I like Car Booting. In fact I’ll go further than that I Love Car Booting. Well not really LOVE it but I enjoy it. I go as often as I can which is probably about three times a week. (for you Americans I’ll add that a Car Boot sale is a bit like a garage sale but in a field, with lots of people selling their accumulated junk to people like me for not much money!) Yes three times a week, that’s Saturday morning, Sunday Morning (two car boots) and sometimes Thursday morning. I get there early because as a serious car booter, I want the best bargains.
And there are bargains to be had and you can be sure that within an hour of the purchase said bargain will be up for sale again on ebay. Because, I am an even more serious ebayer than I am a carbooter, although the former would not exist without the latter.
Now the main problem with car booting, and I am sure you will agree with me, is the people. Why do they let so many people in, all of whom have one thing in common, they are there to GET IN MY WAY! This is frustrating for the serious car booter, when the aisle between the stalls get so packed I have to dance and weave my way through the crowds like Muhammad Ali did with Sonny Liston. I only wish I packed his punch.
Serious Carbooting means one has to scoot around all the stalls as quick as possible to catch that bargain before someone else does, so it means speed shopping. Women, who we know hold all the World Records for shopping, would be outclassed on the car boot field. That’s how fast we are. Then once the first circuit is done, then the serious delving into boxes begins.
My speciality is books, which does slow one down a bit, as you do have to rummage through boxes to find those elusive first editions. But I also look for other plunder, like the Faberge Silver Vodka glass I saw someone had bought (via a TV programme) for 20p at a car boot sale. Yesterday I bought a Picasso! For £1! You can see it here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6530975065&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1
But what gets my goat above and beyond the people who get in your way, even more so than the people who think it’s a good idea to push a double buggy through the crowds (I know I know Mum’s with kids deserve a life too, but should be banned from carboot sales or have special car boot sales with extra wide aisles like in Mothercare!). Yes what gets my goat more than mums with buggies, o yes and those old people in their electric trikes, and people who know more about antiques than me, is those people who, when one is rummaging through a box, looking for that elusive signed, first edition William Shakespeare, dare to start rummaging too! How dare they, this is my box, stay out until I have finished! How rude!
O how I enjoy pawing through other peoples junk. But even better is finding that bargain for 10p and seeing it realise a tidy profit on ebay. I think ebay will soon become the only way to buy and sell stuff. Indeed ebay itself is like a global carboot sale, with buyers and sellers from all over the world. Yes the global economy and postal services are flourishing through the amount of junk that’s winging its way across the Oceans.
Recently I sent 12 plates, nothing special, to some guy in Japan. He paid the postage of £60 to get them and I don’t think they ever arrived. Somewhere, either an untrustworthy Japanese Postman is eating his sushi of some, frankly horrible plates, with a four-leaf clover pattern on them, or there is a box full of china shards still endlessly circling the globe moving from one destination to another.
The downside of this of course is that my house is slowly filling with unsold books and other people junk. Strange as it may seem some of the stuff I buy doesn’t even sell on ebay. I mean am I the only mug who would buy this stuff? I thought it was worth a punt but obviously my good taste is not shared by others. Nevertheless the pile of books gets bigger every day.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel for there is always that day when I will cross the line and move from becoming a buyer, a dealer, to becoming a seller. Yes that great day when I can stand there, in the drizzle, at 7:00 in the morning, haggling over a rare and important book, that is initially priced (in my mind only, price chosen on spec at the muttered request of the prospective buyer – ‘how much for the book guv?’) ‘er two fifty,’ I say with an expectant note in my voice, he’ll paw through the book, checking the publication date, the condition of the boards, - the game is on, ‘How about a quid’ he’ll respond holding the book out to me, I’ll consider, this frankly, insulting offer, for about a good 2 seconds, ‘Ok I’ll say do you need a plastic bag’? I add helpfully.
Yes what other hobby can get you out of bed early, give you some exercise and makes money at the same time, that is apart from prostitution, which I have never considered - yet!
And there are bargains to be had and you can be sure that within an hour of the purchase said bargain will be up for sale again on ebay. Because, I am an even more serious ebayer than I am a carbooter, although the former would not exist without the latter.
Now the main problem with car booting, and I am sure you will agree with me, is the people. Why do they let so many people in, all of whom have one thing in common, they are there to GET IN MY WAY! This is frustrating for the serious car booter, when the aisle between the stalls get so packed I have to dance and weave my way through the crowds like Muhammad Ali did with Sonny Liston. I only wish I packed his punch.
Serious Carbooting means one has to scoot around all the stalls as quick as possible to catch that bargain before someone else does, so it means speed shopping. Women, who we know hold all the World Records for shopping, would be outclassed on the car boot field. That’s how fast we are. Then once the first circuit is done, then the serious delving into boxes begins.
My speciality is books, which does slow one down a bit, as you do have to rummage through boxes to find those elusive first editions. But I also look for other plunder, like the Faberge Silver Vodka glass I saw someone had bought (via a TV programme) for 20p at a car boot sale. Yesterday I bought a Picasso! For £1! You can see it here: http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6530975065&rd=1&sspagename=STRK%3AMESE%3AIT&rd=1
But what gets my goat above and beyond the people who get in your way, even more so than the people who think it’s a good idea to push a double buggy through the crowds (I know I know Mum’s with kids deserve a life too, but should be banned from carboot sales or have special car boot sales with extra wide aisles like in Mothercare!). Yes what gets my goat more than mums with buggies, o yes and those old people in their electric trikes, and people who know more about antiques than me, is those people who, when one is rummaging through a box, looking for that elusive signed, first edition William Shakespeare, dare to start rummaging too! How dare they, this is my box, stay out until I have finished! How rude!
O how I enjoy pawing through other peoples junk. But even better is finding that bargain for 10p and seeing it realise a tidy profit on ebay. I think ebay will soon become the only way to buy and sell stuff. Indeed ebay itself is like a global carboot sale, with buyers and sellers from all over the world. Yes the global economy and postal services are flourishing through the amount of junk that’s winging its way across the Oceans.
Recently I sent 12 plates, nothing special, to some guy in Japan. He paid the postage of £60 to get them and I don’t think they ever arrived. Somewhere, either an untrustworthy Japanese Postman is eating his sushi of some, frankly horrible plates, with a four-leaf clover pattern on them, or there is a box full of china shards still endlessly circling the globe moving from one destination to another.
The downside of this of course is that my house is slowly filling with unsold books and other people junk. Strange as it may seem some of the stuff I buy doesn’t even sell on ebay. I mean am I the only mug who would buy this stuff? I thought it was worth a punt but obviously my good taste is not shared by others. Nevertheless the pile of books gets bigger every day.
But there is a light at the end of the tunnel for there is always that day when I will cross the line and move from becoming a buyer, a dealer, to becoming a seller. Yes that great day when I can stand there, in the drizzle, at 7:00 in the morning, haggling over a rare and important book, that is initially priced (in my mind only, price chosen on spec at the muttered request of the prospective buyer – ‘how much for the book guv?’) ‘er two fifty,’ I say with an expectant note in my voice, he’ll paw through the book, checking the publication date, the condition of the boards, - the game is on, ‘How about a quid’ he’ll respond holding the book out to me, I’ll consider, this frankly, insulting offer, for about a good 2 seconds, ‘Ok I’ll say do you need a plastic bag’? I add helpfully.
Yes what other hobby can get you out of bed early, give you some exercise and makes money at the same time, that is apart from prostitution, which I have never considered - yet!
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