Thrifty Thursday: Try a Car Boot Sale
While traveling in England a few years ago, my party happened upon a car boot sale. I think that this variation on a garage sale makes a lot of sense. Here's how it works. The designated venue is often a church or school parking lot, usually on a Saturday. Participants pack the trunks ("boots") of their cars with the goods they want to sell. At the designated venue, they pull into a parking spot, pop open their trunks and set up a folding table with their goodies. If it starts to rain, it's easy to pop everything back into the trunk.
Obviously the car boot sale doesn't work for most furniture and other large items. Also, you'll need a large number of participants to make it work. I especially like it as a variation upon the church or club rummage sale, or the neighborhood garage sale. Remember what a pain it is to get all the goods gathered into one place, and then dispose of the leftovers? The car boot sale avoids those problems, as participants tote their own goods to the sale and take away whatever doesn't sell. British accents are suggested but not required.
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This sounds like it could be a lot of fun. You could even do a theme, like kids or baby…
Oh, Susan, I guess I am a little off center! My first vision was of the guy in a trench coat with a “deal” on watches! I guess it’s my warped frame of mind.
After thinking seriously, it is a good idea. It would require little preparation and would be easily set up. From my experiences with doing craft shows, I know how hard it is to set up!
I love the spontaneity of this idea. I never seem to get a garage sale off the ground (although I regularly sell on eBay and Craigslist) because it takes too much planning. But I fairly often have a house-clearing fit when the clutter has gotten to me and this would be a fitting solution. Let’s do it!
I’ve heard of these, plus a variation for Halloween. Churches or other organizations set up cars in a parking lot (or car park if you’re British) and then pass out tricks and treats! Cars can be decorated or not, but it’s a pretty cool idea.
I must say, though, that when I read “Car Boot Sale” I thought of the boots used to impound vehicles in place. At first I wondered what the point was. Then I thought — aha! If you put a boot on your car, it can’t be stolen — an anti-theft device. Then I clicked the link and discovered the TRUE meaning. Sometimes I’m too creative for my own good! LOL
Hello everyone from West Yorkshire in the United Kingdom!
I came over to the states a couple of years ago (Pueblo to be exact), and you guys do things very differently to us!
We don’t have garage or yard sales – we tend to congregate in a large field or car park, empty our stuff out on a table and then start selling!
From a buyers perspective it is a great format as a large number of sellers are all together in one place, so less driving about from one yard sale to another
Don’t get me wrong garage sales have their advantages too – It was awesome driving round the neighbourhood and chatting to people having a clearout in their yard.
Everyone was really welcoming and friendly and I got the impression there was a great community feeling in the area – more so than where I live which feels quite cold in comparison.
It take you guys a little of time to work out that I was English and not Australian or a New Zealander though
but thats allowed, as I can never tell between the American and Canadian accents which is probably very irritating!
Over in the UK I run a
Car Boot Sale Blog which discusses anything and everything relating to car boots.
Anthony
I’m glad that you found Americans to be friendly, although I’m amazed that you think American and Canadian accents are similar. We don’t think that we sound anything alike!
I visited your website and found it quite interesting. I would love to see car boot sales catch on in the U.S. I don’t go to garage sales any more because it is too costly in terms of both time and fuel. But I would go to a car boot sale.