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Why Today’s £3 Boot Sale Find CAN Be Worth £10,000 TomorrowAnother Car Boot Exclusive Bargains abound at boot sales, for private use, for resale, or as alternative investments and auction room best-sellers. Witness Laura Kieff whose £1 bundle of books hid a Betty Boop cel worth £25,000, or a cup costing £3 in Edinburgh which Phillips valued at £10,000. Or a colleague who buys small collectable items for a pittance at boot sales and sells at immense prices at specialist collectors’ fairs. Another buys cast-off clothing in bulk for pennies, does cleaning and repairs, and sells at weekday markets for high profit.Will yours be the next Antiques Roadshow exclusive? Will you buy stock inexpensively and sell as massive mark-ups? Does the family needs something special, but money is tight? This is how to achieve your aims: • Arrive early, return home late - beat resident and visiting dealers to the biggest early morning bargains. How: say you’re ‘trade’, enter and move around freely before the public arrives. Inspect stalls, ready to trade or still unpacking. • Focus on families and inexperienced sellers. Why: most want to sell fast and leave early, lack inside knowledge on ‘miracle’ finds, dislike haggling and give biggest discounts. • At the end of day offer low prices for perishables - vegetables, fruits, flowers, plants, mushrooms - or bulky items which are hard to transport. Pay last-minute visit to dealers who refused your previous offers - some may be less reticent now! • Dig and delve, leave no stone unturned - most ‘miracle’ finds (cost pennies, fetch fantastic prices at auction), are concealed by larger, more obvious items. Example: postcards in pages of books, medals mixed with common coins, priceless cups and plates with cast-off household crockery, quality gems in batches of broken beads. • Look in boxes, flick through books, search beneath stalls. Buy popular resaleable items needing cleaning or repairs, do work and re-sell at higher prices. • Avoid defective goods, recognise valuable items, guard against fake and stolen goods, investigate best buying venues. Check electricals carefully (look for loose wires, dirty leads, heavy wear and tear); enquire about warranties; ask for guarantee goods are in working order; look closely at designer label and branded goods where fakes abound (check logo is accurate, watch for defective or faulty printing). • Check for damage, broken parts, missing pieces - and attempts to conceal; take spare batteries; ask to inspect inside sealed boxes. Most common fakes: videos and software, designer clothing, brand-name cosmetics and perfumes. And: read about collectable and other valuable items, study collectors’ magazines, watch televised antiques programmes, visit collectors’ and antiques fairs. • Visit regular boot sales, check for best bargains, get friendly with regular traders - expect higher discounts. Generally risky buys - difficult to inspect before buying - computers, household electrical goods, battery-operated toys with batteries missing. Rarely intact: jigsaws, multi-piece games. Remember: purchasers at boot sales are covered by same consumer protection laws as buyers in high street shops. Get receipts and sellers’ names for costly items and consult Trading Standards if you suspect goods are stolen, counterfeit, contrary to trading laws. • Pay the lowest price possible - learn to haggle and ask for trade discounts, offer cash not cheque. Why: haggling cuts costs significantly and is expected at boot sales, by trade and private sellers. Cash more attractive to moonlighting traders! Start by offering between one-half and two- thirds the asking price. Typically, sellers suggest more, closer to their original price. You increase your offer slightly, they ask a little less, until a midway price emerges that satisfies both parties. • Ask for trade discount - before the public arrives or if you are selling at the event - ten per cent is common. Ask bigger discounts on goods purchased in bulk, for example, children’s videos, toys, boxes of collectibles. Expect the highest discounts when bad weather or major televised event - Wimbledon, World Cup - keeping visitor attendance low. • Stay cool - don’t give the game away when you’ve found a bargain - by shouting excitedly, gloating and parading your acquisition. Why: the sale isn’t binding until money changes hands. Sellers can alter prices or withdraw items from sale without giving reason. ‘Camouflage’ bargain buys to avoid last-minute detection by seller. For example: hand over several postcards, gem included; buy cups, saucers to hide antique plate; offer money for book with valuable insert but do not hand over book itself - things hidden for decades can reveal themselves fast! Avril Harper
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