To ask for your car boot sale horror stories

[lostelephant]

I do a few car boot sales a year and I've spent most of my afternoon going through the garage looking for things to sell. Although its nice to make a bit of money, there always seems to be something that rubs me the wrong way!

The worst one was when I was unpacking my car, turned back around and a woman was actually sat in the back of my car rummaging through my CDs that weren't even for sale!

Please tell me I'm not the only one whose had bad experiences

The first time I did one with dd2, we did quite well, no one actually got IN my car, I got offered a £1000 for the actual car! it was a serious offer too! I didn't take it we had to get home in something!

I've done a few, normally make about £60-70, as a pp said having a couple of expensive bits and then a load of cheap stuff it soon adds up.

The worst one was a guy who wouldn't take no for an answer - he wanted to buy a small set of oldish (but still working) electric tools - we had them up for £10 expecting £5-6. He said he'd give us 2. We say no, we'll take £6. He says 2. It goes on like this for ages, to the extent other people browsing walk off because hes so annoying. He puts the money down and tries to walk off with it...we say no (again!). He then says we're racist and goes off.

5 mins later sold to a far nicer person for £8 iirc! We wanted to go and find rude bloke and tell him.

Lots of good experiences though too.

Was selling a tiny pair of my daughter's sandals for 25p, got haggled down to 20p lol.

I was selling a pair of vile lilac maternity ski pants, the kind that are leggins with elastic that goes under the foot (don't judge me, it was in the early 90s) with a lovely pleat down the front, that were stolen. If someone needed those badboys that badly that they had to steal them then they were welcome to them.

A couple aggressively trying to get a mate and me to sell the chairs we were sitting in and then trying to steal them.

We done several boot sales last year and averaged £150-£200 each time.
Each time we had cheeky fuckers which was really annoying. We sold everything way under value just to get rid but get a bit of money to put towards stuff.
One time I went a few years ago a lady was selling next clothes in dds size for 10p each. There was a lady next to me trying to get them for 2p each I shit you not. The lady obviously told her no, some people really are piss takers

Nothing to share as have never done one but mind boggled at the entitlement and rudeness of some people!

If someone climbed into my car they'd get the door slammed on them the cheeky fuckers. Do you tell them in the politest way to fuck off or just let them do it??

Blimey, this all sounds horrific.

Haggling is just cringe.

though we do one every week its different items and we do get followers who look out for our stall. i also incorporate items from the charity shop i run often what doesnt sell in shop sells at boot sales. we usually have a mix of higher value and cheap items. at the moment we have such a large amount of kids clothes we could never sell just in shop we have been doing them 50p each at boot sale and they seem to go well.
i do hate people who sell who rattle out two phrases;
its worth x amount on ebay!
i paid x amount for it!

I once saw a used loofah for sale! It was all stiff and grey.

I did a car boot and had a big glass ashtray that had been a present back when I smoked. A woman asked how much and I said 10p. She offered me 5p! I said no. CF!

Good lord! Fans self...

Has anyone tried doing a garage sale instead?

We usually make between £150 and £250 but we will always take two cars and they’ll be jam packed full of stuff including higher value stuff like lawn mowers or microwaves. By the time we are there we don’t want to bring anything back. Once saw a filthy baby bath for sale as a low point. Wouldn’t have taken a minute to wipe down. Have also had people trying to buy our chairs from under us. Have also had offers for the car!

I do quite a few car boot sales.
No one has ever tried to look through my stuff while unpacking it from my van.They wait till you put the box down at your stall and try and root through it. I tell them to leave it alone and come back later.

A friend asked me to have a car boot sale with her.
I told her I was planning one but she pestered me to go with her because she hadnt done one before and she didnt have any tables to display the stuff etc.

So I agreed to take a few things in my van including my tables and a few bits of my own to sell .

She said she would follow in her car with her daughter .I said be there for 6.30am then we have an hour to set up and make sure you drive into the carpark via the left entrance .

So me and my husband get there ,set everything up and she turns up an hour late. Her daughter walks in at 7.30am with the public. Mam has parked over there and needs a hand carrying her stuff because its too far on her own.
She was late and then parked in the wrong place. I said tell your mam to go park in the right place and we cant help because we are now selling.

So she walked in with a right face on. She also stuck lots of prices on her items that were full cost .I said you cant ask that much when people know they can get brand new in the shops for same price.

She didnt sell much and moaned about getting up so early and it was a waste of time. My husband moaned back and said well we didnt get a lie in and we are only here for you.

We got home and said never again with her

Ive done a car boot once and never ever ever again 😂. People were literally banging windows asking for phones and gold as we were trying to unpack atuff. I was quite young and intimidated, it just put me off so much that id never bother again and just give to charity! Also wanting to knock me down to 20p for £40 items with tags on

I had a garage sale. Someone stole a picture of Jesus.

Had the people climbing into the boot, haggling and asking if we had gold to sell. Do people actually sell gold at car boots?

People actually go through the effort of a long winded story just to buy something to resell for 50p more

Wow. This has put me right off car boot sales. I’ll sell my kids’ old clothes on EBay I think!

We did 2 a couple of years ago when we moved house, just to get rid of stuff we didn’t need etc. DH used to do them with his parents when they were younger and said it was a laugh. We got to the first one and we’re inundated with people attempting to get in our car before we had even opened the doors, pawing through boxes as we took them out and being total CF’s all day with prices.
I was selling barely used baby clothes for 10p each and I had one woman pick up a handful and waved a 20p at me before stuffing them in her bag and sodding off. When I caught up with her and demanded them back she huffily handed them over and they were filthy! Don’t know what was in that bag!
The second time we were a bit wiser and decided to park up and go grab a coffee before unloading, we came back and someone had taken the registration plates off our car!
eBay for me all the time now

I was clearing out my mums house and sold quite a few opened and half drunk bottles of spirits at the carboot sale - couldn't believe the interest!

Blimey.

The one I did in London was heartbreaking. I had some nice clothes, lots of toys (like full playmobil sets), some household stuff and some vintage audio equipment.

nobody wanted to pay more than £1 for anything - even whole £50+ sets of Playmobil. Lots and lots and lots of families who were there for essentials and with little kids - who they didn’t have even 20p to buy a toy for. I ended up giving away most of the toys. My kids spent more than I made due to pester —bored— power.

It was a horrible day.

Of course, it's illegal to sell alcohol without a licence, I'm surprised the organisers didn't stop you.

My ex used to take me to them all the time and I hated it. Load of old tat.

I've done two. Both many years ago. The first was OK ish. The second was awful, all the things everyone has said.

A woman bought a small ornamental clock for 50p, and later came back saying she'd changed her mind and could she have a refund. I said no, I'm not bloody Marks and Spencer!

I don’t think I will ever do one again.

You have the boxes of stuff in your house for weeks until the weather is good enough.

You have to wake up at 5am to leave at 6am.

You get there and queue to get in.

As you’re setting up your staff you have all the traders coming and harassing you. Jumping in your car too. Then the thieves distracting you.

Then you’ve set up, you’ve made some money and you need a wee. Time for some disgusting portaloos or if you’re lucky a container turned into toilets where apparently everyone needed a shit, no one can aim for the toilet to piss in and of course there’s no loo roll. Hand wash? None of that too.

Then you start smelling the burger van. You’ve packed a jam sandwich but now it’s 8am and those burgers smell bloody delicious.

You resist.

By 9am not only have you spent £15 on two burgers, chips and drinks, you’re now considering ice cream.

Your hands feel filthy from handling money.

All morning you’ve been knocked down in price over and over. You’re angry. Promise yourself you will never do it again.

You wait it out with one more trips to the loos until finally it is time to go.

You get home, count up the money you’ve made then decide to blow it on a take away that night because you deserve it. You’ve been awake since 5am and loaded and unloaded the car.

I stick to eBay and just donating stuff now.

Oh and we’ve also had a CHILD steal from us. That one annoyed me (about 12 so should have known better).

Don’t do it their are professionals who will try and get everything for 10p
They look touch haggle walk round come back look touch haggle

Sell the shit on Facebook market place

Wow. Some of these sound like a semi feral Rugby scrum The car boots I've been to (all very rural) are very well mannered and set up is strictly timed before admitting buyers. I did resent people insisting on haggling over never used stuff for a quid tho. I put it on Gumtree now. (Less hassle than Ebay) .