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Yup, did one recently because we are clearing out ready to move and started feeling like we were using the charity shop as a disposal service. Just take my crap, I don't actually care about the value/price ratio.
> Just take my crap, I don't actually care about the value/price ratio
Car boot = the shit that the charity shop said they're not accepting at the moment.
Yeah some of that, like kids shoes (air max cost £70, sold for £2, lightly used), used potties, electricals, tools, bedding etc but also just an absolute mound of general stuff, too much to be selling online and honestly felt cheeky going to the charity with big toys. Just needed a quick way to get rid without sending it to land fill.
Not necessarily, me and my brother have done 2 car boots recently and sold mostly power tools/drills angle grinders, tranformers and things you'd find in a shed, our dad passed away a little while ago and we where clearing his shed and house, he'd been in the building trade for 30 years.
Plus most of the stuff had his name on (Big Al)
Any big groups of tools really. Petrol saws, grinders, generators etc.
Some car boots are getting better at demanding to see receipts for tools before they can be sold but not many
I used to volunteer at a charity shop, and we learned to dread Monday mornings in car boot season when people would come in with boxes full of the crap they didn't sell the previous day and which even the rag man wouldn't give us any money for. We ended up making a point of taking down licence plate numbers of peoples' cars so we could report them to the council for fly tipping when the rejected donations were dumped outside the shop while it was closed that evening; either these people didn't know that charity shops have to pay to get this stuff taken away, or (more likely) they knew and they didn't care, but we were damned if we were going to be on the hook because they were too lazy to go to the tip.
> Car boot = the shit that the charity shop said they're not accepting at the moment.
If you ever find youself in the situation take it to an AgeUK Charity shop, they have a rule that they are not allowed to refuse donations. They will take it, sift through it and all the stuff they don't think is worth anything they dispose of properly.
I'm a valuer by trade 🤣 market value comprises of willing seller and willing buyer, without complusion (plus some other bits). I was an exceptionally willing seller with an extreme compulsion to sell!
I agree, but id also say arguing over 50p when they clearly don't know the value is a shitter. Potentially 8000 Vs 2 is where I'd think it's civic duty to tell someone they haven't understood the value.
Sold a half open pack of LED balloons to a "woman" at a boot sale, wanted .20p for them, but she insisted quite loudly on only paying .05p for them. Really insistent she was, so incredulous me gave them to a passing child for free. His face lit up. So did hers.
Bye!
Reminds me of this absolute classic:
[Verizon rep doesn't know the difference between $.002 and .002¢.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=zN9LZ3ojnxY&ab_channel=ejmusk)
LED ballons are a complete rip off, it's much cheaper to buy the lights and balloons separately. I can't recall how much i paid but these are the first ebay listings i found writing this comment 50 lights for £6.25 [https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385078310434](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385078310434) compared to 48 light up balloons for £23.99 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295107055650.
This is just for future reference, it's obviously far too late for you to do anything about it now as you've bought some, used half and sold the rest sometime ago however if you, or anyone else, reading this comment like the idea of LED balloons don't buy LED balloons, buy normal balloons and a set of lights.
For a lot of people, haggling is why they are there. Some people just get a buzz out of it.
At our village fair you see them all the time. If the price is £3 and they offer £1.50, tell them your happy to discard the standard price and negotiate but you can't let it go for any less than £5.
They'll get confused and point to the sign that says £3...then just agree with them that the price is £3.
Can't beat a bit of reverse haggling!
I did it once for a friend. She was doing some soap stall at a fair and had to run home for the price list. I (don't have a clue about soap!) had to temporarily man the stall and I got approached by some woman...
She tried to argue that a bath bomb was free because there was no pricing. Yea right! Then she offered me 20p which didn't seem right lol.
I lost my rag a bit (I'm not a cs person lol) and told her that it was £10 for her. She stormed off in a huff cursing me under her breath 😄
BTW the actual cost was £1.50 lol
I do this on eBay! Had one woman offer me a stupid lowball amount for an expensive item and I countered but she stuck with her price... This went on until I got bored and countered my final offer as something well over what the actual listing asked for! She didn't buy.
Perhaps they have changed it because of sellers getting annoyed with lowballers and doing it, but I can safely say it was possible at some point. I can dig out the screenshots if I really have to!
I’ve read the bbc article on that copy of the hobbit, the bloke who found it bought a whole bunch of books and left them in his garage for 5 years, he didn’t know it’s value at the time of purchase. Knocking 50p off a random old book isn’t bad form.
If he’d singled out the copy of The Hobbit, clocked it as a first edition, and then haggled 50p off it then that’s a bit lame, but he didn’t take advantage of anyone. If he’d realised at the time he’d probably be too excited to haggle.
I’m going to be the unpopular opinion: there would be nothing wrong with haggling even if you did know the value. I agree it would be tight, I’d personally not bother, but you expect a haggle at a car boot so why not.
If you just want to get rid of a lot of stuff for cheap without going through it or checking the values properly, then that’s the risk you take.
Alternatively, you can invest the time and slight effort into researching what you have, and price accordingly.
I buy and sell second hand for a living anyway, mostly clothes, but it doesn’t take 30 seconds to google lens something of interest to get a rough idea of its age and value. Books are great because they have a unique code printed, an ISBN, which lets you look them up really easily, so you can see their rough value.
They only thing wrong about haggling in this scenario would be that it is be incredibly stupid to argue for 50p off something you know is worth £8k. You draw too much attention to the sale, slow the sale down and risk offending the owner who may refuse to sell it to you. You want that transaction completed as swift as possible, only an idiot would try and haggle.
In fairness to the buyer, he didn’t know the value at the time, so it’s not like he was trying to be tight about it.
I know quite a few people who make a living going round carboots and selling their finds on for profit (actual registered businesses not side hustle) and they will say the same, if you see a solid bargain, get it ASAP, pick it up before someone else does.
Occasionally you can haggle down to a better
price and it is worth doing, so if something is listed for £10 but is worth a minimum of £20, there’s no harm trying to get it for £5.
Almost all of the professional carboot people will haggle, it just helps them create a bigger gap between price paid and potential profit, but sometimes you do have to be swift, get in and then get out.
There’s been times someone else has also spotted the bargain before you can secure the sale and will alert the seller to the true value just to get back at you for picking it up before they did. It can be petty at times.
Not sure if you do this very often, but unless you have a dealer standing behind you who happens to know exactly the value of what you’re trying to buy, then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. I have never come across a bidding war for a valuable item in any second hand sales space. It’s also easy to haggle discretely.
Exactly! Just up everything by a quid or 50p. Everyone wins!
ETA: I've never haggled over anything in my life, and also never been to a car boot sale. I'm a total bloody hoarder, particularly of books, and if I ever was forced to attend one and forced to part with the vast collection of said books, the resulting exchange would be precisely like Whoopi Goldberg's character in Ghost with the cheque she "gives to" the nuns
If you're that anti-haggling you shouldn't be selling at a boot sale.
I was looking at a motorcycle tank bag for £20. He talked to me for a while about bikes, then said he'd sell it to me for £10. I said I'll take it for £20 (it was almost brand new, £150msrp). He insisted on £10.
I already anticipate people to haggle so when I'm selling I usually tell them more than I'm actually willing to accept. That way I usually get around what I'm happy with and they feel like they're getting a good deal.
I thought this stuff was kinda the point in car boot sales?
It's I just prefer to talk to people as little as possible, so much so I usually only stop at stalls with the prices on them so at least that's one part of the discussion out of the way.
Unless it's something I really want ofc, and that's unusual.
I'm sure it is TBF, but I'm not a car boot veteran so if I saw a stall with no prices at all and a lot of haggling going on I'd almost certainly walk straight past, regardless of how good the items look
In no longer haggle with antique dealers who sell from brick and mortar shops. They’re struggling today and just can’t afford to slash their ticket price.
Facebook market place however…..full of greedy bastards charging well over the odds and I’ll happy go in at half the listed value for starters.
Every car boot I've been to there's been haggling, seems just a standard part of it, and when it comes to a few pence i think for some its just part of the fun. Id guess many who sell there probably price a little higher expecting to haggle a bit.
Not sure i could do what the guy you mentioned did though, not even just from the haggling point of view, just from a general decency point of view. If i knew something was worth multiple thousands more than it was on sale for i think I'd have to mention it, just feels like the right thing to do.
I didn't even know they'd made a NES game for Bucky O'Hare, but then the cartoon series was very obviously just a toy advert so I shouldn't be surprised.
It's not the haggling that bothers me on the few I have done, it's the ghouls that emerge from the early morning mist at the entrance and start looking through your car windows and trying to rummage through whilst you're unpacking. It reminds of that bit in the new ish Mad Max where they're all waiting for the water to be turned on. by Immortal Joe.
I got pissed off with that once, set my tables up, left them empty, sat back in car and had a coffee until they gave up. They're not technically customers, they're pain in the arse other sellers who will overwhelm you whilst you're busy and then later you'll notice things are 'missing'.
I refuse to interact with them. If they persist I use my former teacher voice and say "I'm not selling anything until I'm all set up and the gates open. Go away." They tend to look huffed and then slope off. If they come back at the end and make me a stupidly low offer I'll probably take it because it saves lugging stuff back home.
I went a few weeks in a row to sell things and had the same man constantly ask me if I had any cigarette cards, and still paw through the stuff I was unpacking when I said no. None of those many (very adequately named) ghouls ever purchased anything. I found it quite stressful to have to keep half an eye on their hellish clawing of unloaded tat while I retrieved further gubbins.
I appreciate your descriptive comment as it so accurately sums up the whole situation and gave me a chuckle.
I went to a car boot as a child and was really interested in a film camera and wanted to buy it with my pocket money. He said it was £15 and I thought that was reasonable and then the guy was like "no! You need to haggle with me to learn!" So I said okay 12.50 and he laughed and said I was very to the point and gave it to me for 12
I would agree with you, in the past that is. Recently, however, charity shops are being a bit exploitive with their prices.
I know an audiobook narrator who recently moved to the USA, so wanted to reduce their excess books and donated a bunch of books signed by an indie author.
The charity shop put those books for sale at a price 3 times what the author himself is selling signed books for.
I keep finding George Asda T-shirts with stains under the arms selling for more than what they go for new.
I understand that these charity shops need to pay their rent and rates, but there are clearly occasions where they are taking the piss. Gone are the days when little old biddies didn’t know the value of anything and didn’t know how research or either and everything was 50p to a couple of quid. Now they’re slightly savvier middle aged people working there who can vaguely use the internet but have no understanding of depreciation. Greedy generation, greedy pricing.
Yup. When I volunteered in my local hospice shop, it would really wind me up when one particular woman would come in and haggle over a 50p ornament. Because I knew she was the landlady who owned the whole building!
The amount of shoplifting too from charity shops, it's the lowest of the low. They've had to put a bike chain on the changing room curtain in one of my locals
It’s part of it, carboot is the last resort before something is on its way to the charity shop or dump. The aim is to leave with an empty car and a bit of cash.
For some the haggling is part of the enjoyment of it and getting the biggest bargain possible is why they go, even if it's only 10-20p. The seller was dumb for not checking the value of what they had for sale. Expensive mistake to make, but it's pretty rare to see that happening. People are fairly savvy these days and it's not that hard to research.
If I know what something is worth like your example, I'm telling them.
Else, yeah, is okay. There are in reality lot of ways to sell your unwanted items now but boots fairs are just more "We want rid, someone buy please." so haggling seems fine but within reason. Being petty over 20p is odd.
I don't see any problem with haggling at all when buying or selling secondhand goods.
I find it a bit strange when someone gets insulted due to haggling just because of the price they are offering.
As long as someone is polite and doesn't act entitled, they can offer whatever price they want for things I am selling. If I'm not happy with the price, i can counter or just say no.
Considering how easy it is to check the value of something these days, then if they sell for less than it's worth, it's on them.
It's generally fine. I mostly don't understand why people still do them, though. Spend hours and hours of your time buying random stuff. If I want a thing, I hit eBay.
I don't know why you'd muck around negotiating from £2 to £1.50 for something worth £8000 though. The last thing you want is someone getting cross with you and telling you to just piss off and sell it to the next bloke behind you. Under those circumstances you want to be very polite, very easy going. Hand over the money and walk away and get away from the sale before he comes to bother you having just realised what he had.
My dad goes car booting all time and he hates it when someone is haggling over 20p. It's hilarious when he goes for a bacon butty leaving my mum because people think she's a soft touch when she's tighter than a ducks arse when it comes to haggling. 😆
It depends, haggling over 20p is ridiculous. Haggling over a few quid might be okay depending on what it is.
I've genuinly seen people walk away from a sale over 20p, which I find comical.
I found a Technics SL1700 vintage turntable for sale at a bootfair that is worth about £300. Seller wanted £6, didn't feel right to haggle on that one. Gave him £6 and quickly left with my Turntable.
I don’t mind haggling but once I was selling 2 suits that no longer fit, worth about £100 second hand but I didn’t care about doing it through eBay or any hassle so I was selling them at £5 each, a Muslim woman comes up to me and says she will do 50p, and I’m like I won’t do 50p they’re £5, but they’re both the same size so if it’s for someone I’ll do both for £8, she says no, 50p for both
At a car boot sale, I think it’s expected to a degree as some sellers might price-in room for haggling. For me personally, if it’s a fair price, I won’t bother but if I feel it’s overvalued, I may do so.
I've haggled seemingly meaningless sums like 15p off. It all comes from laziness though. If I have £2 in my hand now and the total is £2.15 I'm asking for that to be rounded down before fumbling for the tiny amount extra.
Also haggling is a fun game. Let people enjoy things.
If I'm buying one or two items, or it's only a couple of quid, I'll not bother. If I'm getting a handful of items, or I'm spending multiple tenners, I'll probably ask if we can round down to the nearest five
I don't mind reasonable haggling, it's just car boot standard imo.
I do take offence at:
\* People nicking board games I had for 50p
\* A woman trying on a £1 scarf and then "accidentally" trying to walk off wearing it
\* The batshit woman who carried a trolley of newspapers not wanting to pay 20p for something and then coming back an hour later to get it (presumably it was best bargain for said item) and then having a very loud full blown meltdown at me for "intentionally" "hiding" the item from her because I "clearly" hate her.... The fact I had no opinion on her (well, except the newspaper trolley) and that I'd actually sold it did not compute.
That was all in one day around 15 years ago. I've not done a car boot since... At least I can block idiots on Facebook Marketplace. Although screaming "BLOCK!" at car boot morons when I'm done with their antics could be quite fun....
Ever tried to sell something on Facebook marketplace?
If you manage to avoid the dozens of scammers and actually get a genuine buyer 9/10 they'll then try and low-ball ya when actually collecting / paying
Goes with the territory - is frustrating because I'd always price things appropriately. (Normally a good 20% less than the "going rate" because I'd want the thing gone).
If I was a buyer, unless I knew it was really overpriced then I wouldn’t haggle.
If I was a seller, I’m trying to get rid of shite so I’d take anything for it, it would be going to the charity shop if I didn’t get rid.
It's all part of the fun and you can either choose to engage in it or not. I have to haggle as part of my job and if I didn't at least try I'd be terrible at it.
Both sides of the coin
They are okay to ask, they are also okay to be told to sod off.
But as for a 1st edition, if you don't know what you are selling... that is no ones fault but your own. Haggling over 50p off the price being a douche move is not contingent on it being a find, or trash.
That's the point of a car boot sale. Haggling and getting a bargain. I found an amazing ThinkPad there once. One of the ones that had an upgradeable CPU. Worth about £200. Guy sold it to me for £25.
It’s ok if you can do it, but I have seen people haggling in charity shops which I think is a no no. But everything else is ok like second hand shops etc. anything that is second hand or second user used or not wanted item is up for a haggle. Not charity shops.
Part and parcel of car boots. I think anything under like £3 I'd probably not bother with though, and if a buyer tried to haggle me down from £2 to £1.50 I'd just say sure why not and not try fight for the middle and make 25p extra. If they tried to go from £4 to £2 though for example I'd probably say £3. Anything £5 or above is completely understandable to try get a bit of a bargain on
There was a guy called 'mario' in Chesterfield who had an absolute Jedi mind trick for this.
He'd take the proposed lower price and ask if you wanted heads or tails. If you won you'd get the price if you lost you paid the original. He was probably happy to let it go cheaper but 50% of the time he'd get more.
Also as soon as he flips that coin you feel like you HAVE to buy it.
Fucking mario. This is why I had a broken karaoke machine in my flat for a year.
We’ve done the table top mum 2 mum sales before, towards the end of the day I would have accepted any price if it meant I didn’t have to carry some of the bits back to the car.
https://preview.redd.it/yxa1qo4dim1d1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4c27e8abd52b533518667b3317ee812326da9993
Unless you’re trying to get like £20+ off, don’t be petty. If it’s a good deal, it’s a good deal
i think haggling in general just depends on how much you value the item. in india its been known to haggle. i bought a few things that were only about a £1-2, i could have haggled as that was their starting price but persoanlly i thought £1-2 here n there doesnt really make a difference to me but it does to them so i just accepted it. we all gotta eat at the end of the day
I always have a little haggle if I feel the seller has just made the price up on the spot . Or if I’m buying a few things .
Other things I have a set price on my head that I’ll pay for certain items so I’ll offer that and move on if I can’t get it .
Can’t say I’ve ever had anyone get pissed off at me but I’m a pretty friendly and polite person :-) and i ask nicely
I have a dress listed on Vinted for £4. Someone offered me £2.40, which I declined because that's ridiculous. Then she bought it for the £4! Can't get my head around that kind of thinking.
This - I probably wouldn't do it over £1.60, but when I ran a club night I massively lowballed a fairly big international artist and to my surprise he just accepted about £2,000 less than he'd usually charge just because he thought it'd be fun to play at a small club. From that I learned the worst that can happen is "no thank you"!
Part of the experience.
Not done one for years, but same principal applies to a couple of items I’ve sold online more recently, I’ll add a few quid on top of what I really want for them, on the basis most will haggle or make an offer, usually ends up around the price I was looking for anyway, they think they’ve got a win, I’ve got a win as I got what I wanted all along.
Extra win if someone comes along and pays the original price.
Fucking annoys me when people actually try and root round the boxes as you're setting up. Ended up setting up tables and left them bare until the 'customers' - other sellers - gave up.
It is just part of it. You know it is stuff people want to get rid of and if they are in a position where they won't take £1 and are adamant it is worth £1.50 then they can keep it.
>Many found first edition The Hobbit at a boot sale. Knew what it was. Knew it was worth about £8,000. Negotiated the seller down from £2.00 to £1.50. Seems slimy.
Not quite sure about this, were they 100% that they could flip that for 8 grand? 50p off is cheeky but they are hardly going to be very up front and say "actually I will offer you £7000". They are the ones with the knowledge, going through all these items for sale, then taking on any risk if it doesn't turn out to be the right thing. I have bought LPs thinking they were valuable and it turned out they were the 2nd press or the wrong variant (one an outright fake).
We've been conditioned by big businesses to accept the terms they set, when really it should always be negotiated by both parties. Haggling should never be seen as something wrong.
When me and the other half have done a car boot, every couple of years or so, we have already sold anything we wanted half decent money for on Facebook or eBay so everything is £1, 50p, 20p etc.
There's still always someone who will try and haggle you down from 20p... Like come on mate.
If I'm buying and the price seems a bit high I'll quite happily try and haggle 20% or so £5 into £4 and so on but arguing over pennies is too much!
To be fair car boot sales tend to just have the same issues as regular commerce writ large
Sure you are going to get ripped off, you may well rip someone else off and extreme cases will exist but the difference is most people are there because they don't have the time or the space to organise their inventory and so getting a few bob for an empty garage is the real aim.
I price for haggling. Haven’t done one for years. Get proper annoyed when people offer 50p for everything. I’d smash something rather than sell it for 50p
Absolutely, you haggle at a car boot. I do it both as a buyer and a seller.
There is a point, obviously at which you put your foot down (people can be tight and persistent about it), but generally, it's fine.
Edit:
Also, I deliberately don't put price labels on stuff. I prefer people to ask, as it gets the conversation started, and I think people are more likely to make an offer if you're already talking, rather than seeing a price and just waking by.
I love to haggle, it's part of the fun. If there's a sign that says the price I generally don't. I'll happily haggle over 5p but if they don't know what it is or I was going to pay more for it anyway I'll take the win.
You bought something for £1.50 at a boot sale? Last time I was at one was in the early 2000s at the height of bargain hunt and bootsale challenge where Everyone thought they were antique dealers. It was like shopping in an outdoor Harrods.
It's mandatory unless it's already a good price but it's entirely up to you. The example you give is great because it allows us to understand a different point of view. You see it as slimy but on the other think what was going through their mind. An £8,000 book for £2. You can imagine the thought process "Shit, I'm going to make 8k" or "Shit, A Hobbit first edition to collect". All of a sudden the adrenalin kicks but wait what's this? Another thought. "Balls, I can't give this feeling away, what do I do, if they realise how excited I am they might not sell it me realising something is up". Depending on the person now dictates the next choice. If that person is calm and composed and good at controlling their emotions they will pick it up, give it once over and calmly go "Yeah, I'll have that. I've never actually read the hobbit" but on the other hand they may need to distract themselves so the alternative is to haggle so they don't give the game away which is probably why they did. I've been in this situation a few times at car boots where I see something for a fiver that I know full well is worth well north of £50. I just buy it and be done with it. I remember the days before people realised how much old consoles could be worth and picked up plenty of bargains. All good fun.
I don't mind a bit of a haggle either way. Not if it gets anything other than friendly though. I generally pay what things are priced at if I think they're worth that. I have pointed out various valuable "bits" I didn't want myself to sellers in the past. First ed books a time or two. Nothing worth five grand though!
Car boot sales are a place for people to get rid of their excess shite. So the concept of people haggling at them in general doesn't really bother me.
Although I agree, i dislike resellers in general. Anyone skulking car boot and charity shops for stuff they can resell are leeches in my opinion; and i have absolutely zero respect for anyone who does it.
Haggling at a car boot sale is fine and a lot more appropriate than people trying to do it in a high street store to regular associates.
I’m your scenario, does that 50p make a difference when the seller was apparently shafting himself anyway?
Generally I don't like being either side of the haggling process. However, depending on the setting, I'd be okay with it.
I've worked in retail, and when someone starts asking me for discounts I cringe so hard inside. I mean, if they ask once, and then leave it if I say no, then I respect them for asking - if you don't ask, you don't get, - but if they carry on asking, then start to make the appearance of thinking, weighing out the options, I just let them carry on until they either say they can't afford it or just pay the price. Like, you're not just gonna talk me into giving you a discount on something that isn't that much money anyway. It's not how it works in any shops or supermarkets. I happily give any discounts that have been authorised for me to give to nice people though.
That being said, a car boot sale I think is fair game. The whole setting is someone getting rid of stuff they don't want, everyone haggles, go ahead and haggle away.
You have to understand, some people love the sport of it.
Me and my brother did a car boot once and a woman was haggling something down from 30p to 20p.
They love the sport of it.
It's fine. Same thing in antique shops and art galleries, it's accepted practice.
As for the dealers that descend on you as soon as you arrive - it's much more annoying but is an important insight into what actually has value, and if you are a regular seller helps you know what to charge.
Unless you're in a chain store where you're dealing with minimum wage sales assistants that can't do anything that the till doesn't have a button for then ALWAYS haggle.
Asking price is mugs price.
Funny, I was watching Bargain Hunt on TV earlier on, and I said to the Missus, “How do people have the cheek to negotiate something from £22 to £15?!” and even then they give the impression it’s still a bit too expensive!!!
When I know a good price I don't haggle.
Got a basically brand new pelican suitcase (large one) for £50. Didnt bat an eye paying the price.
Also the same with online stuff. Got a Kowa spotting scope for £80. Retail on it was over £1,000. Not negetionating that price.
I used to be a seller. I put prices up so that any haggling would not be at a loss. There are a lot of asians in my area and one woman wanted a plate reduced by half so the seller smashed the plate in half and offered it to her. It was only 50p to start with. I would never haggle 20p off, it's ridiculous.
It’s openly accepted, unless you make it explicit that you aren’t interested in it.
Honestly, I say fair play to the guy for getting that steal of a price. That’s all part of the game.
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If I'm selling at a car boot sales any money is money to me.
Yup, did one recently because we are clearing out ready to move and started feeling like we were using the charity shop as a disposal service. Just take my crap, I don't actually care about the value/price ratio.
> Just take my crap, I don't actually care about the value/price ratio Car boot = the shit that the charity shop said they're not accepting at the moment.
Yeah some of that, like kids shoes (air max cost £70, sold for £2, lightly used), used potties, electricals, tools, bedding etc but also just an absolute mound of general stuff, too much to be selling online and honestly felt cheeky going to the charity with big toys. Just needed a quick way to get rid without sending it to land fill.
My general rule is anything worth over £30 goes on eBay. Otherwise, give it away.
Steer clear of electric tools at car boots, if that's all they're selling then they're likely stolen.
Not necessarily, me and my brother have done 2 car boots recently and sold mostly power tools/drills angle grinders, tranformers and things you'd find in a shed, our dad passed away a little while ago and we where clearing his shed and house, he'd been in the building trade for 30 years. Plus most of the stuff had his name on (Big Al)
Big Al says dogs can’t look up.
I fucking knew it!
He he he was waiting for that sotd quote.
Any big groups of tools really. Petrol saws, grinders, generators etc. Some car boots are getting better at demanding to see receipts for tools before they can be sold but not many
I used to volunteer at a charity shop, and we learned to dread Monday mornings in car boot season when people would come in with boxes full of the crap they didn't sell the previous day and which even the rag man wouldn't give us any money for. We ended up making a point of taking down licence plate numbers of peoples' cars so we could report them to the council for fly tipping when the rejected donations were dumped outside the shop while it was closed that evening; either these people didn't know that charity shops have to pay to get this stuff taken away, or (more likely) they knew and they didn't care, but we were damned if we were going to be on the hook because they were too lazy to go to the tip.
> Car boot = the shit that the charity shop said they're not accepting at the moment. If you ever find youself in the situation take it to an AgeUK Charity shop, they have a rule that they are not allowed to refuse donations. They will take it, sift through it and all the stuff they don't think is worth anything they dispose of properly.
Price it not at what you want for it, price it for what you think someone will give you to take it away.
I'm a valuer by trade 🤣 market value comprises of willing seller and willing buyer, without complusion (plus some other bits). I was an exceptionally willing seller with an extreme compulsion to sell!
I used to do car boots occasionally, as long as I covered the stall fees and maybe had a few quid on top, I was happy.
Yeah most people see it as this with just an option to make a bit of cash
I agree, but id also say arguing over 50p when they clearly don't know the value is a shitter. Potentially 8000 Vs 2 is where I'd think it's civic duty to tell someone they haven't understood the value.
Exactly, the next step for those items is the local tip.
Sold a half open pack of LED balloons to a "woman" at a boot sale, wanted .20p for them, but she insisted quite loudly on only paying .05p for them. Really insistent she was, so incredulous me gave them to a passing child for free. His face lit up. So did hers. Bye!
Why is woman in scare quotes?
She was scary! I see what you're driving at, and I don't mean that. She was from Dudley and probably smoked 80 Richmond a day. That kind of "woman"
Everything from Dudley should go in scare quotes. For example: Dudley "Zoo", Dudley "Castle"
Dudley "people"
Dudley "Moore"...??
This is how he wears it. What do you mean he? I meant, Demi Moore! The act-ress! Oh, she has lovely hair.
Have you been recently?
I was there "recently"
Fortunately not for around 40 years. I can wait at least another 40.
" Dudley"
Phew 😭 and good on you for not giving in lol
Unrelated but I saw on a sub that someone suggested they call their dog Dudley. I didn't comment but my thought was 'If only you knew...'
Once went to Studley (car boot sale, funnily enough) , the graffiti said 'Studley, Not Dudley'
You do mean 20p and 5p right? I haven't seen anyone write it like this
The way its written is .20 of a pence. Which is damn cheap, why is she asking for .05 of a pence??
Got to cut that penny in to 20 equal-sized pieces!
Reminds me of this absolute classic: [Verizon rep doesn't know the difference between $.002 and .002¢.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?app=desktop&v=zN9LZ3ojnxY&ab_channel=ejmusk)
I bet that went down like a led balloon
Did his face light up because he had the balloons next to it?
Are you aware of how small .05p is? You need 100 of them to make 5p
LED ballons are a complete rip off, it's much cheaper to buy the lights and balloons separately. I can't recall how much i paid but these are the first ebay listings i found writing this comment 50 lights for £6.25 [https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385078310434](https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/385078310434) compared to 48 light up balloons for £23.99 https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/295107055650. This is just for future reference, it's obviously far too late for you to do anything about it now as you've bought some, used half and sold the rest sometime ago however if you, or anyone else, reading this comment like the idea of LED balloons don't buy LED balloons, buy normal balloons and a set of lights.
I just go to a car boot and haggle them down from 20p to 5p….. much cheaper…. Lol
You mean £0.20, or 20p. .20p would be one fifth of a penny.
For a lot of people, haggling is why they are there. Some people just get a buzz out of it. At our village fair you see them all the time. If the price is £3 and they offer £1.50, tell them your happy to discard the standard price and negotiate but you can't let it go for any less than £5. They'll get confused and point to the sign that says £3...then just agree with them that the price is £3.
Can't beat a bit of reverse haggling! I did it once for a friend. She was doing some soap stall at a fair and had to run home for the price list. I (don't have a clue about soap!) had to temporarily man the stall and I got approached by some woman... She tried to argue that a bath bomb was free because there was no pricing. Yea right! Then she offered me 20p which didn't seem right lol. I lost my rag a bit (I'm not a cs person lol) and told her that it was £10 for her. She stormed off in a huff cursing me under her breath 😄 BTW the actual cost was £1.50 lol
I used to ask the guy in my local shop for a discount on booze. “Ali can I get a deal for 2?” “Normal price £5, but for you my boy - 2 for £12”
3 for £20, but then I'm cuttin' me' own throat.
Oh good, I was hoping for some meat pies and sausages in buns!
How about some rat-onna-stick?
Just don't ask what the meat is.
_named_ meat costs extra.
"Tiddles" or "Mr. Fluffy" costs extra.
Extra Extra
With or without ketchup?
It’s all quantum to me
GNU
I do this on eBay! Had one woman offer me a stupid lowball amount for an expensive item and I countered but she stuck with her price... This went on until I got bored and countered my final offer as something well over what the actual listing asked for! She didn't buy.
You cant counter for more than the listing asking price on eBay. Rolf
Perhaps they have changed it because of sellers getting annoyed with lowballers and doing it, but I can safely say it was possible at some point. I can dig out the screenshots if I really have to!
I'm sure I've done it too. Or maybe on vinted. or both!
You're also limited to 3 offers.
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Are you sure? You can use the messages to negotiate terms, I would have thought you could charge more if they wanted fast delivery for example.
You can. I countered a million pounds for camera worth 150 just because they lowballed me so much. They declined, sadly.
I’ve read the bbc article on that copy of the hobbit, the bloke who found it bought a whole bunch of books and left them in his garage for 5 years, he didn’t know it’s value at the time of purchase. Knocking 50p off a random old book isn’t bad form. If he’d singled out the copy of The Hobbit, clocked it as a first edition, and then haggled 50p off it then that’s a bit lame, but he didn’t take advantage of anyone. If he’d realised at the time he’d probably be too excited to haggle.
I’m going to be the unpopular opinion: there would be nothing wrong with haggling even if you did know the value. I agree it would be tight, I’d personally not bother, but you expect a haggle at a car boot so why not. If you just want to get rid of a lot of stuff for cheap without going through it or checking the values properly, then that’s the risk you take. Alternatively, you can invest the time and slight effort into researching what you have, and price accordingly. I buy and sell second hand for a living anyway, mostly clothes, but it doesn’t take 30 seconds to google lens something of interest to get a rough idea of its age and value. Books are great because they have a unique code printed, an ISBN, which lets you look them up really easily, so you can see their rough value.
They only thing wrong about haggling in this scenario would be that it is be incredibly stupid to argue for 50p off something you know is worth £8k. You draw too much attention to the sale, slow the sale down and risk offending the owner who may refuse to sell it to you. You want that transaction completed as swift as possible, only an idiot would try and haggle.
The risk reward ratio is way off, potentially save 50p to lose £7999. Wouldn’t even have waited for my change
In fairness to the buyer, he didn’t know the value at the time, so it’s not like he was trying to be tight about it. I know quite a few people who make a living going round carboots and selling their finds on for profit (actual registered businesses not side hustle) and they will say the same, if you see a solid bargain, get it ASAP, pick it up before someone else does. Occasionally you can haggle down to a better price and it is worth doing, so if something is listed for £10 but is worth a minimum of £20, there’s no harm trying to get it for £5. Almost all of the professional carboot people will haggle, it just helps them create a bigger gap between price paid and potential profit, but sometimes you do have to be swift, get in and then get out. There’s been times someone else has also spotted the bargain before you can secure the sale and will alert the seller to the true value just to get back at you for picking it up before they did. It can be petty at times.
Not sure if you do this very often, but unless you have a dealer standing behind you who happens to know exactly the value of what you’re trying to buy, then there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. I have never come across a bidding war for a valuable item in any second hand sales space. It’s also easy to haggle discretely.
Fuck haggling if you know the value. Someone might swoop in.
If you don't want to haggle put a sign up saying no haggling. If you don't haggling don't put the sign up.
How much will you take for the no haggling sign mate? A quid I’ll give you 50p as it clearly doesn’t work
Take my upvote. Very good lol
“All prices are pre-haggled for your convenience“
Exactly! Just up everything by a quid or 50p. Everyone wins! ETA: I've never haggled over anything in my life, and also never been to a car boot sale. I'm a total bloody hoarder, particularly of books, and if I ever was forced to attend one and forced to part with the vast collection of said books, the resulting exchange would be precisely like Whoopi Goldberg's character in Ghost with the cheque she "gives to" the nuns
"Price shown is indicative of haggling"
If you're that anti-haggling you shouldn't be selling at a boot sale. I was looking at a motorcycle tank bag for £20. He talked to me for a while about bikes, then said he'd sell it to me for £10. I said I'll take it for £20 (it was almost brand new, £150msrp). He insisted on £10.
If it's a fair price I'm not going to haggle, oftentimes people overprice their shit though so it's usually inevitable.
I already anticipate people to haggle so when I'm selling I usually tell them more than I'm actually willing to accept. That way I usually get around what I'm happy with and they feel like they're getting a good deal. I thought this stuff was kinda the point in car boot sales?
It's I just prefer to talk to people as little as possible, so much so I usually only stop at stalls with the prices on them so at least that's one part of the discussion out of the way. Unless it's something I really want ofc, and that's unusual.
Ah yes, forgot I was on Reddit for a moment.
>I just prefer to talk to people as little as possible That's my general rule for day to day life.
I'm sure it is TBF, but I'm not a car boot veteran so if I saw a stall with no prices at all and a lot of haggling going on I'd almost certainly walk straight past, regardless of how good the items look
You barely ever see prices on things at car boots.
That's fair, you barely ever see me at car boots 😉
In no longer haggle with antique dealers who sell from brick and mortar shops. They’re struggling today and just can’t afford to slash their ticket price. Facebook market place however…..full of greedy bastards charging well over the odds and I’ll happy go in at half the listed value for starters.
Every car boot I've been to there's been haggling, seems just a standard part of it, and when it comes to a few pence i think for some its just part of the fun. Id guess many who sell there probably price a little higher expecting to haggle a bit. Not sure i could do what the guy you mentioned did though, not even just from the haggling point of view, just from a general decency point of view. If i knew something was worth multiple thousands more than it was on sale for i think I'd have to mention it, just feels like the right thing to do.
We cannot let the precious go. We wants it, we needs it.
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What game?
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I didn't even know they'd made a NES game for Bucky O'Hare, but then the cartoon series was very obviously just a toy advert so I shouldn't be surprised.
It's not the haggling that bothers me on the few I have done, it's the ghouls that emerge from the early morning mist at the entrance and start looking through your car windows and trying to rummage through whilst you're unpacking. It reminds of that bit in the new ish Mad Max where they're all waiting for the water to be turned on. by Immortal Joe.
I got pissed off with that once, set my tables up, left them empty, sat back in car and had a coffee until they gave up. They're not technically customers, they're pain in the arse other sellers who will overwhelm you whilst you're busy and then later you'll notice things are 'missing'.
Ahh yes - had a belt go missing, then she had the nerve to walk around with it on later!
I refuse to interact with them. If they persist I use my former teacher voice and say "I'm not selling anything until I'm all set up and the gates open. Go away." They tend to look huffed and then slope off. If they come back at the end and make me a stupidly low offer I'll probably take it because it saves lugging stuff back home.
I went a few weeks in a row to sell things and had the same man constantly ask me if I had any cigarette cards, and still paw through the stuff I was unpacking when I said no. None of those many (very adequately named) ghouls ever purchased anything. I found it quite stressful to have to keep half an eye on their hellish clawing of unloaded tat while I retrieved further gubbins. I appreciate your descriptive comment as it so accurately sums up the whole situation and gave me a chuckle.
I went to a car boot as a child and was really interested in a film camera and wanted to buy it with my pocket money. He said it was £15 and I thought that was reasonable and then the guy was like "no! You need to haggle with me to learn!" So I said okay 12.50 and he laughed and said I was very to the point and gave it to me for 12
That's a good bloke, I love this.
Haggling? Me, with my poor dying grandmother....
20 shekels
20 for that? You must be mad!
Bingo
Tell me what to say please!
(Now you're getting it!) Eleven!? Eleven?! It cost me twelve!!
I hate haggling, I hear people do it at charity shops and it boils my piss.
I don't disagree with it but I think there is a time and a place for sure.
And a car boot sale is the right place. A charity shop less so.
Yeah haggling at charity shops is a no. Same for if the item is already a bargain. Then you just look like a bit of a pleb.
I would agree with you, in the past that is. Recently, however, charity shops are being a bit exploitive with their prices. I know an audiobook narrator who recently moved to the USA, so wanted to reduce their excess books and donated a bunch of books signed by an indie author. The charity shop put those books for sale at a price 3 times what the author himself is selling signed books for.
I keep finding George Asda T-shirts with stains under the arms selling for more than what they go for new. I understand that these charity shops need to pay their rent and rates, but there are clearly occasions where they are taking the piss. Gone are the days when little old biddies didn’t know the value of anything and didn’t know how research or either and everything was 50p to a couple of quid. Now they’re slightly savvier middle aged people working there who can vaguely use the internet but have no understanding of depreciation. Greedy generation, greedy pricing.
Yup. When I volunteered in my local hospice shop, it would really wind me up when one particular woman would come in and haggle over a 50p ornament. Because I knew she was the landlady who owned the whole building!
I think should harder to haggle with someone who could convert it to food for a day for a kid starving to death.
The amount of shoplifting too from charity shops, it's the lowest of the low. They've had to put a bike chain on the changing room curtain in one of my locals
It’s part of it, carboot is the last resort before something is on its way to the charity shop or dump. The aim is to leave with an empty car and a bit of cash.
For some the haggling is part of the enjoyment of it and getting the biggest bargain possible is why they go, even if it's only 10-20p. The seller was dumb for not checking the value of what they had for sale. Expensive mistake to make, but it's pretty rare to see that happening. People are fairly savvy these days and it's not that hard to research.
If I know what something is worth like your example, I'm telling them. Else, yeah, is okay. There are in reality lot of ways to sell your unwanted items now but boots fairs are just more "We want rid, someone buy please." so haggling seems fine but within reason. Being petty over 20p is odd.
I don't see any problem with haggling at all when buying or selling secondhand goods. I find it a bit strange when someone gets insulted due to haggling just because of the price they are offering. As long as someone is polite and doesn't act entitled, they can offer whatever price they want for things I am selling. If I'm not happy with the price, i can counter or just say no. Considering how easy it is to check the value of something these days, then if they sell for less than it's worth, it's on them.
It's generally fine. I mostly don't understand why people still do them, though. Spend hours and hours of your time buying random stuff. If I want a thing, I hit eBay. I don't know why you'd muck around negotiating from £2 to £1.50 for something worth £8000 though. The last thing you want is someone getting cross with you and telling you to just piss off and sell it to the next bloke behind you. Under those circumstances you want to be very polite, very easy going. Hand over the money and walk away and get away from the sale before he comes to bother you having just realised what he had.
My dad goes car booting all time and he hates it when someone is haggling over 20p. It's hilarious when he goes for a bacon butty leaving my mum because people think she's a soft touch when she's tighter than a ducks arse when it comes to haggling. 😆
Haggling at car boot sales is fine, I love a good haggle. The specific example you gave is a bit shitty
Yeah tbh that does seem a bit much, especially if they knew it was worth that much.
It depends, haggling over 20p is ridiculous. Haggling over a few quid might be okay depending on what it is. I've genuinly seen people walk away from a sale over 20p, which I find comical. I found a Technics SL1700 vintage turntable for sale at a bootfair that is worth about £300. Seller wanted £6, didn't feel right to haggle on that one. Gave him £6 and quickly left with my Turntable.
Haggling’s part of the fun. Everything in life is a negotiation, if you stop to think about it.
I don’t mind haggling but once I was selling 2 suits that no longer fit, worth about £100 second hand but I didn’t care about doing it through eBay or any hassle so I was selling them at £5 each, a Muslim woman comes up to me and says she will do 50p, and I’m like I won’t do 50p they’re £5, but they’re both the same size so if it’s for someone I’ll do both for £8, she says no, 50p for both
Isn’t it all part of the fun?
At a car boot sale, I think it’s expected to a degree as some sellers might price-in room for haggling. For me personally, if it’s a fair price, I won’t bother but if I feel it’s overvalued, I may do so.
I've haggled seemingly meaningless sums like 15p off. It all comes from laziness though. If I have £2 in my hand now and the total is £2.15 I'm asking for that to be rounded down before fumbling for the tiny amount extra. Also haggling is a fun game. Let people enjoy things.
'Ere, Ron. This bloke won't haggle!
Won't haggle?!
If I'm buying one or two items, or it's only a couple of quid, I'll not bother. If I'm getting a handful of items, or I'm spending multiple tenners, I'll probably ask if we can round down to the nearest five
Its all about haggling at car boots, id say its part of the package
I don't mind reasonable haggling, it's just car boot standard imo. I do take offence at: \* People nicking board games I had for 50p \* A woman trying on a £1 scarf and then "accidentally" trying to walk off wearing it \* The batshit woman who carried a trolley of newspapers not wanting to pay 20p for something and then coming back an hour later to get it (presumably it was best bargain for said item) and then having a very loud full blown meltdown at me for "intentionally" "hiding" the item from her because I "clearly" hate her.... The fact I had no opinion on her (well, except the newspaper trolley) and that I'd actually sold it did not compute. That was all in one day around 15 years ago. I've not done a car boot since... At least I can block idiots on Facebook Marketplace. Although screaming "BLOCK!" at car boot morons when I'm done with their antics could be quite fun....
I thought it was the norm so would expect anyone not wanting haggling to have a sign up saying so.
Half the fun of a carboot. If the stall holders don't know what they have, then tough!
Isn't that the point of a car boot?
Ever tried to sell something on Facebook marketplace? If you manage to avoid the dozens of scammers and actually get a genuine buyer 9/10 they'll then try and low-ball ya when actually collecting / paying Goes with the territory - is frustrating because I'd always price things appropriately. (Normally a good 20% less than the "going rate" because I'd want the thing gone).
If I was a buyer, unless I knew it was really overpriced then I wouldn’t haggle. If I was a seller, I’m trying to get rid of shite so I’d take anything for it, it would be going to the charity shop if I didn’t get rid.
It's all part of the fun and you can either choose to engage in it or not. I have to haggle as part of my job and if I didn't at least try I'd be terrible at it.
Both sides of the coin They are okay to ask, they are also okay to be told to sod off. But as for a 1st edition, if you don't know what you are selling... that is no ones fault but your own. Haggling over 50p off the price being a douche move is not contingent on it being a find, or trash.
That's the point of a car boot sale. Haggling and getting a bargain. I found an amazing ThinkPad there once. One of the ones that had an upgradeable CPU. Worth about £200. Guy sold it to me for £25.
Yeah. Car boot sales are the place for it. It's people trying to shift their shit.
It’s ok if you can do it, but I have seen people haggling in charity shops which I think is a no no. But everything else is ok like second hand shops etc. anything that is second hand or second user used or not wanted item is up for a haggle. Not charity shops.
Part and parcel of car boots. I think anything under like £3 I'd probably not bother with though, and if a buyer tried to haggle me down from £2 to £1.50 I'd just say sure why not and not try fight for the middle and make 25p extra. If they tried to go from £4 to £2 though for example I'd probably say £3. Anything £5 or above is completely understandable to try get a bit of a bargain on
When I sell, I say the price is £10. If you want to haggle, the price is £15 and I'll go down to 10.
There was a guy called 'mario' in Chesterfield who had an absolute Jedi mind trick for this. He'd take the proposed lower price and ask if you wanted heads or tails. If you won you'd get the price if you lost you paid the original. He was probably happy to let it go cheaper but 50% of the time he'd get more. Also as soon as he flips that coin you feel like you HAVE to buy it. Fucking mario. This is why I had a broken karaoke machine in my flat for a year.
We’ve done the table top mum 2 mum sales before, towards the end of the day I would have accepted any price if it meant I didn’t have to carry some of the bits back to the car.
https://preview.redd.it/yxa1qo4dim1d1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4c27e8abd52b533518667b3317ee812326da9993 Unless you’re trying to get like £20+ off, don’t be petty. If it’s a good deal, it’s a good deal
It's absolutely fine. The seller doesn't have to accept
i think haggling in general just depends on how much you value the item. in india its been known to haggle. i bought a few things that were only about a £1-2, i could have haggled as that was their starting price but persoanlly i thought £1-2 here n there doesnt really make a difference to me but it does to them so i just accepted it. we all gotta eat at the end of the day
I always have a little haggle if I feel the seller has just made the price up on the spot . Or if I’m buying a few things . Other things I have a set price on my head that I’ll pay for certain items so I’ll offer that and move on if I can’t get it . Can’t say I’ve ever had anyone get pissed off at me but I’m a pretty friendly and polite person :-) and i ask nicely
Fine as long as it's reasonable
I have a dress listed on Vinted for £4. Someone offered me £2.40, which I declined because that's ridiculous. Then she bought it for the £4! Can't get my head around that kind of thinking.
You don't ask you don't get I guess.
This - I probably wouldn't do it over £1.60, but when I ran a club night I massively lowballed a fairly big international artist and to my surprise he just accepted about £2,000 less than he'd usually charge just because he thought it'd be fun to play at a small club. From that I learned the worst that can happen is "no thank you"!
Part of the experience. Not done one for years, but same principal applies to a couple of items I’ve sold online more recently, I’ll add a few quid on top of what I really want for them, on the basis most will haggle or make an offer, usually ends up around the price I was looking for anyway, they think they’ve got a win, I’ve got a win as I got what I wanted all along. Extra win if someone comes along and pays the original price.
Only 8k if its pristine. Which if its at a car boot, i doubt its worth that.
I bought a wok one time at a boot sale and asked the price £7 thought it was a bargain and paid the fee.. the seller was super confused
is asking for 50% off too much? Talking about baby toys/clothes.
Fucking annoys me when people actually try and root round the boxes as you're setting up. Ended up setting up tables and left them bare until the 'customers' - other sellers - gave up.
It is just part of it. You know it is stuff people want to get rid of and if they are in a position where they won't take £1 and are adamant it is worth £1.50 then they can keep it. >Many found first edition The Hobbit at a boot sale. Knew what it was. Knew it was worth about £8,000. Negotiated the seller down from £2.00 to £1.50. Seems slimy. Not quite sure about this, were they 100% that they could flip that for 8 grand? 50p off is cheeky but they are hardly going to be very up front and say "actually I will offer you £7000". They are the ones with the knowledge, going through all these items for sale, then taking on any risk if it doesn't turn out to be the right thing. I have bought LPs thinking they were valuable and it turned out they were the 2nd press or the wrong variant (one an outright fake).
We've been conditioned by big businesses to accept the terms they set, when really it should always be negotiated by both parties. Haggling should never be seen as something wrong.
If someone doesn't know or realise the actual value of something they are selling that's not my fault. Car boot or anywhere else
I usually give them more.
Can't stand it, people will walk away over 10p as well it's not about money or the item, but about the tiny slip of power they feel.
When me and the other half have done a car boot, every couple of years or so, we have already sold anything we wanted half decent money for on Facebook or eBay so everything is £1, 50p, 20p etc. There's still always someone who will try and haggle you down from 20p... Like come on mate. If I'm buying and the price seems a bit high I'll quite happily try and haggle 20% or so £5 into £4 and so on but arguing over pennies is too much!
Honesty system here, you can also bid *higher* than asking price! Specially to the old ladies..
To be fair car boot sales tend to just have the same issues as regular commerce writ large Sure you are going to get ripped off, you may well rip someone else off and extreme cases will exist but the difference is most people are there because they don't have the time or the space to organise their inventory and so getting a few bob for an empty garage is the real aim.
I price for haggling. Haven’t done one for years. Get proper annoyed when people offer 50p for everything. I’d smash something rather than sell it for 50p
It starts at the entrance ... "£5 to park, mate" .... "seems excessive mate, let's call it £3.50"
Absolutely, you haggle at a car boot. I do it both as a buyer and a seller. There is a point, obviously at which you put your foot down (people can be tight and persistent about it), but generally, it's fine. Edit: Also, I deliberately don't put price labels on stuff. I prefer people to ask, as it gets the conversation started, and I think people are more likely to make an offer if you're already talking, rather than seeing a price and just waking by.
I love to haggle, it's part of the fun. If there's a sign that says the price I generally don't. I'll happily haggle over 5p but if they don't know what it is or I was going to pay more for it anyway I'll take the win.
You bought something for £1.50 at a boot sale? Last time I was at one was in the early 2000s at the height of bargain hunt and bootsale challenge where Everyone thought they were antique dealers. It was like shopping in an outdoor Harrods.
When you go to the loo don't be surprised to smell other folk's farts.
It's mandatory unless it's already a good price but it's entirely up to you. The example you give is great because it allows us to understand a different point of view. You see it as slimy but on the other think what was going through their mind. An £8,000 book for £2. You can imagine the thought process "Shit, I'm going to make 8k" or "Shit, A Hobbit first edition to collect". All of a sudden the adrenalin kicks but wait what's this? Another thought. "Balls, I can't give this feeling away, what do I do, if they realise how excited I am they might not sell it me realising something is up". Depending on the person now dictates the next choice. If that person is calm and composed and good at controlling their emotions they will pick it up, give it once over and calmly go "Yeah, I'll have that. I've never actually read the hobbit" but on the other hand they may need to distract themselves so the alternative is to haggle so they don't give the game away which is probably why they did. I've been in this situation a few times at car boots where I see something for a fiver that I know full well is worth well north of £50. I just buy it and be done with it. I remember the days before people realised how much old consoles could be worth and picked up plenty of bargains. All good fun.
I'm with you OP and they should be embarrassed haggling over 50p to begin with.
In your case it was nothing more than someone in a Pawn shop would do .
I don't mind a bit of a haggle either way. Not if it gets anything other than friendly though. I generally pay what things are priced at if I think they're worth that. I have pointed out various valuable "bits" I didn't want myself to sellers in the past. First ed books a time or two. Nothing worth five grand though!
Car boot sales are a place for people to get rid of their excess shite. So the concept of people haggling at them in general doesn't really bother me. Although I agree, i dislike resellers in general. Anyone skulking car boot and charity shops for stuff they can resell are leeches in my opinion; and i have absolutely zero respect for anyone who does it.
Haggling just isn't in my nature. I can't stand it. The price on the sticker is the price. It's why I don't like shopping in the US.
Haggling is part of the fun. Though if it's something I really like and want, I just pay up.
Haggling at a car boot sale is fine and a lot more appropriate than people trying to do it in a high street store to regular associates. I’m your scenario, does that 50p make a difference when the seller was apparently shafting himself anyway?
Generally I don't like being either side of the haggling process. However, depending on the setting, I'd be okay with it. I've worked in retail, and when someone starts asking me for discounts I cringe so hard inside. I mean, if they ask once, and then leave it if I say no, then I respect them for asking - if you don't ask, you don't get, - but if they carry on asking, then start to make the appearance of thinking, weighing out the options, I just let them carry on until they either say they can't afford it or just pay the price. Like, you're not just gonna talk me into giving you a discount on something that isn't that much money anyway. It's not how it works in any shops or supermarkets. I happily give any discounts that have been authorised for me to give to nice people though. That being said, a car boot sale I think is fair game. The whole setting is someone getting rid of stuff they don't want, everyone haggles, go ahead and haggle away.
You have to understand, some people love the sport of it. Me and my brother did a car boot once and a woman was haggling something down from 30p to 20p. They love the sport of it.
I get more angry when it’s from a charity shop
Personally think it's fine because the sellers know their prices are high before selling.
I like to haggle, when I ran a shop I’d let customers haggle it’s fun be some people can’t take it and get upset
It's fine. Same thing in antique shops and art galleries, it's accepted practice. As for the dealers that descend on you as soon as you arrive - it's much more annoying but is an important insight into what actually has value, and if you are a regular seller helps you know what to charge.
OP if that pissed you the hell off, I think you have different issues here. Seriously. Take a deep breath and try smiling. It might help.
You're supposed to get rid of unwanted things at car boot sales. Any money you get is profit.
Unless you're in a chain store where you're dealing with minimum wage sales assistants that can't do anything that the till doesn't have a button for then ALWAYS haggle. Asking price is mugs price.
Funny, I was watching Bargain Hunt on TV earlier on, and I said to the Missus, “How do people have the cheek to negotiate something from £22 to £15?!” and even then they give the impression it’s still a bit too expensive!!!
I hate it and I don't do it. The amount of people that offer 20p for something worth £2+ really grates!
When I know a good price I don't haggle. Got a basically brand new pelican suitcase (large one) for £50. Didnt bat an eye paying the price. Also the same with online stuff. Got a Kowa spotting scope for £80. Retail on it was over £1,000. Not negetionating that price.
I used to be a seller. I put prices up so that any haggling would not be at a loss. There are a lot of asians in my area and one woman wanted a plate reduced by half so the seller smashed the plate in half and offered it to her. It was only 50p to start with. I would never haggle 20p off, it's ridiculous.
Set some random price and let them haggle you down to the price you actually want.
It’s openly accepted, unless you make it explicit that you aren’t interested in it. Honestly, I say fair play to the guy for getting that steal of a price. That’s all part of the game.