Next Car Boot Sale Events in Devon:

Car boot sales can vary enormously, and much of your success (or not!) is down to luck.  But you can also improve your chances by planning ahead and matching your stuff to a particular event. So do your research and ask around before you go:

• Before you go to the car boot sale
• Organising your items for sale
• Setting your prices
• Popular items
• What not to take
• Other things to remember

Before you go:

1. Some car boot sales are regular events, offering a reasonably reliable opportunity to sell your stuff, and to go back week after week with more of it, perhaps even getting some regular customers.  Some have more people looking for basics at bargain prices (we found the Matford car boot sale was like this).  Others are huge one-off events, that people look forward to for months. If it's a big day out, they might be more willing to buy something special.
2. If it's a regular car boot sale, try going as a buyer the week before. This should give you some idea of where the best pitches are, as you want to catch people before they're tired and they've spent all their money! If you're planning to sell children's items, look around and see the typical ages of the children there.  In our case, we found lots of babies and toddlers were at Matford car boot, and lots of older primary school children were at Haldon Hills - they didn't want our baby stuff!
3. Keep an eye on the weather forecast.  If you have to pack the car the night before to leave first thing in the morning and the forecast is for rain, then I wouldn't bother. Rain is a big problem if you're car booting, as the buyers will all leave and your stuff could get damaged. However, if there's a chance of rain but it turns out to be sunny, you could be in the ideal position of having loads of extra buyers because not many sellers turned up. If you're risking this though, do keep some plastic boxes with lids handy to protect anything that could be damaged by water.
4. Prepare yourself well ahead of time. Pack the car the night before if you need to, so you can get there early on the day and get that good pitch you found the week before.
5. Above all, before you pack the car, be sure that the event is definitely on. If you're not sure, check with the organisers.  If you get caught out (as we have a couple of times), try inviting your friends to a garage / yard sale instead.

Organise your merchandise:

1. You'll do a lot better if you can take some folding tables. If you're selling clothes, take some kind of portable hanging rail or clothesline. If you're selling books or DVDs, take some kind of shelves to display them on. If you're not planning any more car boots, you could try selling the shelves etc to other carboot sellers towards the end of the event. Don't be tempted to sell your bookcase at the start though - we did that once and it was a big mistake!
2. If you're selling secondhand clothes, only take things that are completely clean and in very good condition.  Otherwise, a couple of grotty things can make everything look bad.
3. If you're selling children's clothes, organise any good quality plainer clothes into tubs labelled by age. We found that most buyers were only interested in secondhand children's clothes if they had well known children's characters on them (Bob the Builder, Scooby Doo, Spiderman, etc), so hang these up if you can.  People also looked for labels like Gap and Next.
4. For adult clothing, again only take things in nearly new condition, ideally with some kind of 'good' label.  However, we were also able to sell a few quirkier items (fur coat, sequinned dress, African caftan, etc).
5. If you're taking jigsaws, make sure all the pieces are there, and label them 'complete'.

Set your prices, but be flexible:

1. If you're planning to sell something you think might be collectable, have a look for it on eBay or AbeBooks.co.uk to see how many are listed there and how much they are selling for.
2. Think about your prices ahead of time, but be flexible - you'll find out very soon how realistic you were! Be prepared for haggling and reducing prices, but set yourself a limit: don't let something special go for a price you'll kick yourself for later, and don't feel you have to sell anything if you're unhappy with where it's going.  I once refused to sell one of our baby toys to be chewed up by a dog
3. Buy some sticky price labels and label your main items, and tubs of smaller or similar items. Again, bear in mind you'll probably be adjusting these prices so bring the stickers and pens with you.
4. If you're carbooting with someone else (definitely recommended!), take turns to walk around early on and get a general idea of how much other people are asking for things like DVDs, records, paperback books, etc.

Some surprisingly popular items:

1. Old blankets.  These can be useful for displaying your wares, and often people want to buy them for their dogs.
2. Bits of tools and cars, small computer parts and electrical cables.  Computer cables can sell at car boot sales for about the same amount you can buy them for anyway.  Plus, these items are great for getting the guys interested in your stall, and then the rest of the family are likely to be there for longer too
3. Toys that do electronic things. If they play tunes, move or light up, they can be great for attracting attention to your stall, and the kids will want to buy them. Obviously, bright looking toys at child level are a good idea too!
4. Small cuddly toys: generally people want to buy them for dogs.
5. A budget car. If you've got a car in the up-to-£500 range, you might well be able to find a buyer at a car boot sale. That's how we sold ours, with a sign in the back windows. But I would check the rules on selling cars there, if you can. If you don't have any luck at the car boot sale, you could try the 'Used cars for sale ' section in VivaStreet.
6. Records. I didn't think anyone would have them any more, but we found that records from bands like Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Genesis were very popular. But I'm still kicking myself for giving away my 12 inch of Frankie Goes To Hollywood's 'Relax', just seconds before it started appearing in the Virgin Atlantic adverts! (At least that one went to a good cause via Oxfam though).

What not to take:

1. If you've got books that are collectable, recent bestsellers or recent editions of textbooks, try selling them on AbeBooks.co.uk or Amazon Marketplace, as you'll probably make more money, but check the cost of postage before you set a price for them. The Post Office does a leaflet with postage rates, and you can also look them up on the Post Office website. If your textbooks are too heavy to make selling online cost effective, try selling them at a local college.
2. Don't take videos, unless you've got cult classics or a very collectable box set, eg I almost sold my box set of The Prisoner a couple of times but couldn't let it go for so little in the end, as they were occasionally selling for more on eBay.   I didn't sell any other videos at all - the buyers at the car boot sales seemed to have much better TV sets, DVD players and general electronic equipment than us!
3. Don't take bulky furniture: it will fill up your car, and you'd have a better chance of selling it for a good price through classified ads in your local paper or Vivastreet's Free Classifieds
4. Don't take any clothes or toys that look grotty, worn out or broken.

Other things to remember:

1. Don't forget to bring a cash float, or you'll miss sales at the start because people want you to break their ten or twenty pound notes.
2. Don't forget to have somewhere safe to keep your cash. A money belt can be useful for keeping your change in.
3. Take empty plastic bags in case people need them to carry all the things they buy from you.
4. Take a portable radio if you've got one - it makes your stall (and you!) much cheerier. People will keep wanting to buy it though!
5. If it's cold, bring hot drinks in a thermos, and if it's hot, bring a bottle of water. But try not to drink too much until you've seen the toilets
6. If you get the chance, keep track of which types of things sold best and worst, so you can be better prepared next time.
7. Don't expect all your stuff to go: it's likely you'll sell about a third of it, so towards the end consider what you'll do with the rest: will you carboot it again, would it be saleable in charity shops, could it be given away on freecycle, or in the cold light of day is it really only fit for the tip? If you can take some of it to these places on the way home, you'll feel better when you unpack the car.
8. HAVE FUN!!  Car booting is friendly and sociable, and if all goes well you finish the day with more money and less junk, which has to be good!