How to cash in at the car boot sales this summer
It’s that time again… car booting time!
Yes, here it is again, the fine British summer. Is it the sunshine and the heat that gives it away? No. It’s the car boots popping up left right and centre! This is great news for us as it is a great way to make some extra cash buying and selling at car boot sales.
Car boots are also really useful for buying or selling unwanted property you have accrued that you’re unable to list online for one reason or another.
It’s that time again… car booting time!
Yes, here it is again, the fine British summer. Is it the sunshine and the heat that gives it away? No. It’s the car boots popping up left right and centre! This is great news for us as it is a great way to make some extra cash buying and selling at car boot sales.
Car boots are also really useful for buying or selling unwanted property you have accrued that you’re unable to list online for one reason or another.
How to make some extra cash selling at car boot sales
You may wonder how much you should charge, after all you don’t want to price too high and not sell. (And, of course, you don’t want to just give the items away!). When pricing books, I tend to sell 4 or 5 for £1 as this is usually popular.
If you’re unsure you could have a look around other sellers’ tables and see if they are selling similar items. Take note of how much they are asking, you could match, price higher or lower, all depending on how you feel.
Tips for car booting:
Take some used carrier bags: many buyers do not take bags with them and will appreciate you putting their purchases in a bag.
Also, before you go, organise a float of change, you can guarantee a customer will give you a £20 note for a purchase of 50p!
Take refreshments: if it’s a very hot day you will thank yourself later!
Buying at car boot sales
Using the profits from your sales, go around the car boot before it ends and buy up any books others are selling. Concentrate on niche, non-fiction and haggle. If a seller is asking 50p for each book, pick up three or four and ‘ask will you accept £1 for three/four?’ In most cases they will. The lower the price the better.
Personally I usually negotiate a really low price of 10p up to 25p per book because I will buy up any book in good condition from them in volume if they have lots available. I do not check values; I purchase ‘blind’ as I know I will always make some sort of profit.
However, if you are new to selling, or are a merchant seller only, I do not recommend you do this; you could end up with lots of 1p books you can’t make any profit on. (Although if you’re selling via FBA, you’ll usually make a nice profit from low value books).
Of course you could check up values by looking up the ISBN’s using the Internet on your phone if you have one.
I find by the end of the day many sellers (usually not traders) will be happy to offload their books cheaply as they do not want to lug them home again.
What do you think?
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