After the last time I conjured up my inner market traders and sold my wares, ‘two for a paaawnd’, I wrote a guide of tips I picked up along the way for a, now defunct, site called More Than Living. These have served as useful reminders for me, and may just help you out too.

Make sure sets are complete – avoid any unhappy customers or no-sales by ensuring that all the parts of a set are kept together. If you’re missing a part, make this known to buyers.

Spare change – as many car boot sale items go for under £5, make sure you have plenty of change for those awkward ‘how much is this? £1. Sorry, I’ve only got a fifty’ customers.

Take the kitchen sink – unless you love getting up at 6am on a Sundaymorning, a car boot sale is a once-every-few-years event, so make sure you’re loaded to bursting with unwanted goods. Those items you don’t sell can be dropped off at a charity shop on the way home or later in the week.

Get there early – Getting up at the crack of dawn is worth it when greeted by cash-happy car boot vultures on arrival. These people are often professional eBay sellers who want first dibs on your loot and will pay the best money.

Do your research – Visit a car boot sale in the weeks leading up to your sale to get an idea of realistic selling prices.

Be ready to haggle – Haggling is an essential part of the car boot sale experience, so get used to £5 being shorthand for £3 and offer discounts on multiple items. However, it’s wise to take a second to think your patter through; otherwise you may deliver such gems as ‘£5 for the two or £2 each’, as a seller on our neighbouring pitch proposed last time.

Be prepared – In order to make standing in a car park for five hours as comfortable as possible, wrap up warm, take a flask of hot tea or coffee and pack a fold-up chair – just make sure it doesn’t get sold.

Let it go – You’ve brought all this stuff to the car boot sale because you don’t want or need it anymore, so don’t start getting sentimental when it comes to selling it.

Stay till the end – The general aim of a car boot sale is to sell as many items as you can, so when the sale nears the end, reduce your prices or offer everything for one set price to shift some stock.

Don’t go home with more than you came with – Car boot sales are a great place for sellers to pick up a bargain too, but make sure you don’t just replace old clutter with new.

Jo-ann Fortune is a Brighton-based journalist who writes about her car-boot sale and vintage finds, as well as fashion and homelife, on her blog http://wordsonthetopic.blogspot.com/

Yet as my business grew, I became more aware of other benefits such as the earnings potential, flexibility and financial security a car boot sale business provides.

For those of you who are just starting your own business, or maybe are just thinking about it, here are some of the key benefits you can look forward to;

Low Cost

It will cost you very little to start your own car boot sale business. All you need are basic computer skills, an internet connection, a digital camera, your own means of transport, a willingness to learn and of course a small amount of capital with which to buy stock. Compare with this with the considerable investment (and risk) involved with establishing a bricks and mortar store. You’ll need to pay rents and business rates for your physical space as well as the cost of store fittings, utilities etc. Then you’ll have the problem of how you are going to market your business effectively and drive sales.

Commercial Potential

With a car boot sale business you have access to a marketplace of people ready to buy, and for minimal cost. In this respect, eBay, Amazon and Playtrade all provide very competitive platforms to sell your goods and they do all of your marketing for you. Compare this with your online store which will needs to look good and perform highly on the search engines – both of which require considerable investment to do properly.

Work Anytime, Anywhere

Working in a store or office requires you to work prescribed hours which can make it difficult to maintain a healthy work life balance, especially if you have children. An online car boot sale business, on the other hand, enables you to work anytime, anywhere so you can plan your time around your family, not your work. It’s flexibility also means you can run a part-time business on top of a full-time job, should you want to another source of income for your household.

No Wholesalers

The traditional business model involves you purchasing stock from a wholesaler or manufacturer, typically in bulk. The higher the quantity you purchase, the lower unit price you pay. While this is great for large retailers, it makes it difficult for small, independent companies to remain in business. as they simply cannot compete on price. A car boot sale business on the other hand can pick up items for prices retailers can only dream of from private sellers who just want to get rid!

Financial Security

Even if you do already work full-time, an online car boot sale business is an effective way to increase your financial security should you be made redundant in the future. And with 2.47 million people currently unemployed in the UK, the chances of this happening may be higher than you think. In addition, while your business earnings may be relatively modest while you are in full-time employment, your knowledge and skills while enable you quickly grow your business should the need arise.

There you have it – The 5 reasons you should start your very own car boot sale business. If you liked this article and want to get mor like this sent straight to your inbox, then subscribe to our newsletter right away!

One of these websites, iBootSale, has been around for years. I did sign up a while back with the intention of buying and selling but like every other online marketplace other than it never felt like it reached critical mass.

By this I mean the point where it becomes a viable proposition to sell on their marketplace instead of eBay. The truth, while you could make sales on sites like iBootSale or eBid you will never make as many as you could on eBay.

Why? Eyeballs. None of the rival sites have any near the number of visitors as sites like eBay, so you have less people eyes on your product, and less sales as a result.

While there’s nothing wrong listing on eBay and other marketplaces the average car boot sale business doesn’t have the resources or time for a multi-platform operation. Like me, you’re probably struggling listing everything on one marketplace, never mind two.

Anyway, I check out some of the smaller sites from time to time to see what they are up to.  So I search for iBootSale on Google only to find that it has down at the moment, and has been for at least 2 weeks – Have they given up the ghost? Does anyone out there know?

This week we are going to look at some of the more popular directories to see how useful they can be. We will also be randomly testing how up-to-date each directory is by checking if they have removed the Pontefract Lane car boot sale which was cancelled in January.

Car Boot Junction

Car Boot Junction is the UK’s most popular car boot sale directory.  It is easy to navigate from the home page, with the option to select sales by County as well as Town, which is handy. They currently advertise a total of 1840 car boots (subject to change) so the chances of your local sales being listed are pretty high! When we checked the Leeds listings, we did find that the Pontefract Lane car boot sale was still listed despite being cancelled in January but the directory seems to be regularly updated.

Your Booty

Your Booty is my personal favourite car boot sale directory. Like Car Boot Junction it is nice and easy to navigate but it also offers plenty of other useful content, including buying and selling tips as well as helpful links to local authorities if you want to setup your own car boot sale.  The best thing about the site though is the accuracy of the listings – they remove any sale which hasn’t been recently updated by the organiser. So when we checked the Yorkshire listings, we were not surprised to find that the Pontefract Lane car boot sale had already been cancelled.

Car Boot Calendar

Car Boot Calendar differs from the rest of our entries as it requires a paid membership, currently £14.00 a year for the magazine subscription and £8.99 for online access to their database.  Is it worth paying for this information when you can get it for free from other car boot sale directories? Well I won’t say too much as I haven’t subscribed yet, but the free issue they have available on their website looks good. They not only cover car boots but auctions, antiques fairs and flea market which may be useful to some. I also imagine their listings are very accurate as they will direct access to many car boot organisers.

Car Boot Sale Directory

While this site isn’t as comprehensive as Car Boot Junction or Your Booty, it is definitely worth checking out as a lot of smaller, less well known sales seem to be listed there. As many of you may already be aware, the larger car boots are now saturated with dealers, making those small, infrequent sales great places to visit to pick up bargains. You can also register as a member and reply to the listings, allowing you to ask questions about the sale or let me people know what you thought of it.

Boot Fairs

Another great car boot resource which lists sales in a standard directory format as well as having a feed of latest additions and one-off sales. This is a good way to spot up and coming sales or those which are only held a few times a year. They always have some interesting news on the home page as well – not sure where they find it all to be honest! Like Car Boot Junction, the Pontefract Lane car boot sale was unfortunately still listed.

Check Ahead

As our example demonstrates, it is very difficult for the sites to be 100% accurate as they rely on organisers to let them know. Unfortunately the organisers least likely to update their listings are those who have recently cancelled their events!  So If you find a car boot sale listed on one of the above websites it is crucial that you phone ahead to make sure it is still running. There’s nothing worse than arriving at a car boot sale only to find that it is no longer running as this <amusing example demonstrates>!

Until next time

The news for the closure was originally announced in late January, but we decided to pick up the story this week because;

• Many people in and around Leeds may not be aware of the closure, especially those with are selling for the first time this summer.
• It raises some interesting questions about how the council may behave towards piracy and counterfeiting at privately run car boot sales

So, first things first, don’t visit Cross Green market on a Sunday morning – no-one will be there! Do not despair though as there are plenty of car boot sales in and around Leeds, a full list of which can be found Here. From my experience, I would recommend that you check out the sales at Yeadon, Halifax, Pannal and Bingley as they are well established and have good turnouts throughout summer.

It isn’t so much the closure of one car boot sale (and a bad one at that) which concerns me, but rather the council’s attitude towards the whole affair. They freely admit that the combined effort of the council, police and trading standards wasn’t enough to get the problem under control. What chance, then, do private car boot sale organisers have?

What the Council also seem to have overlooked is the counterfeiters will simply operate at another car boot sale instead. This seems incredibly ignorant to me as they are simply transferring the problem to someone else instead of dealing with the root cause. It also makes me wonder whether similar action will be taken against other sales in the area in the future, should they also ‘fail’ to get the problem under control.

I am sure that the  car boot sale generated considerable revenue for the council, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see it reopen in a few months time, especially as the public spending freeze takes hold.

What do you think – Should the Cross Green car boot have been closed? Should it reopen?

Save money-and have fun!

I am writing from several years of experience on how to do well at car boot sales. They have been running for a long time, and you can guarantee that on any given weekend, there will be a car boot sale on somewhere (weather permitting!) It’s a great way to declutter your life and make some money at the same time. Just follow my rules….

1. Get up early! Yes I know, we all want a lie-in on the weekend, but that isn’t going to work. Most boot sales start early, and some even start queuing before dawn in order to secure a pitch.
2. Put a price on things but be prepared to take less. Remember, people expect to haggle, especially the dealers at the start, and the last-minute bargain hunters at the end, who go around hoping to pick up a good deal from stallholders who would rather sell than pack it up and take it all home again! Take a friend – it’s easier if there’s two of you. One can keep an eye on the stock while the other deals with customers.
3. Take two tables and put them in an ‘L’ shape – this maximises the amount of space you have.
4. Take a flask of coffee – remember, it can be cold out there at 7.00a.m.
5. Dealers will flock to the stall as you are setting up and pounce on anything of interest. Don’t let them faze you, but do be prepared to do a deal. Remember, you do want to get rid of all your stuff!
6. Most boot sales start to pack up after 3 hours. By then, you will have had enough!
7. What to sell? Popular items include books, toys, clothing and CDs. DVDs and video games are also sought after.
8. Some boot sales have strict rules regarding the sale of electrical goods. Some forbid their sale without a PAT certificate. If in doubt, then it is best not to try selling them.
9. Don’t be tempted to go around buying lots of stuff from other stallholders – the idea is to declutter, not to replace it with loads of someone else’s stuff!
10. Items left over? You can bag it up ready for the next sale, or if you really can’t face another early start, you can give it to the local charity shop.
11. or do what I do. Visit the local tip on the way home and dump the items you know won’t ever sell. Nobody wants a single sock!
12. What to do with the kids? If possible, leave them at home. You don’t need the distraction! Alternatively, bung them a couple of quid each and let them wander around the other stalls buying more toys to replace the ones you’re selling…or, put them in charge of selling their own stuff.
13. You may not think so, but presentation can make all the difference. Don’t pile books on the ground in an untidy heap. A tottering pile will put people off! They will not want to rummage in a pile that is in imminent danger of collapsing.
14. Likewise, an untidy heap of clothes is unappealing, especially if dumped on the ground. If you don’t think they’re worth displaying, why should anyone think they are worth buying? If you can, put clothing on hangers and display them on a clothes horse or a rail – the better the presentation, the more you can ask for them.
15. Have a bargain box on the ground – ‘Everything in this box 50p each’. This is a good way to get rid of toys, especially those ‘Happy Meal’ toys everyone seems to accumulate!
16. Beware of fakes, especially DVDs. Remember, Trading Standards officers routinely visit car boot sales on the lookout for counterfeit and stolen goods, and they have powers to confiscate and destroy such items.
17. Look out for items that can be resold on eBay or other online auctions. But bear in mind that many other people are doing this too. See my other articles on selling on eBay.
18. You’ll be surprised sometimes at what sells! I once sold a whole load of CDs and DVDs- in Chinese!
19. And finally – have fun and Don’t Panic!

A BONUS: 5 THINGS YOU ALWAYS FIND AT A BOOT SALE!

1. ‘The Da Vinci Code’ by Dan Brown
2. The VHS boxed set of the 3rd Season of ‘Friends’
3. ‘Young Girl’ record by Gary Puckett and the Union Gap
4. Those wheeled thingies with handles attached that you are meant to push along the ground to help you get fit…
5. ‘Singing Billy Bass’, anyone?!

Article Source: Ezine Articles

If you are looking for more items you will also see at car boot sales then check out our previous post – Things People Try and Sell at Car Boots But No-One Buys

Finding a car boot these days is relatively straight forward and can be done in three quick and easy ways – online by visiting a car boot sale directory, picking up a copy of your local paper and last but not least, through word of mouth. Let’s take a look at each in a little more detail;

Car Boot Sale Directories

Car Boot sale directories are a great way to find car boot sales online. They are typically listed by city or county and are easy to use. Be careful as some are better than others and many all are regularly updated – even some of the better known ones. The last thing you want to do is end up at a car boot that isn’t actually on!

Car Boot Sale Tips recommend the Your Booty directory as they update the website regularly and remove any listings that haven’t been recently confirmed by organisers.  According to the website they have already added or amended 455 car boots this year – that’s a lot of booty!

Local Paper

Most of your regular car boots will probably be listed online in one of the well known car boot sale directories. However, they generally don’t list one-off events, such as sales held at schools or local town halls. Your local papers ‘events’ section can therefore be an invaluable source of information for these sorts of events.

Coincidentally one-off or infrequent sales usually have a high proportion of genuine people selling unwanted things, rather than semi-professional traders. From a buying perspective there are generally fewer dealers so you are more likely to grab some money making bargains!

Word Of Mouth

Last but not least, you can also find out about other car boot sales via word of mouth. Someone you know may have driven past a sign for a car boot sale and will let you know about it. It’s always worth getting to know other buyers at the boot sales too – they’ll be telling you about new and unknown sales in no time.

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Its looks as though we were mistaken, however, as the Labour government recently declared its intention to increase business rates for those holding car boot sales as part of a reshuffling of property levies in 2010. The changes were covered in the major press, on sites such as the Daily Mail and the Telegraph.

3 months on and things seem to have gone rather quiet. But not for long. The proposals will be discussed and introduced in April this year and any change in business rates will be felt among the car boot sale industry a matter of weeks later. Some have speculated that higher business rates will result in higher pitch fees and more expensive goods. Others have gone further and said that many of the smaller car boot sales may end up closing.

One thing is for sure – until these proposals are implemented, we won’t know exactly what impact they will have on the car boot sale industry. But in the meantime lets review a few of the reasons why our readers don’t think the proposals should be implemented (some entries have been edited)

Your Comments

• Are they going after the Wrong Guy? Increasing business rates would no doubt help to raise additional revenues for the Labour Government. But I am sure they could gather far more taxes by going after those people who make a living from car boot sales and eBay but don’t pay any tax because they don’t declare it. So instead of making taxpayers pay more, how about making the evaders actually pay in the first place? (Robert Smith, Greater Manchester)

• Car Boot Sales are Eco-Friendly – The Labour government has continually reminded us about how global warming and climate change justifies the introduction of new ‘Green Taxes’, so how about some tax relief for the biggest recycler of them all Gordon! Car boot sales not only reduce the amount of items going into landfill every weekend, but they encourage the reuse of unwanted, but perfectly good and usable items (Anthony Taylor, Car Boot Sale Tips)

• We’re in a Recession – The reason car boot sales are so popular at the moment is because people are so short on money. Many sellers are covering mortgage payments with a big clearout and cash strapped buyers are looking to buy second hand goods to save money on high street prices. Should business rates be increased at a time when people are least able to afford the higher pitch fees and admission fees as a result? (Nicola Jepson, Leeds)

• It gives land owners an Excuse – If business rates do increase, it may not matter how much more land owners have to pay as they will have an excuse to pass on those costs (and then some) to organisers, buyers and sellers. By blaming the government for higher business rates it makes it much easier for to justify their own price increases. (Sarah Lakeland, Norwich)

News just in – None of you agree with the government increasing car booty taxes so we’ve started a petition – Please show you support here – http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/bootsaletax/ 500 signatures and Everything Car Boot will get a personal response!

Your Say

Do you agree with the opinions expressed above? Have your say by commenting on the Car Boot Sale Blog. You can also signup to our newsletter for the best Car Boot Sale Tips.

5.20am in a West Yorkshire car park and the flakes started to gently fall. Slowly at fast, and then with increasing rapidity until the ground was completely covered. I couldn’t believe my eyes, Spring is supposed to be only a week away! Within 30 mins the car boot had become a mass exodus as the snow become continued to fall and everyone started to worry about getting home through the snow.

Sunday’s experience made me realise just how utterly reliant we are on the weather to make a living.  I am sure all of you, like myself, have experienced a winter of discontent. January was a complete write off  – Most of the sales stayed closed for the first few weeks, and while February has been better, it hasn’t been great. How has the snow and bad weather affected your sales and number of profitable finds? Do you think it will be a poor car boot season all round, or will it pick in the summer?

For what it’s worth, I think it is going to get a lot better within the next month or so as the weather warms up. The low turnouts of January and February aren’t necessarily a bad thing either – they will probably be compensated by more sellers throughout the ‘Spring’ months of March-May. There’s more good news as well! Car boot sales seem to be springing up all over the place in the UK. 2 years ago I only had Sunday car boots to look forward to in the summer. Now I have not one, but two Saturday car boot sales within a 15 minute drive, as well as a regular Monday sale if I am not at work and fancy the 45 minute drive. It’s going to be fun when they all start up again in April that’s for sure!

In the meantime I would recommend that you do your price research, and plenty of it. I am noticing alot of movement in eBay’s completing listings in my niches so make you stay up-to-date. I got a major wake up at the weekend when I saw some items had doubled in price on eBay since I last checked. Your research should be an ongoing process which never stops, no matter how knowledgeable you become there is always room for improvement.

I don’t know about you but there’s nothing worse than walking away from an item, only to find it was an absolute gem. In fact there is something even worse – relying on guesswork and paying good money for worthless items. Either way, I am making the effort to put aside 10 or 15 minutes every day for research to make sure I don’t miss any good finds!

Anthony

Image used courtesy of net_efekt

eBay – The UK’s biggest Online Marketplace

• Massive Customer Base – Highest traffic out of all marketplaces with a very active customer base who regularly buy.

• Sell Anything – Unlike other marketplaces like Amazon or Play Trade, you can list an item in every conceivable niche and industry, so long as it isn’t Illegal or Prohibited

• Fees – eBay fees are still considerably lower than those of Amazon Marketplace and Play Trade, making it the most cost effective and popular marketplace.

• Flexibility – There are multiple listing options opens to you, including auctions, buy it now’s (BIN’s) and virtual shopfronts, meaning you can select the best one for your business.

• Listing Time – Listing items is time consuming and frustrating on eBay while their bulk listing tool, Turbo Lister, is unreliable and unintuitive.

• Changes – eBay is continually introducing new policies such as compulsory free postage in many categories and Top Rated Seller (TSR’s), which can be frustrating for sellers.

• Fees – eBay Increased Fees several times in 2009, much to the disgust of private and business sellers alike. Will they do the same in 2010?

• PayPal – The PayPal dispute resolution process is open to unfair refund claims, and sellers are often left out in the cold with their outcomes.

Amazon – UK’s biggest online retailer

• Popular – Amazon is the UK’s most popular online retailer. Listing on the marketplace gives you excellent visibility to their vast customer base.

• Ease of Use – You can list an item in less than a minute on Amazon. Enter the price, quantity and a short description and you’re done.

• More Professional – Buyers generally view the Amazon Marketplace as being more businesslike and professional. As a result they are often willing to pay a higher price for their purchases.

• Transparency – Amazon tell you how much you will pay in fees every time you list an item. eBay makes it much harder to get a snapshot of fees due to its multi-tiered system of insertion fees, final value fees and PayPal fees.

• Cost – There’s no escaping the fact that Amazon Marketplace is expensive – currently 17.25% + 86p closing fee for every item, though the 86p fee is waived if you pay a £28.75 subscription fee per month.

• Product Range – Unlike on eBay, you are limited in that you can only list products that they already have on their website. It is possible to build new listings in certain areas, but for the most part it is time consuming and counterproductive, as your competitors can use it too.

• Cash Flow – Withdrawals from Amazon take longer than that of PayPal’s, which can harm your cash flow, especially if you are on a tight budget.

• Repricing – Items are ordered by price on Amazon so, if you are the cheapest then you will have the most visibility, after Amazon’s listing. The problem is many sellers use software that automatically undercuts you by 1p, considerably reducing your items visibility.

Play Trade – Amazon’s smaller cousin

• Cheaper Pricing – PlayTrades fees are lower than Amazon’s. You pay 10% per sale + a 50p completion fee, which is waived if you pay a monthly subscription fee of £19.95. You then pay an additional 5% for withdrawals.

• Less Competition – Many sellers overlook Play Trade as a marketplace because it is much smaller than eBay and Amazon. As a result there is less competition and the ‘chase to the bottom’ on prices is less pronounced.

• Tickets – You can also sell tickets on Play Trade, giving ticket touts another outlet for their goods.

• Slower Sales – When I listed on Play Trade I found that my items took considerably longer to sell than on Amazon or eBay, despite very competitive pricing. I assumed that this was due to much lower listing impressions.

• Small Product Range – Play.com has a considerably smaller product catalogue than Amazon, which means that you may not be able to list many of your products. As a result most sellers couldn’t list exclusively on Play Trade.

• Poor Sales Reports – From an accounts perspective, the sales reports provided by Play Trade (and Amazon) are very poor. There is no option for a monthly financial summary or statement like there is on PayPal, which is very disappointing.

Have I missed anything? Does anyone else have any feedback from selling on eBay, Amazon or Playtrade?