PTA ideas - car boot sale

[GDG]

Has anybody run a car boot sale at school, on school grounds?

We are thinking of doing cars on the playground and perhaps tables in the hall.

If anyone has done this before I'd be really grateful if you could give me some ideas of what we'd need to think about, any ideas that you had that were particularly successful or any issues that arose. We realise we need a license.

We are thinking this is a good way to make money for the school - we'll have made a profit just charging for each car!

GDG-I have had a pitch before at our school - although I have not actually organised the event. Ours worked like this:- You could choose whether or not to have a pitch at school or at home - the local estate agents sponsored the event and provided "For Sale" boards for everyone doing it at home. I live in a village and it worked well, this idea may not work well if a larger area needs to be covered. A map of the houses taking part was provided at the school for "the customers" at the cost of £1 each. They had a tea/coffee and bacon roll stall at the school which also did a roaring trade. HTH

That's great, thanks Fimbo.

We are not in a village so not sure if it would work at houses - not close enough together to walk round.

Like the sound of bacon roll stand!!

The most important thing is advertising the event so that sellers come. Try flyers in windows of people's cars, notices in the free advertiser papers, big sign out front of the school...
Our school hasn't made much from carboots, I should warn you.

Ooh, do you know why? Is it due to not getting the sellers in? I suggested flyers in car windows at the meeting actually - then people would see them in Tesco car park or wherever.

I suppose that is the hurdle - getting people to come and pitch up. Hmmm.

It may depend on your area, 2nd hand goods don't seem to go well around here.

Bumping for evening crowd in case anyone else has experience.

I've got a few things to sell

if you see any Rupert Bear scarves in good condition grab em!

Rupert Bear scarves??

We are thinking of doing one in September - would you have a pitch then?!

I've been roped into painting the fence in the playground in March! Like I've not got enough to do!!

Our school tried it once, it wasn't a huge success but I don't think it was very well publicised.

What was a huge moneyspinner was a toys/clothes/baby equipment "merrygoround" - needs a lot of parental work but everybody benefits from it. You need to give out phone numbers of 1 or at most 2 organisers to dole out ID numbers for labelling goods.

Ours used to be held in the school hall, everybody brought their numbered/priced stuff in that morning and it was all piled up on the stage; immediately after school dinners hordes of mums descended and sorted it all out onto tables (and helping gives you first pick of what's on offer which encourages assistants!)

Then the sale would start at 2.30-3 and the kids would come into the hall to find their mums when classes finished. Helpers also had to stay at the end to sort unsold stuff back by number.

PTA takes c. 25% (more if you can get away with it!). I can't remember how much each one raised but it was £100s.

OMG! how long is the fence - ROFL

good job they didn't ask your dh - it'd take forever!

To boost school funds make sure PTA do own stalls, like beat the goaly etc, low cost. Bacon rolls or burgers always do well.

Get older kids involved running stalls like roll the penny or bat the rat.

The key is getting as many parents and kids involved, I was at a high school christmas fair where there was little teacher/ kids/ parents involvement just a few die hard PTA types and the special needs class. It was on a Sat 4 weeks before Christmas and everyone must have went into town. I took £13.90 and the stall cost me £10.