The Student Room Group

Car Boot Sales?

Has anyone considered doing one? Do you have boring memories of being dragged to them and having to look round old, stuffy junk? How much do you think you could earn selling your unwanted stuff?

I'm doing my first one next Sunday and have no idea what to expect. I have a lot of good quality books and clothes to get rid of and I'm planning on making the stall look impressive and attractive in whatever ways I can. Anyone got any ideas? :beard:
A stall that usually holds books is very effective for selling books.
Car boot sales are awesome, I did one a year ago with my parents. Got rid of 'junk'..... that others would consider a worthwhile purchase.

Make sure you have your items arranged and carry around loads of spare change!

:biggrin:
Be prepared to be offered £2 for something you've priced at £20. And people pawing through your stuff before you've even set up...so get there early.
I was dragged to a fair few as a kid. Never again, thank you :haughty:
Original post by Viva Emptiness
Be prepared to be offered £2 for something you've priced at £20. And people pawing through your stuff before you've even set up...so get there early.


It's at the Liberty stadium, sellers start at 5.30am and buyers can come at 7 so I have an hour and a half to make it look perdy :bigsmile:

Yeah, I've figured out that I'm not going to lower prices til a few hours have passed, have read about so many people selling something for a fiver and then the buyer puts it on their own table for a tenner :lol:

I'm going to try to get hold of a small rail for the really good quality, branded clothing. Also need a pasting table hmmm.
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by JoshDawg
A stall that usually holds books is very effective for selling books.


I think a good idea might be to take four boxes, one at 20p, one at 50p, one for a pound and one for £2 and sort the books into those and label the boxes clearly. Might work well :beard:
Original post by Viva Emptiness
Be prepared to be offered £2 for something you've priced at £20. And people pawing through your stuff before you've even set up...so get there early.


Quite.

They'll be cramming at the entrance like something out of Dawn of the Dead.
I used to go to car boot sales to get the latest films on dodgy DVDs, in fact I think they were VCDs back in the day.Obviously they’ve clamped down on that now. :frown::biggrin:
Did one with my mum when I was about 8. Made £70-ish I think, and that was mostly just selling my old ****e toys.
Original post by TheTipsyTarsier
Has anyone considered doing one? Do you have boring memories of being dragged to them and having to look round old, stuffy junk? How much do you think you could earn selling your unwanted stuff?

I'm doing my first one next Sunday and have no idea what to expect. I have a lot of good quality books and clothes to get rid of and I'm planning on making the stall look impressive and attractive in whatever ways I can. Anyone got any ideas? :beard:



Hi :smile:

Firstly good luck, hope you sell the things you need to :smile:

As part of my fundraising for £2700, I did a couple of car boot sales, but one you've set your stall up they are fine.

Occasionally, when setting up you'll get people coming around your car / van to try and take stuff without paying for it - so my advice would be either keep everything in closed boxes and shut the door (only when you're setting things up), or take another person with you to watch over things. Once you've set up however, the people trying to take things will have gone, so you can leave car doors / boots open etc :smile:

As well, people often take small change and things, often they expect a lot for a little amount. The prices you've stated sound good, I noticed things over £10 generally didn't sell as well. Oh, and be prepared to negotiate - however much you price something for people will always try and lower it, so they feel as if they have a bargain. If I were you, I'd raise the prices if too much bargaining starts to happen.The largest car boot we did gave us £200, but we sold a lot of stuff. On other car boot sales for fundraising we've made £100 or so.

I've never been dragged around car boot sales, as we only do them to sell things for fundraising :smile: The people looking around to buy are often friendly, and sometimes the stall next door to yours and you will start talking :smile:

Hope this has helped :smile:

Mo
(edited 8 years ago)
Original post by TheTipsyTarsier
Has anyone considered doing one? Do you have boring memories of being dragged to them and having to look round old, stuffy junk? How much do you think you could earn selling your unwanted stuff?

I'm doing my first one next Sunday and have no idea what to expect. I have a lot of good quality books and clothes to get rid of and I'm planning on making the stall look impressive and attractive in whatever ways I can. Anyone got any ideas? :beard:


don't put stickers on each item. just don't.
Original post by the bear
don't put stickers on each item. just don't.


Not on each item..just on each box?
Original post by TheTipsyTarsier
Not on each item..just on each box?


sure you could have a box "all 10p" "all 50p" etc
Reply 14
Original post by lucy_crave
I used to go to car boot sales to get the latest films on dodgy DVDs, in fact I think they were VCDs back in the day.Obviously they’ve clamped down on that now. :frown::biggrin:


I used to get the latest films for 1-2 quid each in nice quality on some random dvd's. They were good but the seller moved cities now :frown:
I would love to get rid of a lot of junk I have. Cold hard cash I say, dam all these possessions.
I did it! It was awesome, can see myself getting addicted to this. I got a weird sense of pride/smugness every time a crowd gathered round my stall. Came home with £95 and we got shut down at 10.30 because of the rain. I reckon I'd have almost ran out of stuff if we stayed open til 1pm as planned.

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