Car booties

[slinxy]

Hello..

My name is slinxy and I’m addicted to going to car boots… just wondering if anyone else here share my passion?

Don’t get me wrong, I just love going to them and most of the time come home empty handed but if there’s an outsiders chance of finding something amazing there or even discovering that there’s something I need in my life and then ordering it online later, I’m there..

I guess my passion started when I was a kid. Growing up my parents never had much cash, so they would often go to charity shops, weird markets like the Sunday market in Castle Donington and of course car boots sales. It was often the only opportunity of me getting a toy or something to cool, so I went with them.

Now a days, I’ve particularly have completed Amazon, going to most shops are very same-same and boring in the stuff they sell. I also pop into charity shops, when I can… but going to a car boot is like going to 100s of charity shops, brick and bracks stores all in a small area and I love it!!

I have to have a lot of self control to stop my house filling up with junk, not buying everything amazing I see and would like to think my house is just filled with “chic”, as people are often asking me “where did you get that” and I often let them take the item home with them.

From time to time, I do box up a load of stuff and pass them onto a charity store, but I guess everyone should/could be doing this…

Today I spent loads…
I got 2 bottles of mould removal, the same one that cost £8 pounds at the supermarket for £2 pounds each, one bottle is for my sister in law, as I got a bottle the other week and she’s seen how clean my wet room was after I used it.

£5 pounds on a sega mega drive 3 button controller.

£3 pounds on a amperage meter from a WW2 plane… going to do something cool with it like place it in a Dixie clock..

50p on a retro spud gun.. been meaning to get one for a while but they are made from plastic now a days, this is a metal one.

£1 on a coffee table book, British science museum on Robots

£1 on four blu rays, two of them un-open; cowboys & aliens, underworld, the adjustment bureau and serenity. I wanted to watch Serenity a few weeks back but got bored looking for it on the streaming services.

£2 pounds a cactus plant in cool tall glass display.

with a pound entry fee.. it was 3 hours of entertainment for £17.50.. I spent more than that on my pub lunch afterwards lol

 

[slinxy]

Did you need or were actively looking for those items? Seems a great way to fill your house up with someone else's toot.

Like the saying goes, one person’s trash as another’s person’s treasure..

I have quite of few hobbies and interests.. retro gaming, Casio watches, electronics and others.. like I said most days I go home empty handed and I do pass on a lot of stuff that I think is cool. The fun is in the looking, it’s like visiting a modern museum of stuff, that you can touch and talk about with the stall keepers.

 

[slinxy]

The trick was to spot the householders decluttering they had much better stuff and generally had no idea of value, than the professional traders who did and generally sold tat all the good stuff all having been flogged off elsewhere and probably for more money

I don’t think professional traders are as bad as they used to be, mainly cos most people with any sense would google what they are selling to see what they can get for it on vinted/ebay now a days. And that eBay now managing the handling/shipping fee stops them from using that as a mark up too.

I used to go to one when the pro traders would rush around all the stores and get what they can cheap and one retro gaming store owner would take a gang of kids so that they can blitz the market and buy any retro gaming items.

I tend not to barter prices.. do the advantage that I get from buying from car boots rather than just eBay or vinted is that I can see the item, rather than just relying on photos.

 

[slinxy]

A friend of the wife's did do several car boots as a seller but gave up because people just want to pay peanuts for items that were clearly worth more, she said she would rather just give the stuff to charity.(this was a few years back)

Yea.. I’m not one to barter.. if I don’t like the price; I just leave it.

Shame some people over price their items knowing people like to hustle.

I rarely sell anything, cba to deal with the “people”, I would just box stuff up and give it to charity.

 

[slinxy]

This irks me so much these days. Charging for people to come in and spend money.

Could you imagine the carnage if Tesco or Asda started to do the same?

Sorry to clear things up, it's a pound to park on the site not an entry fee..
it's on the edge of an industrial estate, I know some people park at the B&Q or on the roads but I don't know the parking restrictions so I rather just pay the pound.

Some people are really into the car boot sales.

I had a friend who used to wake up at 6:30am to get to the car park for the bargains.

6:30! that's a lye in, I'm normally up at 6am regardless. If I'm not going to a carboot, I'm going for a jog on work days or the gym on days off. otherwise I feel that I'm just wasting the day.

Boot rage becoming a problem

I stopped going to one, as it was so badly organised/managed.. people was just pushing in when queuing up in the cars, people was just setting up stores everywhere. people just pushing and shouting. I go for the enjoyment and not to fight to save a few pounds, so I just stopped going to it.

 

[slinxy]

I wanted to go somewhere different today but didn't want to risk going to a rubblish one.. so I went to my normal place.
There was no "wow" items but I did pickup
a supreme money gun - £2
a psyduck plush from recenty movie - £5
two self dev books - £1
some baby disney flipflops for my great niece as her mom as been messaging about flipflops for her all weeek as they going aboard. she didn't like them as they were "too boyish", so I gave them to the girl down the street for her daughter as she was tidying her car as I was going to the charity shop to donate them. -50p

I did manage to pickup a bowser figure, £2.45.. super mario jigsaw (mainly for the tin it came in) £2 and a poker set for £6 as a figet toy with the chips for £6 pounds from different charity shops this week as I was off work.

 

[slinxy]

I didn't think car boots were a still thing tbh. It's been a good 20+ years since I last went to one. I can always remember wanting to get cap gun ammo rolls, marbles and those weird paper/rock things that came in sawdust that you threw on the ground that would make a pop. Good times!

I had to stop myself from getting a tube of marbles as I still not played with the tin of marbles that I got for christmas one year, makes a good figet toy during meetings.
Yes you can still get devil bangers, some chap was selling them at a store and I was looknig for a few rolls of cap gun to go with my spud gun that I got the other week.

It's all nostalgia... sometimes you just have to stop yourself from buying stuff that you had or wanted as a kid.

I'm on the look out for old micro machines.. the metal ones, some chap was selling the new plastic ones the other week.

we have two big lego resellers at the carboot that I go to, there's one selling the friends cafe set for 80 pounds... temping...

 

[slinxy]

What's the general entry fee for cars around your area?

I'm going to take this chance to moan about the £7 entry fee round here, again

it's around a ten quid if you are selling, a pound if you are buying and parking up...
didin't go today as it was raining.. lol