With the cost of living crisis getting worse by the day, the ever-popular tradition of car boot sales are growing in popularity. As well as allowing you to declutter and find a new home for once-loved possessions, you can also raise some vital funds.
MEN reporter Bethan Shufflebotham has been going to boot sales for a while. At her most recent she ended up making £130, and has shared her thoughts.
Bethan said: "With the seats folded down, we pushed the final storage box into my mum’s Vauxhall Meriva and closed the boot with a satisfying clunk, the neighbours peeking out of the curtains thinking ‘is this it? Is she finally moving out?’
"No, in fact, we were just loading the car ahead of a 5am get-up to sell our preloved goods at the local boot sale - something we do around three or four times a year."
She added: "You have to get to a car boot sale quite early. Ours allows sellers to start unloading their cars and selling from 7am, so you have to get there around 6am to get a good spot. It’s a bit of a wait but there’s usually a breakfast van serving sausage sandwiches and cups of tea. That said, when you need to rent your spot for £9, tables and rails for £2 each - you might want to consider if you want to eat into your profits before you’ve even made any money.
"Before crossing hands with silver, we were already £15 down just for turning up - however, as my mum, sister-in-law and I went together, we tend to split this cost between us.
"Just before the clock struck 7am on Sunday, the organiser bellowed “start selling!” as traders frantically assembled tables and rails, and began unloading their cars.
Within minutes our stall had practically been ransacked
"There are two types of sellers at car boot sales - you’ve got your traders and then your average joe, like me. You’ll find buyers actually prefer to buy from people who are just there to offload their own goods for a bit of pocket money, rather than people who are there week in, week out with the same goods.
"It was great having three of us to unpack the car as two people could be grabbing boxes and stacks of clothes, while the other keeps an eye on your stock. The morning rush at a car boot is where you’re most likely to see your items go walkies without seeing a payment, so you have to be careful.
"I was pulling boxes of makeup, perfume and skincare from the car and a throng of women were practically fighting over a once-used lipgloss, while others were scrambling over face masks and half-empty bottles of fragrance. “How much are these?” “How much for this one?” I was selling opened beauty products for 50p a pop, unopened products for £1 and almost full bottles of perfume for £2 - good brands too, like Jimmy Choo and Giorgio Armani.
"People couldn’t throw me their change fast enough, and while attempting to serve three customers at once, there’s another in my ear asking what the other boxes in the car - yet to be unloaded - have in them.
"One box contained a huge pile of unused notebooks that I’d either bought and not used or had gifted to me. One man asked how much for a stack of around 20 notebooks and I’d told him £7, as they were going to be sold for 50p each. He haggled me down to £5, and I agreed - after all, I certainly didn’t want to be taking them home.
"Within the first five minutes I’d easily made £30 from notebooks, perfume, skincare and makeup alone, while mum had sold an air fryer for £4 and some children’s toys and teddies for 50p to £1 each.
I took a huge rail of clothes to sell from between 50p and £3
"When it comes to clothes, I’ll always take whatever hasn’t sold on Depop to the car boot as a last resort. We hang everything up the night before so that we can just pull it out of the car and place it on a rail. The knack to flogging your wardrobe at a boot sale, I find, is adding 50p onto the price you’d actually take.
"A brand new with tags dress from a well known brand like Boohoo, Miss Selfridge or New Look you’ll be able to get around £2 for, so tell buyers you want £2.50. They’ll haggle you down to £1 - but you can stick firm with your £2. Someone will buy it if they don’t.
"I also find there’s a lot of people who want everything for 50p and it gets boring arguing with people, so we have a box dedicated to 50p clothes on the floor which we direct people to if they’re intent on only spending 50p. Towards the end of the boot sale, we’ll even say three for £1 from the box.
"As well as ladies' clothes, perfume, makeup, skincare and stationery, baby items sell tremendously well. Baby grows, children’s toys, little outfits - people go mad for them because it’s expensive to get everything you need for a baby. Outfits will sell well on their own, particularly little girls dresses, and when it comes to baby grows, we often create bundles tied with ribbon and sell them for £1 each.
"Earlier this year I acquired a number of men’s vintage jackets which I marked up at £3 each at the car boot. They’re all 80s, which is very much in now thanks to Stranger Things, and of the 20 I took with me, seven sold, making me around £16, as I told people if they bought more than one, I’d reduce the price. One lady purchased three for £8, another gent took two for a fiver, and another sold on its own for £3.
"After around four hours of selling, our two tables easily condensed down to one, and we sold a few other bits here and there for 50p and £1, but it soon added up. When I counted my earnings in the car after packing up, I’d made a whopping £130 - more than I’d ever made at a previous car boot, the record having been £70.
"I’d even spent some of my money on renting the tables and rails, a sausage sandwich and a can of Lucozade. And after a browse at some of the other stalls, I haggled a gent for three records for £3 down to £2.50. For those interested, they were Johnny Cash, Tom Jones and ABBA.
The car boot was extremely busy on Sunday morning
"Taking into account my spending, I’d probably made closer to £145 - but I was very happy with my income.
"Car boots are a great place to bag a bargain, but also ideal for making money, and while they take a bit of hard work and dedication to get up early and prepare, they do pay off. With the cost of living seeing shoppers look for ways to earn extra cash, decluttering your home is the perfect way to do that.
"Some of the items you can sell with ease include beauty products and perfume, clothes that you no longer wear or don’t fit you anymore, children’s clothes and toys - mum sold a bunch of Action Men for £10 this weekend - and homeware like vases, mugs and candles. We also sold a hair dryer and curling wand, proving that electricals sell well, too, and things like notebooks, board games, books and records.
"But be warned, car booting gets addictive, and after seeing how much money you can make from what you consider ‘junk’, you’ll come home and be rooting around for other things you can sell. Like they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure."
