Make Money Selling at Car Boot Sales and Flea Markets

This is how selling works at itinerant events.  You get your goods; decide how much to charge; you price your goods; pack them; you take them to the event; unpack them; you load your stall and have a cup of tea.  Then …..

…..  you sell, sell, sell all day long; then when the last visitor leaves your stall you pack up your unsold goods; hide your money somewhere safe preferably on your person; you go home; bank your takings tomorrow; you start all over again next week.  SO EASY!

These are great places to offload items that are unsuitable for selling on eBay, because those items are too big or bulky, for example, or prohibitively expensive to post.

Or it could be those items are perishable or unsuitable for posting, or profit margins are low or products appeal to predominately local markets.    

These are also great places to sell items you have purchased on eBay which have much higher resell value outside of eBay and which can sometimes fetch much higher prices offline, especially any relating to specific topographical locations. 

There are potentially hundreds of different arbitrage opportunities available, too many to cover in this report, and for that reason we will consider items that can be bought inexpensively on eBay and sold for much higher prices at flea markets, book sales, collectors’ fairs, and other itinerant events.

Goods That Fetch Higher Prices Locally than on eBay

Some items, notably local topographical pieces relating to specific geographical locations (local view postcards, local history books, local souvenir ornaments), attract higher profits at flea markets and collectors’ fairs in the appropriate geographical location than on eBay. 

Sometimes this is because people prefer buying at flea markets and other physical events where they can inspect items, pay for and take them home without having to pay postage and wait for items to arrive or sometimes go missing in the post. 

There are people who won’t ever buy on eBay, mainly for the ‘jumble sale’ image sometimes and very wrongly attached to eBay, often because they fear scams or don’t know how to use eBay and don’t want to learn. 

Some people just feel more comfortable inspecting goods from all angles before deciding to buy.  

Add together all that has been said about topographical and other items selling more efficiently at local flea markets and boot sales and make a point of buying items on eBay for the purpose of reselling off the Internet, mainly at flea markets and other itinerant events.

Potential for Items Banned on eBay

Some items that are banned from selling on eBay, such as Nazi Memorabilia, are among the most popular and profitable items at collectors’ fairs and flea markets.

I won’t suggest you intentionally buy eBay banned items, but if they are included in whatever else you buy at offline auctions, for example, then flea markets are the best place to offload them.  Do not upload those items to eBay or your listings will be removed.

Other banned items on eBay may also sell well locally and you can read a full list of what is allowed and what is now allowed to be sold on eBay at:  http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/sell/policies.html

How to Begin Selling at Flea Markets, Car Boot Sales, Collectors’ Fairs, etc.

You’ll be pleased to know that becoming a successful buyer and/or seller at flea markets and the likes is much easier than actually selling on eBay.  Anyone can do it.  All you need is information about what type of events exist, where they are held, who the organiser is, how to get a stall, how to trade.   These tips will help you get started:

*  It’s best to start out with local venues, mainly to make sure you enjoy the business and also to reduce time and money spent travelling to more remote areas.  These local events are also a rich source of non-local items to resell on eBay.

*  It’s also wise to begin trading at non-specialist events where thousands of different products of all ages are traded, then later you can consider turning up to specialist events such as postcard fairs, doll and teddy bear auctions, train collectors’ swapmeets, and so on.  This lets you develop basic trading knowledge and helps you learn more about different product types to help you decide if and where to specialise on eBay in future.

*  You’ll find nearby events advertised in local newspapers, both county and town issues, usually among the classified advertisements under ‘Days Out’ or similar.  National events are well promoted in antiques and collectors’ magazines of which you’ll find plenty on newsagents’ shelves.  Any display advertisements you find among the classifieds or elsewhere in local publications indicate most popular organisers for you to consider first.  Either visit the advertised event or phone for a list of future events.  Bigger organisers also have web sites with full event and fee schedules listed. 

*  Visit as an observer first, look for regular traders at specific events (a sign the event is profitable), investigate the busiest stalls (make sure money is changing hands), study other traders' prices and stock turnover, notice how often they reduce prices on long standing items.  At end of day, look for traders leaving early (a sign they haven’t made money), study others standing round in groups discussing their day with fellow traders - if they’re smiling, they’ve had a good day; if they’re laughing they’ve had a very good day!  All are tell-tale signs of hugely profitable and not so profitable events.

*  Ask the organiser for a diary of forthcoming events (even if you’ve already got one from the Internet; you are just looking to make personal contact with organisers today).  The organiser or his representative is usually the person taking entry fees or moving from stallholder to stallholder with an open book and shoulder bag and obviously taking stall fees.  Incidentally, the best organisers gather fees late in the day, when most traders are already in profit.   Some organisers operate at one specific venue, some operate in one county, others travel extensively, some work nationwide; a tiny few operate worldwide. It’s a good idea to visit several venues with the same and with different organisers to see if particular traders appear every time at specific locations.     A regular band of followers is the most obvious sign of a professional organiser who spends plenty of time and money on advertising and helping traders to prosper.

*  Contact the organiser by phone or approach them direct at events to book your first stall.  Sometimes, but very rarely, there is a waiting list, which is actually ver good news, it indicates a profitable, well organised event.  Put your name on the list right away and be available to jump in at short notice if another person stops trading or fails to appear, always pay your fees on time without argument, be friendly to customers, and you’ll soon be offered a permanent stall. 

Suitable Products for Selling at These Events

First let me remind you the purpose of taking a stall at these events is not always just to sell.  Sometimes you are there to get first pick of other people’s stock and a discount alongside.  The chance to make money on the day from items unsuitable for selling on eBay is the icing on the cake.

These are the items I personally make most money from at itinerant events:

*  Local topographical items.

*  Tea Trays packed with rubbishy bits and bobs that are not worth listing on eBay but might sell fast in bulk to members of the public or to fellow booters (colloquial for people trading at boot sales).  Good examples: condiments sets without a popular theme and otherwise not collectible; books and pamphlets you’ve tried unsuccessfully selling on eBay but only worth £1 or less; heavy items like small pieces of furniture, large toys and other children’s hardware that’s too bulky and too costly to post; household plants, old curtains, kiddies’ cast-off clothing.

*  Small electrical goods but be careful as you could be in trouble if items you sell turn out to be defective or even dangerous.

*  Car parts, computer peripherals, and other items that many people buy second hand but which do not always sell well on eBay.

Your First Big Day

*  Pack everything you are selling into large plastic stacking storage boxes, the kind you might use to store vegetables or toys, you’ll find them in all major supermarkets.  These can be used, upside down, as staging for your stall.  They are also stronger and sturdier than cardboard boxes which disintegrate in wet weather and which can fall apart between car and stall and render your valuables utterly worthless.  

*  If you have a garage attached to the house it’s usually safe to load boxes into your car the evening before the sale.  You should not load up and leave the car out of sight or out of earshot or you will be broken into.  Not might, almost definitely will be broken into, especially when locals and fellow traders, the dishonest kind, find out what you are doing! 

*  Price everything before the event, most potential buyers won’t ask about prices and will just move to the next stall.  Don’t place sticky price labels directly onto your items, they are hard to remove and leave nasty marks and glue residue.  Instead use labels with tiny holes though which to place string or cotton and tie these loosely onto your goods.  Items like stamps and postcards, books and pictures, can be covered with see-through plastic and sticky price labels placed on the plastic.

*  Arrive at the fair several hours before doors open to the public to lay out your stall and leave time to inspect other traders' stocks.  Park as close to the loading door as possible and never leave your vehicle unlocked.  It’s best to have someone watch your stock inside the hall if you have to return to the vehicle for more. 

If you are alone, look for a big trolley to carry everything in one journey or pay someone to watch your stall while you unload.  Most reliable dealers trading at the event will do this for you free of charge, but a friend or relative is best.  Stay within sight of your stall at all times, or leave someone reliable in charge.  Theft is not uncommon between traders.

*  Be very careful about your own security and that of your goods.  Rarely does it happen but I have known traders being followed home and robbed of their goods when they go into the house intending to unpack later.  Worse still I have known people being followed from the event and stopped, attacked and robbed on route.  Try always to vary your route home and avoid travelling alone.  Most important of all, if you are stopped or you are threatened in any way, give up the goods, don’t put up a fight, do not risk life or limb to save your stock. 

*  If you buy from traders, wait until end of day to pay them  and reserve early profits to pay for items brought in by the public.

After That

*  Book events with just one or two major organisers and ask for a regular pitch where visitors with goods to sell will see you first.  Next to the door where entry fees are taken is best, also close to bar or toilets. 

*  Determine your most profitable venues and book well in advance. 

*  Investigate new venues where you will reach fresh buyers and sellers.

*  Choose one high profit over several modestly profitable fairs and earn more money faster, leaving you plenty of time to run your eBay business. 

*  If you book just one day at multi-day events make it the first.  The biggest spending customers and almost all private sellers arrive within minutes of opening time.  Expect to make twice as much money on day one than on subsequent days.

*  Produce a printed listing of events you will be attending, as well as items you want to buy. Keep a pile on the side of your stall, hand them out freely to browsers and buyers, package them into all outgoing communications.

All articles are provided in good faith and are researched and written to the best of our abilities.  However, readers should always do their own due diligence before investing in any business opportunity, and they should be aware that many article writers and web masters, including ourselves, frequently receive a commission for selling other people's products. We pride ourselves on always choosing the very best products to recommend to our readers and we only recommend products offering a solid money back guarantee.

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