The key to product sourcing at car boot sales and village fetes

By Sharon Fussell, March 13, 2014

I hope you are experiencing some pleasant weather at the moment: officially, springtime is nearly upon us, and it’s so nice when the sun is shining, flowers begin blooming and buds on trees are appearing.

To be honest, although there has been plenty of rain, it hasn’t been quite as cold as you would normally expect during the winter period. Not in the part of Wales I live in anyway. I don’t think we even had a severe frost – you know, where the trees are covered in white frost.

So, now the spring is just around the corner, one of the big things to look forward to are car boot sales, fetes, and other outdoor attractions where you can find great bargains: books, DVDs, and other such media going relatively cheaply to resell for a profit on Amazon.

However, it’s not always possible to check out ISBNs before buying items: so you will usually have no idea what item will have a resell value on Amazon and obviously won’t want to waste money second-guessing.

So what should you look out for when you are out and about attending community events?

Toys and games – I often find wrapped (unwanted) toys and games: these are easy to sell because they are new and can be sold and thus purchased as gifts.

Although, sometimes, you can buy used toys and games too, such as children’s learning card games like flash cards. These are usually sought after and can be quite profitable. You need to know if all the pieces are present, so if you don’t buy new and wrapped, have a quick check, or just pay a few pennies, in case you do have to check if they are not in saleable order anyway.

DVDs – I try to look for wrapped DVDs with a non-fiction topic – the more niche the better, such as unusual sports like martial arts, or animals and pets. I found a great DVD on keeping and training a certain type of parrot recently: I paid £1.00 and sold it for over £25.

Books – These can be a little tricky, in that you really do have no idea if a book has any value on Amazon just by looking at the cover or the topic. I tend to go for very niche subjects, such as niche biographies. I avoid books in bad condition and also avoid fiction and common non-fiction.

Conversely, I will pick up children’s fiction if in very good condition and batch them together to sell on eBay. For example, last year I picked up four Welsh language children’s books for 10p each at a car boot. I batched them together and made around £6 profit on eBay after taking out all costs. It only took a few minutes to photograph and add a short description.

In fact, I often batch together popular children’s writers such as Julia Donaldson’s books, which I pay a few pennies each for at car boots. Look for popular TV shows such as Spot the Dog, Peppa Pig or Noddy. Just be sure there are no scribbles or markings inside: in fact, only buy if they look ‘as new’.

Also keep a look out for video games and computer software, but be wary if the specifications required to run them are quite dated.

Of course, if you have purchased Copy Paste Profit (my new online business venture), you can enjoy the sunshine by taking your laptop into the garden, putting your feet up, enjoying a nice cold drink, and looking for suitable products to resell.

You can therefore avoid trawling around car boots, fetes and other such community events. All is on hand at your fingertips: no need for you go out to find products, buy products, store products, take photographs, write descriptions… Just copy, paste and profit to your heart’s content in the sunshine.

If you are not aware of my new programme Copy Paste Profit, read all about it here…