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ark Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Get there early. Get a good spot. Don't get flustered. Don't beat yourself up about how you could have charged someone more. Remember you're not trading to make money (unlike many who'l be there), you're trading to get rid of some old stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jamesmark Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Anyone here got some handy tips for selling at car boot sales? park the correct way round and dont sell your engine!!! add a few pound to the bottom price you will accept so that your always happy and there is room for the person to haggle and still think they are getting a deal Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elliot Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Before you go - Pack your tables last, so you can set up a defensive perimeter the moment you open the boot! Any vulture who starts trying to unpack for you (trust me - they do try it!) just swing the table into him, pretending you didn't realise he was there. If you've got CDs or DVDs, no doubt at the very beginning a vulture will pick all the best up & offer you silly money for a load of them. They then go and resell these for double the money at their stalls. Just say no! If they're good enough for their stalls, they're bound to make a more selling them yourself through the morning. Bear in mind there will be lots of sweaty people, inbreds and others with council tans (or is that just the car boots around here!?) which may annoy you with their stupid questions and ridiculously low offers (ie 20p when you've said £4) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JohnK Posted April 13, 2006 Share Posted April 13, 2006 Everyone wants something for nothing, be very firm with your bottom limit price. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
outatime Posted April 19, 2006 Author Share Posted April 19, 2006 Well, I did two over the weekend and won't be doing another one in a hurry. It was an experience, mainly a boring one. Your advice came in very handy, thanks. I got rid of about half the stuff and made £80 less about £20 for food and the pitch. The rest went to a charity shop yesterday. Got there at 8:30 on saturday, there was about 30 cars there already so I arrived at 7:30 for the monday one to get a better pitch and there was only 10 cars there all day. Still sold a fair amount though. I met some very odd people, people that won't pay 50p for a working radio but would pay £10 for a slide projector to 'watch freeview on'. Some folks appeared to be there from 7:30am until after lunch, wandering about. It was just about worth it, the money means I have to buy one less boring thing for the new house. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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