CarBoot Sale never again.

[birdladyfromhomealone]

Today I decided to do a car boot sale as our garage is full of our catering equipment ( retired caterer)
Had car load of crockery, cutlery, saucepans, trays , serving spoons etc
All quailty Hotel ware.
Got there at 7.15 an and and was surrounded by about 15 old men pulling stuff out my car.
Then it rained , so everyone left.
Made £30 in 2 hours. all good.
Then decided to go to another sale, much bigger one.
Cost double to go in £20 but lots more people and booters.
After 5 hours I made £30
Selling for under £3.00 per item
Why is it if you say £1.00 they put the item down and walk away?
Some of my items ( stainless steel saucepans) cost between £30-£50 and I couldnt even get a £1.00 for them
AIBU to think everyone wants something for nothing these days?

My experience with car boots is that people expect to buy things for pennies, regardless of their real worth.

It's not worth trying to shift good stuff there, just junk.

Use eBay for anything decent which you can post, Facebook selling groups for stuff that needs collecting locally.

first rule of car boot sales is just do it to get rid of junk you don’t need or want, if you want actual money for good quality things, sell on ebay or facebook! i have a car boot sale with my sister around once a year, and we actually enjoy it 🙈 i don’t let go things for pence but enjoy the fact that i’m making money and making space in my house! there are always some interesting characters (to put it politely 😊)

a couple of months ago we made £150, not bad for a mornings work.

People buying pans at a car boot aren't going to be looking for quality catering pans.

The problem isn't 'people are so cheap' the problem is that you are trying to sell to the wrong people.

I've done a couple of boot sales years ago. I used to tell people that an item was for sale than a higher price than I wanted. If they went to walk away I'd ask them to make me an offer and we'd haggle for a bit then I'd get the price I wanted.

car boots are like this, you need literally a car full to make any money.
Ebay is better for selling stuff you want more money for.
You could have sold the job lot to somebody starting out in the catering business.

I'm a charity shop volunteer and it's just the same. People want things very very cheaply, irrespective of their true worth. Woman the other day was horrified that we had some solid silver plate thing in teh cabinet for £100 - "but you're a charity shop!" Yes, and our job is to maximise money for the charity, not to allow you to buy £100 worth of solid silver for a tenner.

I do an annual car boot- usually take £400-600

Price everything- then you don't get silly offers. When you arrive park up and wait if there are loads of people flocking round.

Get a long table- and lots of ground sheets so that everything is on display.

I donate anything left/ongoing stuff through the year to Oxfam and as a 45% tax payer get additional tax relief and so not worth selling stuff for pennies. I do also sell a lot on eBay.

We do a couple a year and usually make £100 - £150 over the two. Always choose the same biggish one as it's better for selling but choose non BH weekends. If any of the punters haggle for a giveaway, dh ups the price to wind them up

I buy from a much smaller local one in a good area. Much better class of tut

Totally different here. Dh and I do one once a year and love it. Sell occasional items on eBay/FB.
Then: loads of furniture at car boot £45, dh's old shoes sold like wildfire for £5 or £10.
Old books, puzzles, bra's!
Made £350 in the day. Dropped what we didn't sell to charity shop on way home. Result.

We have a car boot sale minutes from where we live so go very regularly. We also sell about once or twice a year.

I enjoy both sides - when daughter was younger we used to buy loads more but we still pick up things. I love jigsaws so get them all from there, plus last week got a brilliant coat for a pound. Last year I wanted sweatshirts - I ended up with about five - usually paying about a pound each time. For selling I just focus on getting rid of as much as possible so everything goes mega cheap. Sometimes you get the pleasure of people really wanting what you have -I took out a whole pile of Marc Brown's Arthur books and there was a lady whose kids absolutely loved Arthur!! So she was thrilled to find a load at 20p a book and I loved knowing that they were going to make some kids happy.

I think both buyers and sellers need to remember that buyers have a right to ask what price they like and sellers have a right to not pay if they don't want to.

That sounds rubbish OP. I love our local village car boot, I went yesterday, it's 9-12 so very civilised and 5 pounds a pitch plus a free cup of tea! Stayed to 11.30 and made 60 pounds. I have been to the huge ones in local towns and wouldn't fancy those if selling alone. I do only sell things that haven't sold on EBAY or are too bulky to post.

Should get a sign saying "everything £1, no haggling" for the tat, which goes out first.

And haggle over other stuff with a minimum in your head. Might work!

One lady knocked me down from £5 to £4 and then gave me a five pound note- tight
I don't understand that. Most people like to haggle, you got £4 and she had a pound to spend on something else.

I did a car boot Saturday once and said never again. You had to be there about 3am to be guaranteed a space. You were allowed in at 7 am and there was people with heat torches on virtually pulling the stuff out of the car trying to see what I had.

I Don’t mind people bartering but when you are practically giving it away and someone trying to get it for nothing I’d rather not bother again

My sister has done car booters before, She says dealers come running over when they see you pulling in,,so they can have a rake through the stuff. Trying to set up,things went missing dealers were haggling,,it was a nightmare.

Nowadays they sit in the van and pour a drink,,eat a sarnie and wait till the daft devils have wandered off,,,then set up.

I'll never do one again. Just awful.

Last time I did one, people wanted things for such low prices, it was ridiculous. A woman tried to buy my buggy for £1. I was only asking a fiver for it.

By the end of the day, I'd had enough. A woman came over and picked up a handbag I was selling and asked how much. I just wanted the stuff gone so said 10p...yes, 10p not £10! She threw it back down...fgs, how cheap do you want it?!

I have a love hate relationship with car boot sales. On one hand I love selling stuff and also the unknown-ness of what I might find when I browse around. On the other hand, people who behave badly get on my nerves.

I had one woman looking at a pair of brand new net curtains for which I was asking 50p(!). She was curling her lip up like both I and the curtains offended her. She was most put out when a man reached over, grabbed the curtains from her and handed me the 50p!

I still shudder when I think of the one and only car boot I did and it was 8 years ago. Other stall holders criticising us for not being ‘prooer’ car booters - ie just had one table and blanket. I had paperbacks at 5 for £1 and people trying to haggle, so many rude people on one place. I’ll never set foot in one again.

If you still have lots left, it might be worth looking for a catering auction, they might be able to sell it all for you :)

We did a few when my mum was downsizing and did quite well....we did three car boots over separate weekends, and made £250-£350 each time.

This was a while ago before the likes of ebay/Facebook selling really took off... And whilst in terms of money made it was a success (as she'd have chucked or charity shopped them) I suspect nowadays she could have made a lot more going down those routes, particularly as she had a few collectors items (David Winters cottages and the like)

But yes we had crowds of people trying to grab things out of the car whilst setting up. Mum ended up going for a mooch as she found it so stressful.

.....especially when parents send their kids to haggle for things that aren't really 'kid' items...

Then there are all those who pretend to understand neither English nor the currency, who invariably offer an open hand containing about 20p in coppers. If they really didn't understand you'd expect the amount to sometimes be more than you're asking, but no - it's always less

Refuse, though, and their English (admittedly most of it obscenities) often turns out to be pretty good

I’m really sorry about your experience. I love car boot sales as the buyer, got loads of stuff very cheap. The last one I attended i bought some clothes-£3 per item. Nice branded stuff that was washed, ironed and hung on the rail as opposed to heap of clothing on the ground. Cheapest clothes on ebay are at least 2.80 for postage. I didn’t haggle for clothes, I did on books though.

Bought some toys, some kids are selling their old toys, it’s a pleasure to give them a bit more than they are asking and watch their faces lit up again when they part with something once they had fun with it.

If I were you id do a starter pack up. Big lidded box, 4 mugs, plates, bowls, sets of cutlery and glasses. A frying pan, saucepan, bottle opener, chopping knife. Stick it on facebook selling for local uni students moving to the area or fist time buyers.

In my experience of my local car boot, it's not just 'bargain-hunters', it's really, really poor people who shop there out of sheer necessity.

There's no point taking good quality stuff to sell. They want kids clothes & toys for £1 apiece because that's all they can afford. And they really don't care about brands.

Thank you all some useful avenues to explore as suggested.
Still got a full car to unload tomorrow, a headache and £43.00 in coins.