Car Boot Sales

I have only ever partaken in this activity once and it was on the side of the seller and not a buyer and I will never, ever do it again.

Not because I didn´t enjoy it, I did, not because I had to get out of bed on a SUNDAY morning at 6am to get there early for a good space, and definitely not because I froze my ass off in the process.

No, no, no the reason is much more subtle and I will get to that in a moment.

For those who don´t know what a car boot sale is! (Which planet have you been living on?) a car boot sale is NOT where you try to sell the boot off your car, nor sell the contents (spare wheel, jack and the like) but where you fill your car will all the old crap which you would otherwise have throw away and take it to a place (usually a car park) where you and other like you, might sell your un-wantables to somebody who does want them.

The one and only time we went, we filled my car from floor to roof with all the junk we had accumulated over the years in the vain hope that we could sell some of it and make a big pile of cash in the process.

We turned up at the area that the car boot sale was to take place, a pub car park on the outskirts of a neighboring town and paid £6 for the privilege of setting up our little shop of junk for the day.

We unloaded numerous decorator´s pasting tables and boxes from my car and then arranged them in to an amazing display of Porter paraphernalia. However, even before we could get all the boxes from the car there where people already going through the boxes. Sheesh! Can you not wait until I put them all out! Obviously not.

Anyway, all is setup and we (Me and my father) are sitting huddled together drinking coffee and watching others setup their own little stalls and occasionally telling people how much things are, even though they have a price tag on them..!

Now back to the reason why I will not be partaking in a car boot again.

My father and I had spent the previous evening labeling all the items with a price before we placed them in boxes. Now people would come up to the stand and ask how much things cost! One of us would then show them the price and 9 times out of 10 you would either get the following responses

"That´s expensive",

"How much, that man over there has one for sale for half the price, but his is broken!!",

"It´s broken, can I have something off the price?",

"Do you have the lid/tray/key for this?"

"So this diamond encrusted tiara? Can you not come down from £1" aaaahhhhhh!

"Does this can opener work then or what?"

"This block of lard, has it been used???" (Okay, that´s an exaggeration it was only half a block of lard)

I might as well give it to you!

Now call the fickle "mike, your fickle", (I thank you!) but I have put a price on it as this is what I want for it! Okay, I´m getting rid of it anyway but to offer me 10p for something marked at £5 is a bit cheeky.

Maybe I just don´t have the balls or bare faced cheek to ask somebody the same?

Anyway, I won´t be doing it again. I was completely fed up by the end of the day, thoroughly frozen and still left with a car full of junk.

I went home, we sold some of the junk in the boot and the rest went to the charity shop and we split the £48 we made between us. Not exactly a productive day´s work!

That was 2 years ago and I think if I hadn´t given everything away I would still be trying to sell it at car boot sales even now!

If you´re a buyer at a car boot sale then it´s a buyers market and there are many a bargain to be made if your prepared to show bare face cheek and ask 10p for everything!

If you´re a vendor. Question whether or not you can sell your rare collection of 1950´s Cliff and the Shadows records for a reasonable amount (not 10p) or whether you can get more by putting a free advert in loot or on ebay?

If you must go to a car boot to sell, then be prepared to haggle hard and take no crap from the punters, wrap up warm and take lots of hot food, unless its summer.

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