See above, then, for my latest moneyspinning equation, which all points in the direction of: A car boot sale. You know, those dreaded early morning affairs, which evoke images of caffeined-up old gunners frantically rooting about through the back of your vehicle and offering you half what they really would pay for something they don't even actually want (hello, this stereotypes me in the Topshop sale, although I never haggled...maybe I was missing a trick?!) or even need, but will buy, just because, you know, its there and maybe they can sell it themselves later at an inflated rate. I don't really mind about that, because, as has come to my attention lately, I Have A LOT Of Clutter. And so, at 5.45am this morning, I set about preparing myself to single handedly take on the hoardes of bargain hungry barterers, and partake of my very first (and solo effort) car boot sale attack.
I had the fear, I won't lie. I managed to get there fairly early, about 7.35, and then once I'd ascertained where to park, went about setting up shop. I learned early on of my first (of many) rookie mistakes: 1) close the actual car boot as soon as the stock you wish to sell is out of it, otherwise you get old codgers actually ferreting about in your trunk. Seriously. 'How much for the tyre inflator?' 'Erm, hands off grandpa, thats not even for sale.' Honestly. I think it was actually more my fault for leaving it in there, to be fair, but I swear, these people are more shopping starved than I am! Cripes.
Once I had got everything out of the car and onto the blanket I'd brought ( I did have a table but was slightly unsure how to get it in the car, so I left that for the next boot sale I do, where hopefully I won't be on my tod) it was surprisingly easy. People came, looked, picked things up, bought things, it was all fairly nice. There was even a rush on at one point, I couldnt take the money quick enough. Which felt quite nice, considering all I was selling was a bunch of guff I didn't even want any more. The sun shone down, it was lovely. I realised my error masquerading as rookie mistake number 2: I hadn't brought a chair, but since I was approximately about a quarter of the age of pretty much every other seller, I figured it would do me good to stand for a couple hours. Although, a seat of some kind is pretty imperative, and I'll remember that for next time.
After about an hour or so, it also dawned on me that I'd not only failed to eat breakfast, in my hurry to get super sellin', I'd also not remembered to bring anything to eat OR drink. Which wouldn't have mattered, until the whole convergence of elderly sellers surrounding me began to crack out bottles of water, thermos flasks of tea, and cheese sandwiches wrapped in greaseproof paper, like they used to do in the 40's. Suddenly I was starving, had a raging thirst, and couldn't even leave the car to go and buy something to munch on (it would have been counterproductive anyway, since the point of the exercise is to try and earn me money). Still, I soldiered on.
At about 11 O'clock I decided enough might have been enough, and in a last ditch effort to garner a little bit more dosh I knocked everything left down to 50p to get shot of it. It kind of worked, I still had a little bit to bring back but hardly anything really, and that constitutes my charity shop pile now. In total I made just under £25, so it was a worthwhile exercise. Now, I could in theory go and buy those shoes I want, but since I'm going to try and be really good, I'm going to resist them, and return to my theory of shop-avoidance, at least until my overdraft shoves off. So that is how I spent my saturday morning, and I'd do it all again in one hot minute (but take a chair and something to read next time).
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