This was our stall about two thirds of the way into the car boot sale today, I was too busy from the minute we drew up to take one before that. The customers had gone down for a brief spell before a new influx of buyers thronged onto the field. It was a good day, very hot with no sign of rain and we managed to sell off lots of our surplus 'clutter' and lots that Mum had been sorting out of hers over the last few months.
We started with lots of things in boxes for people to rummage through, as well as the two tables and the clothes rail. My laundry basket was full of clothes as well as a couple of boxes but by the time this photo was taken we had at last managed to get down to just the rail and a couple of items in the basket, and the table was holding all the remaining books and Dvds displayed flat instead of on end in the boxes.
I've been asked a few times for my tips on selling at car boot sales, so here they are again:
Make sure all your things are clean and working.
Put clear price stickers on things. Some people will walk past and be too shy to ask for the price if you don't and you might lose sales.
Be friendly and if people want to haggle allow a little bit of wiggle room in your prices. For instance if you want to sell something for £5 price it at six, so that when someone asks you if you will sell it at the lower price you can quite happily say yes.
Have a 10p box for bits and pieces, and add to it over the course of the car boot sale as you discover things that you would be happy to let go for this nominal fee.
Make sure all your clothes are clean, hung on hangers facing the same way, and labelled with the size and price ... and if you have the time color block them. Hanging similarly coloured clothes together makes them all look neater and more professional.
At the end of the day let people have bargains, if you want to take your things back home you can ... but remember you came out with the idea of selling them and giving yourself space at home, let things go. We usually take the few more valuable things off the table and then tell everyone that all the clothes on the rail are down to £1 and everything left on the tables is 20p.
This way other more regular car booters will come and buy off you so they have new stock for their next car boot sale.
At the end of the day we came home with £230.19 ... and just one box of good clothes and one box of books and mixed items as a starter for our next sale.
Now it's time to do a bit more sorting out :-)
Hope your Bank Holiday weekend is going well.
Oh ... and I priced the fireguards at £3 and sold all six of them to one person for £16 ... no doubt they will be being sold on for a higher price somewhere else :-)
Sue xx
