Car Boot Sales – Are They Environmentally Friendly?

Car boot sales are popular in Britain and they are growing in popularity in Australia and parts of Europe. A car boot sale is a kind of market in which private sellers set up ‘stalls’ to sell a range of goods such as clothes, household goods, garden goods, books and toys. Sellers may be professional people who make a regular income and pay tax on their earnings or they may be people who simply want to sell some of their old unwanted goods. Items for sale may be new or second-hand.

Like Roaches picking at each other’s trash?

Car boot sales are generally held in car parks, school grounds or other community buildings and usually take place on Saturday or Sunday mornings. Sellers normally pay a small fee for a pitch and entry for the public is either free, or there is a small admission charge. Haggling is common at car boot sales as there is generally no fixed price for items. Anyone can sell at a car boot sale whether they are an experienced seller or someone who has never set up a stall before. Each year millions of pounds are spent at these informal markets.

Wanna haggle?

Selling at car boot sales is a good way of getting rid of your unwanted items. Rather than simply throwing the item out in the rubbish, from which it will probably make its way to an already overfull landfill site, recycle it by selling it on to someone else and make some money at the same time. Buying from car boot sales is also a good way of reducing your carbon footprint. A surprising amount of energy and water is required to manufacture goods such as furniture. Demand on resources has doubled over the last 40 years and if we are to move to a more sustainable life-style then repairing and re-using items has to be part of it. If you purchase a second-hand item then it means that it does not get thrown away and of course the resources to make the item have already been used so it reduces resource usage as well as waste. In addition if you are buying items such as vintage furniture you will get an interesting item that is not widely available. A wide range of goods can be sold at car boot sales. The most popular items include books, CDs, clothes, toys and household goods.

This is the aim - we want a nicer environment

If you want to find a car boot sale in your area look in one of your local newspapers. The paper will give details of the location, opening times and the person to contact if you want to rent a pitch. You can also check the internet or just simply ask around to find out where one is being held. If you are new to car boot sales then you will need to research your prices beforehand. It is a good idea to visit a few car boot sales to get a feel for the prices that people are paying for goods. Alternatively you can check prices on eBay.
Generally speaking you will probably be able to get 10% of the original price, so don’t expect to make a fortune. eBay is probably a better bet for selling branded goods or collectibles, while car boot sales are good for selling children’s toys, tools and items that are difficult to describe accurately online.

Erm - how much for the book pile on the left?

On the day you need to remember to dress warmly if the weather is cold and arrive early to make sure that you have plenty of time to set out your stall. The final thing that you need to be aware of is your legal status. If you buy new or second-hand goods to sell on at a car boot sale then you will be considered a trader by HMRC and you will be subject to tax. If you are simply selling your own unwanted items then you will not be considered a trader. If in doubt you should contact Trading Standards and they will be able to provide you with more information.

Make sure you fill out your taxes correctly!

If you are buying goods from a car boot sale there are certain issues that you need to be aware of. Goods sold at car boot sales rarely come with guarantees and there is no way of testing electrical goods. In general the rule of car boot sales is ‘caveat emptor’ or ‘let buyer beware’. Legally if a seller gives a false description of their goods they are required under the Trade Descriptions Act to either replace the goods or give you a refund. Signs such as ‘No refunds’ or ‘Sold as seen’ have no validity in law. However, in practice you may find it difficult to find or contact the seller after the sale. You should also be aware that the sale of counterfeits is not unknown at car boot sales. Stolen goods and pirated DVDs or videos, the quality of which may be dubious, may also be on sale.

Beware Pirates…

Despite these caveats car boot sales can not only be an environmentally friendly way of recycling your unwanted items they can also be a fun day out for the whole family. So it seems like a win-win situation. However, there can be objections to car boot sales. If the car boot sale becomes very large and it is located on a pleasant green area then it can cause environmental damage to the site. If parking at the site is limited then cars parked in the surrounding streets can be a nuisance to local residents. A councillor in Peterborough called for a popular local car boot sale to be shut down because he claimed that the cars damaged the grass, cracked the pavements and created noise. The councillor said that he had received complaints about the car boot sale from many of the local residents.

If it’s too big it could have a damaging affect

Perhaps BBC Oxford has the answer to this. The radio station holds a virtual car boot sale which allows listeners to advertise items that they no longer want. An attempt is then made to match up the item with a buyer. Their website carries an up-to-date list of all the items on offer or listeners can advertise for items that they want. No money changes hands, but it does benefit the environment and saves people money.

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