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Updated March 2026 · 6 min read

Car Boot Sale Tips: How to Find Profitable Items to Resell

Car boot sales are one of the best sourcing opportunities in the UK. Hundreds of sellers in one location, all pricing things to shift quickly. A Sunday morning at a decent boot can produce £100+ in profit from a £20-30 investment. Here's how to do it properly.

Timing Is Everything

The early buyers get the best stock. If gates open at 7am, be there at 6:30. If the boot allows "early bird" entry for a premium (usually £3-5 extra), pay it. The items with the biggest margins go in the first 30 minutes to people who showed up before everyone else.

Many boots have a separate seller entry time - typically an hour before the public. Experienced resellers sometimes pay for a seller pitch just to get in early, even if they're not selling anything. The cost of a pitch (£8-15) is easily recovered from the first deal you find.

What Sells From Car Boots

• Video games: anything PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo. Retro games especially. A box of PS2 games for £5 can contain individual titles worth £10-20 each.
• LEGO: loose bags, complete sets, even minifigures. LEGO is the safest bet at any boot. It always sells.
• Branded clothing: Barbour, North Face, Superdry, Nike, Ralph Lauren. Quality jackets and coats are commonly underpriced because sellers just want them gone.
• Children's toys: Schleich animals, Sylvanian Families, Playmobil, Brio trains. Parents pay full price on eBay for specific items their kids want.
• Small electronics: tablets, headphones, speakers, cameras. Test them if possible. Working electronics have strong margins.
• Vinyl records: not every record, but first pressings, rare labels, and certain genres (jazz, punk, psych rock) fetch serious money. A quick scan separates the £1 records from the £40 ones.
• Board games: complete, sealed, or vintage games sell well. Check nothing's missing before buying.

How to Work a Car Boot Efficiently

First pass: scan the tables. Walk briskly through the entire boot, scanning anything that catches your eye. Don't stop to negotiate or chat - identify the good tables first, then come back. This takes 15-20 minutes at a large boot.

Second pass: buy. Return to the tables with the best stock. Now scan properly, check prices, negotiate, and buy. You've already seen the whole boot so you know where the deals are.

Third pass: end of day. If you're still there at 11am, walk around again. Sellers who are packing up will accept much lower offers to avoid taking things home.

Haggling the Right Way

Car boot sellers expect haggling. It's part of the culture. But there's a right way to do it.

Be friendly first. Chat, browse their table, show interest. Then ask "what's your best price on this?" or "would you take £X?" A smile gets better prices than a poker face.

Bundle deals work. "I'll take these three for a tenner" is more appealing to a seller than negotiating each item down by 50p.

Know when not to haggle. If something is already priced at £2 and it's worth £30 on eBay, just buy it. Trying to get 50p off a £2 item risks annoying the seller and losing the deal entirely.

Carry small change. Having exact money speeds up transactions and often gets you a better price. "I've only got a fiver" is a legitimate negotiation tactic.

Scanning at the Boot

The resellers who make the most money aren't the ones with the best eye - they're the ones who check everything. Your instincts will improve over time, but in the early days, scan anything that looks like it might be worth something. You'll be surprised what's valuable and what isn't.

A pricing tool that shows sold eBay data (not just asking prices) is essential. What someone is asking for an item on eBay is irrelevant - what it actually sold for is the only number that matters for calculating your profit.

After the Boot

Get your stock listed on eBay as soon as possible. Photograph items in the car park if the light's good, or do a batch at home. The faster you list, the faster you sell.

Track your results: what you spent, what you sold for, which categories performed best, which boots had the best stock. After a month of Sundays, you'll know exactly where to go and what to look for.

Finding Car Boots Near You

Check CarBootJunction, CarBootSales.org, and local Facebook groups for listings in your area. Some boots run every weekend year-round. Others are seasonal or occasional. Build a calendar of your local boots and rotate between them.

Indoor boots run through winter when outdoor ones stop. They tend to be smaller but the quality of stock is often better - sellers with valuable items prefer the indoor setting.