Car boot sale prices - any advice?

[choosyfloosy]

Sorry, not really an Employment topic I suppose.

Would hardbacks at £1, paperbacks at 50p, rubbish condition books at 10p be about right to start off with?

and what about baby clothes - £1 each or 50p?

Any ideas gratefully received as I've never done this before...

[choosyfloosy]

bump

[Charlene1]

Hi, we went to one the other week - was selling single items for 20p - 50p, pj's, small outifts - 75p, posh outfits £1, coats £3. If you have something to hang clothes up with (clothes airer, moses basket stand, over door hook), it's better, as the clothes can be kept together and I realised that people buying would be pregnant or new mums - they don't want to lean down to look on the floor in rummage in boxes. Offer "discounts" if they agree to buy lots of items, take carrier bags, plenty of drinks and suncream. Don't put prices on unless you aren't willing to haggle. Some people will pay more than you expected for an item that way!
Can you tell I learned fast here??
Book prices are fine, but we didn't sell anything hardly, loads of browsers but few buyers. Cost us money to go the first time, made £4 last week. Trying again hopefully this week! Have had better luck listing on here to be honest!

[choosyfloosy]

Charlene1, that's a brilliant help, thank you.

not sure whether to go ahead now!

[Laura032004]

I always make sure everything is sorted by age into different boxes. I couldn't be bothered to look through a huge pile, so I imagine most people can't be. I label up the boxes with sizes on so people can browse.

I charge 50p per item, or 3 for £1. Anything I want to charge more for, I hang on a rail. Sometimes I will bag up an outfit (if it's two or three pieces), or a set of vests or babygrows, and put a price on the bag. These items normally sell well.

Try and have a mix of things, so people are attracted by one thing, and might buy others (clothes, toys and equipment).

Hope it went well if you did one today

[Charlene1]

Eek, sorry! Didn't mean to put you off!!! Sil did ones recently where she made over £200, so maybe no one wants our stuff!! She only has posh "label" stuff though, so she had everything bagged up and priced laid out in age order on 2 paste tables / clothes rails etc. We had two lines of boxes going in out from the back of the car, 1 each side, with toys on a sheet in the middle, bric a brac at the front and "outfits" and coats in a pile in the middle. We turned the boxes upside down and put the stuff on top. I hung up a party dress and a pageboy suit on the car, and made sure the cheap stuff was at the front of the stall in case of thieves, so they wouldn't get the good stuff. Good luck if you do one, I'm sure you'll be fine - next week is a good time with it being Bank holiday - it's the best time to start selling toys/winter clothes/xmas stuff as shops will be stocking them in a few weeks, so it helps to get in first and get them off your hands!!
Oh, any "freebies" would be popular if you plan on doing it regular eg people will say, oh I got a babygro from this new stall, she gave me a free bib, or bookmark with books etc - anything you can think of "gimmick wise" works well! Even giveaways like stickers for kids might hook parents to spread the word about you, either on the boot sale or after the event. I will be going all out on the promo stuff next time!! All my stuff is now on hangers, I have sorted them into "tops/trousers/coats/outfits", and made a quick reference list on A4. so if someone says " I want 9-12 mths", I can reel off what I have and direct them to the right pile. The amount of clothes we had all mixed up after people sorted through looking for stuff was a nightmare!!