10 Top Tips For A Successful Car Boot Sale
July 21st, 2008 8 Comments » | POSTED BY ROB
Whilst you might not think it from the weather, we’re now slap bang in the middle of car boot sale season, certainly for those enough who aren’t hardy enough to go during the winter months.
Car boot sales might not be everyone’s cup of tea, but there’s no doubt that they can be a useful way of generating a bit of extra cash, as well as providing you with a chance to clear some unwanted clutter from your house. Whilst I wouldn’t class myself as an experienced car-booter (it requires too many cold, early mornings in a field for my liking), here are the tips I would suggest new booters need to consider before packing up your car and heading out to make your fortune:
- Think about what will actually sell – before you start piling everything and anything into your car, consider whether anyone will really want to buy your old junk. It’s true that people will buy some unbelievable stuff, but they’re unlikely to pay much for it, so you’ll be better off finding your bigger, better items first.
- Be realistic about pricing but don’t give it away – in the car boot sales I’ve attended buyers haven’t been prepared to part with much for anything, so decide beforehand what you’re going to charge for each item but be realistic about what you’ll get for it. That old video recorder may have given you hours of viewing pleasure, but to another punter it’s not going to be worth more than a couple of quid. But if you’re being haggled down to a price you’re not comfortable with, if it’s early enough in the day it might be worth holding out for someone who’s willing to pay a little more. Later in the day, it’s worth weighing up whether you should take a low offer or have to take the item back home and bring back to sell another time. Sometimes it’s better to get rid of the item and concetrate your efforts on more saleable items the next time round. If go regularly and find yourself taking the same things back home each time, it might be time to dump them and look for other stuff to sell.
- Be prepared – decide on your prices before you leave, as there are often buyers milling around before you’ve even got out of your car, which can leave you a little off guard. Get some small price stickers to put on your items if it helps.
- Think about how you are going to display your items – Organise similar items together to help “cross-sell”, and make use of the space you have, by using tables or groundsheets. Remember that wallpaper pasting table you’ve got stored in the garage? It might not see much decorating action, but it’s invaluable for car booting. Also, think about how you can catch people’s attention – obviously, this doesn’t mean by shouting or flashing naughty parts of your body, but by the way you layout your items or even the types of item you have to sell.
- Don’t park too close to the next car - this might be a little difficult depending on how keen the organisers are in cramming as many cars into their field, but if you can give yourself a little more space, do it.
- Watch your expensive items – car boot sales can be magnets for people who enjoy getting a “five finger discount”, so keep an eye on your more expensive items to ensure they don’t get nicked.
- Get there early – in general it pays to get to the sale early, as you’ll end up in one of the best pitches – you want to have as many people walking past as possible.
- Factor in costs – It’s no good earning £20 – £30 selling all of your stuff if your profit gets eaten up by the cost of your pitch, food and drink etc., so factor these in when you’re trying to work out if it’s worth going. To make it cheaper, take your own sandwiches or a flask of tea to keep you going.
- Go to the loo before you go! – says it all really, don’t get caught short – you might miss that important sale!
- Take some change – have a few 1p and 2p coins handy, as well as some change i slightly larger sizes.
I hope you’ve found these tips useful – we’ve found that we can earn between £50 – £100 at each car boot sale, although we only go a couple of times a year, as we don’t have that much stuff to sell.
Got any more car boot sale tips? Leave them in the comments below.
photo credit: kamshots
8 Comments on “10 Top Tips For A Successful Car Boot Sale”
4 ways to furnish your home and save money | BitterWallet, February 27th, 2009
[...] But there’s plenty of money to be had by clearing out the junk, and by buying it too; Money Watch has ten tips for a successful car boot sale, and if you think there’s nothing but cheap tat [...]
Charlotte, August 10th, 2009
Great advice, thank you xx
Emily, August 29th, 2009
when you pull up at a carboot you need to be careful of your stuff straight away because some buyers will try to open your boot or car doors and nick stuff.
If you are buying a box of different things, always check the stuff at the bottom as sellers put the tatty stuff at the bottom and some good stuff at the top
Charlie, September 6th, 2009
Be firm with the ‘boot divers’ ie the professionals who congregate round your car and bully before you even have your tables up. No, you won’t discuss prices until you are ready and please step away from the car. Don’t bother with electrical items – it’s very difficult to sell them, you’ll do better on Ebay with it’s safer selling system. Offer a bowl of water for dogs in hot weather and put a big sign up advertising it. Don’t put huge cuddly toys on your stall – they don’t sell and parents will actually walk their families past your stall quicker to avoid being nagged. Always take plenty of change in a ‘float’. Your first 50p sale will invariably be paid for with a £20 note. watch out for sticky fingers – better if you have more than one person on the stand.
Zoe, September 16th, 2009
its really is true all of these thing i have been doing carboots every year for about 5 years with my cousin and each yer through all our hard work we raise between £100-£200 only selling our stuff but if you get stuck try doing a raffle!
Everything Car Boot, November 22nd, 2009
Heres another tip for sellers;
There is no point taking nothing but 300 VHS tapes to a car boot sale, expecting to make a good profit.
DVD’s have made the VHS obsolete, and while some a small number of people may still look for them, you will be still be taking 295 of them back home with you!
@Charlie – Fair enough but don’t forget that without dealers buying your items, you would probably take alot more of your items home with you!
In addition – If someone sees something they are interested in and politely asks about it, then I am more than willing to let them have a look.
I certainly don’t tell them to go away as they are a potential lead who wants to buy something from me :)
I remember when I asked to look at a bass guitar and the seller was very rude and abrupt and told me to go away for half an hour.
I did what I was told, only for them to take a much lower amount for it when they finally decided they had come to a car boot to sell – shame really, it was a nice guitar and I would have paid their asking price.
I personally think its all part of the fun!
Trevor
Everything Car Boot, November 22nd, 2009
Heres another tip for sellers;
There is no point taking nothing but 300 VHS tapes to a car boot sale, expecting to make a good profit.
DVD’s have made the VHS obsolete, and while some a small number of people may still look for them, you will be still be taking 295 of them back home with you!
@Charlie – Fair enough but don’t forget that without dealers buying your items, you would probably take alot more of your items home with you!
In addition – If someone sees something they are interested in and politely asks about it, then I am more than willing to let them have a look.
I certainly don’t tell them to go away as they are a potential lead who wants to buy something from me :)
I remember when I asked to look at a bass guitar and the seller was very rude and abrupt and told me to go away for half an hour.
I did what I was told, only for them to take a much lower amount for it when they finally decided they had come to a car boot to sell – shame really, it was a nice guitar and I would have paid their asking price.
If you want some tips, then you might want to read my top 5 Car Boot Sale Tips that I recently wrote.
Trevor
Car Boots Cornwall, December 3rd, 2009
Don’t forget carrier bags. Pack your table last of all you will need it first! You will get half an hour set up time before the buyers are allowed into our boot sales so if you are in Cornwall come to one of our sales for hassle free selling…
