Featured Car Boot Sales: a guide for aliens.

I've seen piles the length of a city block, usually by the time the city comes to clean it up it's done with push brooms.

 

anundverkaufen, no one minds if people start poking though the piles?

 

I'm guessing the etiquette is to leave the pile at least as neat as yuu find it.

 

Not once did I see anyone getting upset for picking through the piles, although I've seen people fist fighting for stuff.

 

Only if there is anything left after the frenzy.

 

lol, yes I can see fights happening over the right stuff when it is free.

I just wondered if people would get upset for someone going through their trash.

 

I left a pile at least that big on the sidewalk/grass strip outside my last home the day I moved out. There were already pickup trucks lined up down the street as we drove away.

 

I preferred the wealthier neighborhoods for obvious reasons and I did get the occasional "stink eye" in those areas but never asked not to.

 

Wealthy neighborhoods.....hehe.....
One day a guy dropped in my shop, with an Inuit framed print he just got out of a yard sale ...in that 'wealthy neighborhood'.....said he paid $60......I told him it was worth $ 600 to $800......happiest guy to ever leave my shop....without having made a purchase !!! hehehe!!!.......sigh...

 

Hi,
When I was working in Paterson NJ, it was a wealthy neighborhood that went down the tubes. I would see huge solid mahogany and oak doors being crushed in the trash trucks as well as stained glass windows etc. When I was taking the train I could not save much but when I started driving, whoo hoo. I found an eight piece set of cast iron garden furniture. I filled the car, went to work unloaded the stuff to my office and drove back for the rest of it. This was all on three streets goodness knows what I missed on the other blocks.
greg

 

you musta had a big office ....and understanding staff !!

 

Or a happy staff if you shared!(LOL) We have heavy trash pickup days here every two weeks. There are still people who go cruising for stuff, and I have friends who furnished a house that way. One time we put an old TV out by the curb, and sat it on some logs my dad was planning on splitting for firewood. Next morning the TV and firewood were both gone. Flea markets here are regulated. Car boots sound like a lot more fun, more like an oversized community tag sale. You're apt to find a lot of cheap kiddie tat at those, but I've also scored Japanese wood block prints, fine jewelry, and genuine antiques at knockdown prices. You never know - one tag sale I went to pulled out grandma's jewelry hoard at 12 noon, well after most hard core buyers are long gone.

 

And hopefully a bigger take! There were precisely four tag sales within reach of me this weekend. One started yesterday - skipped it. Spent $29 combined at the other three.

 

Here in Ohio we have a fairly active flea market scene. After the pandemic I hope to start shopping some more flea markets as I try to further broaden my horizons and attempt to eventually make a business out of my hobby of collecting.

When I was growing up my grandfather was a vendor at a large flea market in Northeastern Ohio held at a county fairgrounds every month from April to October. He was an estate auction regular after my grandmother passed away and needed something to pass the time and got into buying lots of stuff and then reselling. I don't think he ever really turned a substantial profit and he definitely wasn't a "professional" who put much effort into researching items or developing their own niche but despite this I believe he had a lot of fun socializing with the other resellers and customers. I really enjoyed going to the flea market during my teenage years and purchased some of the items that were the beginning of some of my current collections there.

The flea market in the early 2000s had approximately 300-400 vendors each month and charged about $30 per 15 by 30 outdoor spot which was good for both Saturday and Sunday. They had smaller spots in a variety of fair buildings which were slightly more expensive for a 10 by 10 stall. I remember that thousands of customers would come out every month ready to spend and this was a big event in a small city.

The vendors always had a variety of merchandise; some had higher end items including antique stoneware, glassware, art pottery, baseball cards, and coins while others had your typical flea market junk from overseas and various store closeout/clearance type items. A couple of coin dealers always set up, which I enjoyed as child and there was always a old lady with hundreds of pieces of Roseville pottery priced at absurdly high levels and who rarely sold more than a piece or two per month.