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Mission: Car boot challenge
Paul R Taylor4/11/2005
We like to set our reporters a challenge. This week Paul R Taylor went to a car boot sale in Gorton with a 7.30 start.
I'VE had the £30 abs trainer since the 80s and used it twice.
I'm sick of it looking at me but throwing it in a skip would be
admitting failure.
I also have an old computer monitor and keyboard (which could come
in useful, but never will), stacks of videos (including Celine
Dion, which isn't mine), books, clothes, a skipping rope,
candleholders, pictures, mirrors, trainers. Rubbish.
There's only one thing for it. I need to join the legions of
Britons who spend their Saturdays selling their useless junk to
other Britons - I need to go to a car boot sale.
The goals for the day are clear. Get rid of all the junk,
particularly the abs trainer, make some profit, and escape the car
boot sale before becoming middle aged.
So it's stupid o'clock on a Saturday morning and my girlfriend and
I have B&Q to ourselves. Loading up the car we'd realised that
we didn't actually have a table, a pretty essential item. So in
panic we had our first argument of the day - about whether the
store would be open at 7am, which I won.
I'm not expecting to enjoy myself or to make any profit. The
plastering table costs £7.48 and the pitch costs £7.
The car is packed with stuff, but altogether I doubt it's worth
even a tenner.
Britons spend £1.46 billion a year at car boot sales.
The average profit is £75 and 39 per cent of people say they attend
the sales for a fun day out. A fun day out? In October? In
Gorton?
I'm astonished when swarms of people crowd around our table,
already asking how much and haggling over the price before we've
set up.
You see a similar reaction on the news, when someone arrives with a
UN food truck.
The first item to be sold is a Dirty Dancing video for £2, despite
the fact that it was on Channel Five at the weekend. Then some
bloke picks up the rest of the videos, except Celine Dion, and buys
them all for 50p each.
We can't fill the table quickly enough and I'm fighting off the
giggles as two women fight over the few remaining Martina Cole
books - which are bizarrely but very definitely the most popular
items. My girlfriend is also fighting the giggles as she haggles
with some guy about a pair of "never worn" trainers, which she
discovers have soles covered in mud when she takes them out of the
box. We're not very good at haggling. Surprised by the interest,
we'll take anything.
After the initial rush I go for a browse around the other stores
and the market and there's more free entertainment on offer. I hear
one bloke offer another books at "30p each or three for a pound".
In the first hour we sell about half the stuff we'd bought, and
then chat to other stallholders while people come and browse.
The only thing that hasn't had a whiff of interest is the abs
trainer. The lady on the stall next to us says she always sees them
on stalls, but no one wants them anymore because they're bad for
your back and have been replaced by the new Swiss balls. So, even
though I couldn't sell it, I now have a reason to throw it
away.
At 1pm someone buys the Celine Dion video and after that we decide
everything that is going to sell has already sold.
We go to the pub to count our takings. We've taken £50.50, which
less £7 for the pitch and £7.48 for the table makes a grand total
of £36.02. It's not a fortune, not even the average takings, but we
had a load of rubbish to sell and had an unexpected laugh doing
it.
I'm even tempted to campaign for car boot sales to be categorised
as an extreme sport.
Gorton car boot sale is held every Saturday from 8.30am to 4pm.
Call 0161 2313522 for more information, but there's no need to
book.
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