The Wacky World of an English Car Boot Sale

Have you ever experienced a true 'car boot' sale? The premise is simple. Well in England it is - I'm sure it's the same for many other countries also, although it'd be good to hear if it is similar where you are from! These events are held through the milder part of the year, typically early Spring through to late Autumn. The locations can be race courses, fields, or just a large car park with organizers on hand. £5-6 for sellers (with car, more for a van), and £1 for the public entrance. Any member of the public, with no need for licenses, qualifications, or any such regulatory nonsense - can turn up, pay, and will be given a pitch to sell whatever they bring in the car - hence 'car boot' (perhaps they call it a trunk sale in the USA?). Another simple way to describe it, it's like 200 yard sales at once all in the same spot.

Some vendors do it for a hobby and extra income, focused on niche areas. Others may be clearing stock from a closed business. Many are simply households, having a big clear-out whilst raising a bit of cash for themselves.

Ok, let's see what we can find around this summer car boot sale in England!

Kicking off with some awesome reading material - Ian Fleming's seminal 007 books are not worth too much, although becoming increasingly rare, they need to be in immaculate condition and first or second issue to really collect a higher price. Meanwhile, if you can find them like this at a boot sale - then there's a bargain to be had, and something that will look cool on the bookshelf.

Old oil lamps can yield surprising values

An oil lamp, a brief tribute to my late father

Above, my late great father (RIP) inspects a vintage oil lamp. If you're not looking closely, it could just appear to be some old junk. Before the days of electric or battery powered torches, every home would have had one of these! With the advent of disposable batteries, they all went to the landfill. Nowadays if you can find the right one, they can be rare, and if complete/working some are actually worth hundreds to the right collector! However, they have to be quite special. My father had a contact who collected them, and did in the past pick some up for £5 which the guy paid him handsomely for. This one was taken for £5 and turned out to not be worth anything on this occasion. You win some, you lose some! My father had a really neat memory and in his retirement hobby, knew so many collectors of different items, he'd brief himself on what's hot and what is not on all the categories of collectors he knew, then root out stuff for them at these car boot sales or other sources. When presenting whichever contact with the latest find, they'd be delighted he had been so thoughtful, and pay him the market value. Then, he'd be off to the pub for a drink with his buddies! That was my father - kind, thoughtful, extremely intelligent, well liked by many, and generous whenever he could be. Rest in peace Dad.

Hobbies Galore

Perhaps you'll visit a car boot sale and look for a new hobby. There are always plenty on offer, like this full set of watercolor pastels going for a song! That new hobby could cost you a lot less (especially if just trying it out for the first time) if you hunt around the car boot sales.

Tools are another goldmine at car boot sales. They sell really well, (when cheap) from my experience. So if you have some to clear you're certain to have luck selling at the car boot. Others can pick up bargain tools at a fraction of the original cost.

As you can see above, things can also get pretty surreal with what others bring to sell! Not quite sure what anyone would want with this doll's severed head! Plus, what is that thing next to it! Mind you, the toy Mercedes was slightly tempting ...

Trader in action

Above, he has his own van and several larger vintage furniture items - a professional dealer in action.

Now things have gone all Gulliver's Travels on us - getting up close to this model rail setup with the camera produces some interesting results. Look at that giant!

This will give someone who wants to get into railway modelling a big head start, the whole thing was only about £70 from memory. It was fairly impressive and larger than the photos reveal.

Plenty of realistic details on this model railway

One mans junk, is another mans ....well, just junk really

As you can see above, mostly another dealer with a van this time some useful household items, and a lot of junk in between also! Not much here, so it was a quick snap and moving on ...

Now we're talking! Some wonderfully collectable Thunderbird and Flintstone's toys, and more. The trouble was, from a dealer, asking for full price - they'd probably have more luck on eBay than at this sale. The prices here were too high! Besides, the whole point is finding this stuff amongst others car boot junk. The dealers can often be having a clear out also though, it can sometimes be easy to negotiate the price down if they've had a slow day!

"All offers considered - some I will say Yes!, some I will say No! If you don't ask, you won't know" Seems fair to us! Actually looking at this photo - it's my favorite to collect old and new die-cast cars - I kinda wish I'd taken some of these but then again I think they were asking for too much, there was too many No's. It's not uncommon for these to be overpriced, as they look up past auctions online which were for mint or boxed models. With the chips and wear on these, they should only be £1 each. However, the rare/popular ones can fetch upto £3. However, don't pay more unless really sure on the value.

Easy to stack up on loads of toys, some of them still in the boxes.

Is it wrong? Or just fun?

I don't think the above are exactly 'PC', however these kind of characters used to be quite popular little ornaments and collectibles, you can no longer find in the shops thanks to the snowflake generation ... or maybe it's a good thing. I'm never sure ... are these ornaments racist? or just fun? I'm trying to imagine how they'd offend me if I were black - I guess stereotypes are never a good thing, however don't these also celebrate uniqueness in many ways also? The Tetley Tea characters were never banned, even though they make out Yorkshire folk as a bit muppet like? Aren't they representing white folks worse, in a way? Let me know in the comments, and no offence is intended here to any races or Yorkshire people, I love Yorkshire folks which have the same friendly laid back attitude as us folks from Devon on the other side of the country. (This boot sale was in Devon).

Until the next time!

This has been the wonderfully wacky world of a British Car Boot Sale! Do you go to one near you? Do you have similar in your country? Hope you have enjoyed this quirky little set of pictures.

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