Finding Items to Sell On at Car Boot Sales

You can actually make quite a lot of money at car boots if you know what you're looking for. I look for anything tech: phones, laptops, TVs, monitors, cameras etc, and if you're willing to get up early enough you can get some good deals - I've got a Lumix TZ10 for £5, an iMac G5 for £15, various mid range laptops for £30-£50, and plenty of phones for around half their value.

The key is to assume everyone's out to scam you - only pay what you can get for the item in non working condition. If you follow that rule you can't lose.

Of course, the good stuff goes VERY quickly, so you have to get there at about 6am to make the most of it. It's usually all too much effort for me so I rarely go anymore, but the money is definitely there to be made.
 
Friend of mine once picked up a job lot of tools which were being sold at a car boot. Estimate he got about £600 worth of kit for £40. Very handy too as he always used to have the odd size socket which you'd normally have to go out and buy on its own :D

Slightly different as he didn't actually sell it on but there are definitely bargains to be had sometimes... Far outweighed by the amount of crap mind
 
Car boot sales, it's just charging for the **** you couldn't pay to council to put in landfill.

All rubbish. Never seen anything I would remotely consider buying.
 
radderfire said:
Hi Guys

Does anyone go to car boot sales to find stuff to sell on to local antiques shops or eBay? I'm thinking of doing this. What kind of items are worth researching? I would preferably buy smaller items that can be easily transported.

I'd be interested in any tips. Any good websites which discuss this?

Many thanks
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My dad does, but he is an antique dealer. He deals in tools, scientific instruments, cork screws - loads of stuff. Nothing like furniture, pottery, art

A couple of weeks ago I bought an iPod touch 8gb 2nd gen with dock for £30 and sold it for £70 last week.
 
Stuff said:
Aint-Nobody-Got-Time-for-That.gif


:D

EDIT: To give you a serious answer too, I've bought a couple of 1980's film cameras that have gone on the 'bay for more than I paid for them. However, there's a lot of carp out there, so you do have to have some kind of idea of what you're looking at.
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+1
 
Guest2 said:
you obviously dont go to any
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This.

Follow the adive on this thread ie.
-Know what your looking for
-Get there beyond early and buy the good stuff before it even hits the tables

Remember it's a ridiculous market place with the obsessives getting there at silly o'clock buying things before they are even out of the boot, competition for the good stuff is high and you will have to wade through mountains of crap.
 
a1ex2001 said:
This.

Follow the adive on this thread ie.
-Know what your looking for
-Get there beyond early and buy the good stuff before it even hits the tables

Remember it's a ridiculous market place with the obsessives getting there at silly o'clock buying things before they are even out of the boot, competition for the good stuff is high and you will have to wade through mountains of crap.
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I did a few carboots many years ago and these people are just crazy, they wait for you to pull up and start opening doors and your boot to get at stuff before you even get out of your vehicle. Most of the time they don't listen as they fight each other to get in first.....But as others have said, you can find some good stuff if you know what your looking for.
 
In short...

Sack off the carboot as most of it is rubbish. Read many many books and other information then go to proper antique fairs (newark, ardingly, swinderby to name a few) auctions and Ebay
 
In the age of online auction or free-adverts websites, a lot of the items you would have found at car boot sales 20 years ago are now being sold online. What you're left with is things that wouldn't sell online, or low-value things that aren't worth the effort of doing that. There probably is the odd gem to be found, but it's questionable if it's worth your time so search for them (unless, of course, you enjoy going to car boot sales).
 
airwave99 said:
In the age of online auction or free-adverts websites, a lot of the items you would have found at car boot sales 20 years ago are now being sold online. What you're left with is things that wouldn't sell online, or low-value things that aren't worth the effort of doing that. There probably is the odd gem to be found, but it's questionable if it's worth your time so search for them (unless, of course, you enjoy going to car boot sales).
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Like the ipod touch & speaker dock I got for £30 at a carboot not long ago and sold for £70 online :)
 
Trouble is you're relying on people being absolute morons by a) not realising the value of something before they arrive and b) not realising the value of something when you and how ever many others are battling to buy it at 6am.

Fortunately most people are morons so you might get lucky.
 
Russinating said:
Trouble is you're relying on people being absolute morons by a) not realising the value of something before they arrive and b) not realising the value of something when you and how ever many others are battling to buy it at 6am.

Fortunately most people are morons so you might get lucky.
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That's a very moronic thing to say IMO. Not knowing the value of something does not make you a moron, it just means another person knows more.

All the time I watch my dad buy things that look totally crap but he sells these items for good money (sometimes lots of money) A couple of examples being miners lamps and corkscrews.

You have to obviously know what to look for but he once found a corkscrew that was at the bottom of an old chest of bits and pieces. He paid a fiver for it and I wouldn't have paid that - turned out it was a rare patented 16th century one which sold at Sotheby's for a substantial amount of money
 
I guess the question here is, then, how many car boot sales have gems like these? I haven't been to one in a long time, would be interesting to see what's there out of curiosity though. Does anyone know of any good ones in central Scotland?
 
Guest2 said:
That's a very moronic thing to say IMO. Not knowing the value of something does not make you a moron, it just means another person knows more.

All the time I watch my dad buy things that look totally crap but he sells these items for good money (sometimes lots of money) A couple of examples being miners lamps and corkscrews.

You have to obviously know what to look for but he once found a corkscrew that was at the bottom of an old chest of bits and pieces. He paid a fiver for it and I wouldn't have paid that - turned out it was a rare patented 16th century one which sold at Sotheby's for a substantial amount of money
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Doesn't explain my second point. If your dad turned up and was eager to buy a corkscrew before I'd even finished unpacking my car then it'd raise an eyebrow.
 
Boycey0211 said:
not bird boxes, I tried this once.

Paid £50 for 75 pine birdboxes, thought i could shift them in a day at £2 a pop.

Well I sold 3 and the rest spent a month in the back of my mates car before his dad got sick of them and put them all up in the local wood. Loads of happy birds though.

Not bird boxes.
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Haha west country meets delboy
 
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