Jump to content
House Price Crash Forum

Selling At A Car Boot Sale - Advice Needed


Trampa501

Recommended Posts

0
HOLA441
1
HOLA442
2
HOLA443
3
HOLA444
4
HOLA445
5
HOLA446
6
HOLA447
7
HOLA448
8
HOLA449
9
HOLA4410
10
HOLA4411

Someone will approach you when you've barely began to unpack to ask if you have any records for sale.

If so, do check the potential values first. They have.

Yes, this. Fortunately I was able to deflect the guy as I am a buyer of vinyl rather than a seller and wouldn't ever dream of flogging any of my records, even the ones I have four copies of, like Abba The Album for example. I find that being a lover of 70s and 80s cheesy pop and disco makes being a record collector far cheaper and more rewarding than liking (say) the Stones/Beatles/Dylan/Obscure 70s Punk etc. :lol:

I wonder if I could make any money doing the same prowl but asking after old computer games. I did once manage to buy a copy of Toejam and Earl for 4 or 5 quid when they were going on ebay for 25- obviously I'll never sell that either but it's a pretty disappointing game compared to T&E2, which is so Funkatronic I managed to generate a complaint to my landlord by hooking my Megadrive up to my hi-fi and playing it at high volume for about 6 hours! :P

Anyway, back OT. I've only ever done the one boot sale; pretty much everything we were selling I had obtained for free through my (now lapsed) hobby of bin raiding. My mum came with me, and sensibly insisted that selling stuff for pennies was better than taking it home. We flogged all the new books I'd had out of a certain stationer's bin for 20p each- most of them to a woman who ran a book stall and who apparently thought she'd be able to turn over plenty of generic chick-lit and travel books. The many secondhand books I had attracted almost no interest- I guess if there's ever a time this is it, with people about to fly off on holiday, but quite honestly, prepare to be disappointed, and if you've got time tap the ISBN into Amazon first to make sure the books won't sell for a couple of quid on there. It seems the advent of 50 quid e-readers has made all but the rarest paper books almost worthless. Which is a shame if you have too many of them! :(

In the end I think we made 25 quid selling stuff, and it cost us 12 quid for the pitch, so a profit of 13 quid for 4 hours work for two people. I also got pretty sunburned. However as I'd got all the stuff from bins it was quite satisfying seeing it not go to landfill, and although my mum strongly discouraged me from acquiring more crap when we were trying to get rid of it, I had a quick wander round the other sellers and bought a CD single of Touch Me by the 49ers for 20p, which is a nice thing to have, even if I have no idea where it is now!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11
HOLA4412
12
HOLA4413
13
HOLA4414
14
HOLA4415

Someone will approach you when you've barely began to unpack to ask if you have any records for sale.

If so, do check the potential values first. They have.

I reckon you could make a killing with some fake medals, there are always people routing around for them. Get there early enough and it's a bit dark and spotting a fake, especially under the pressure of there being 10 other people routing around, would be tough and might make people gullible enough.

If you could get the cost of production low enough say £5 a medal they you could easily sell them for £20-30 a pop, plead complete ignorance to what it is and make sure it's something in the medium level, i.e. not common as muck, but equally not a medal that is so rare people know their existence. Something worth in the region of £200-300 if it were real should do the trick.

The odd fake 1933 penny would also be good, keep a stock in your pocket and release one at a time in to a small collection of old coins. price them at a level an normal old penny would be too much for but not to set alarm bells ringing.

Disney videos used to be the other one, but in recent years Disney have realised there is more money in the DVD market than there is in releasing the classics at the Cinema every 10 years as they used to do in the video days.

-----

As for actual advice, decide up front what the purpose is. If it is to get rid of junk then don't make the mistake of over valuing stuff, priced right everything will go.

Take a big felt tip pen and some day glow post it notes, be ruthless and cut prices all the time.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

15
HOLA4416

I reckon you could make a killing with some fake medals, there are always people routing around for them. Get there early enough and it's a bit dark and spotting a fake, especially under the pressure of there being 10 other people routing around, would be tough and might make people gullible enough.

If you could get the cost of production low enough say £5 a medal they you could easily sell them for £20-30 a pop, plead complete ignorance to what it is and make sure it's something in the medium level, i.e. not common as muck, but equally not a medal that is so rare people know their existence. Something worth in the region of £200-300 if it were real should do the trick.

The odd fake 1933 penny would also be good, keep a stock in your pocket and release one at a time in to a small collection of old coins. price them at a level an normal old penny would be too much for but not to set alarm bells ringing.

Disney videos used to be the other one, but in recent years Disney have realised there is more money in the DVD market than there is in releasing the classics at the Cinema every 10 years as they used to do in the video days.

-----

As for actual advice, decide up front what the purpose is. If it is to get rid of junk then don't make the mistake of over valuing stuff, priced right everything will go.

Take a big felt tip pen and some day glow post it notes, be ruthless and cut prices all the time.

Are you Mark Carney?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

16
HOLA4417

At 3 for £1 it sounds like you're going to need to sell a lot of books.

Not worth the paper it is written on........fabulous book bargains about at the moment at a fraction of the published price.....well worth buying now if you have the storage space and find something you like that won't become dated, thinking more non-fiction work....one man's trash is another man's treasure....just a case of matching man to his particular treasure. ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

17
HOLA4418

My advice is take it to a charity shop. Thrift is not about getting diddly squat for your second hand rubbish but about not buying it in the first place. I have such an aversion to stuff generally these days that car boot sales would be torture. It may be that we will need to pay our citizens to consume soon because we are all weary of stuff aren't we?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

18
HOLA4419
19
HOLA4420
20
HOLA4421
21
HOLA4422

I did a car boot the other year for the first time.

It was a scary experience. As soon as I'd opened the boot they were rooting through the stuff!

Same here, the 'early birds' root thru it before you even get a chance to get it out of the back out your car.

Clearly looking for bargains (which may in fact be valuable) so it it does occur take special note of anything they seem particularly interested in and leave it in the car. Often they will hover nearby waiting for you to price up and dive is as soon as.

Leave it in the car and if they ask about it. Tell them it is not for sale. Research at leisure when you get home.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

22
HOLA4423
23
HOLA4424

Just to give some feedback. We covered the cost of hiring a spot and table (£12) and made a little money each - £4.... hardly worth it for anyone seeking a paid job, but at least it was a day out.

Surprisingly it was the more expensive (and newer looking books) at £3 and £2 that sold. People were just not interested in the £1 and below range - just sold one of those. However it could be the location (Pimlico) that affected this, and probably the sales would have been different in another location.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

24
HOLA4425

My advice is take it to a charity shop. Thrift is not about getting diddly squat for your second hand rubbish but about not buying it in the first place. I have such an aversion to stuff generally these days that car boot sales would be torture. It may be that we will need to pay our citizens to consume soon because we are all weary of stuff aren't we?

One of the advantages of renting, an unintended consequence, is that I have the bare minimum of stuff. Every item has to justify its existence and nothing is kept once it doesn't.

All because I could move at any time, and the thought of what people go through when packing to move is my motivation.

I haven't moved in 18 years :lol:

I often say to friends, "if you ever find yourself saying we'll put X Y or Z into the loft, change that to 'we'll put it in the bin".

Otherwise you'll end up with a lifetime of stuff in your loft (or your shed or garage).

And I really appreciate 28 day returns. You can buy something, have it a couple of days, look at it, think WTF? and then take it back for a refund. You get your consumerism fix at no cost or long-term pain.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Archived

This topic is now archived and is closed to further replies.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.




×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information