themoneyshed
Up until recently and the launch of places like eBay and Amazon, the best place to grab yourself a bargain was always the good old Sunday car boot sale; it was also the best place to sell any unwanted items. You’d be up at the crack of dawn to head to a muddy field in your wellies for a stroll around to see what treasures you could find – my first bike came from a car boot sale. If you wanted to sell your items, you’d load the back of your car and pay a few quid to try to flog it but nowadays with websites such as Amazon, eBay and Gumtree, people don’t need to leave the comfort of their own homes to find a bargain. This completely strips the fun of finding a good bargain as you can go to the site, type in the search bar what it is you want and it instantly appears for you – well, www.onlinecarbooty.com is here to bring you all the fun of a good car boot rummage from the comfort of your sofa.
Online Car Booty are the UK’s number one weekly online car boot sale, with a new sale starting every Sunday at 3pm that runs all week. Booters and Sellers are welcome to browse and sell on their virtual car boot sale, just like they would for a traditional car boot sale; only from the inside their warm and dry homes.
Booters
It is quick, easy and free to register with Online Car Booty if you are interested in browsing the aisles of your local sellers in the search for a bargain. During the weekly sale you can chat to the sellers to ask them about their items and even join in for a bit of haggling – just like you might at a regular car boot sale. All stalls are displayed ‘Nearest first’ so people in your area see all their local stalls first, making it easy for collection. You can refine the aisle you want to look at by using what they call “Booty Vision” – this greys out any item that isn’t in the category you selected and highlights those that are so if there is a specific type of item. There is no search bar function so like a traditional car boot you have to actually go treasure hunting. PayPal is the recommended form of payment as this covers the buyer, any other form such as cash is purely at the buyers own risk.
Sellers
Stalls start from £3 for 10 items and go up to £8 for 100 items, you can even add a red tablecloth to your stall for £1. Payments are taken by PayPal or card before 3pm on a Sunday and once the stall is booked, the seller can start to set it up. There are no final seller’s fees and every stall receives a tombola ticket. Sellers are free to advertise their stall on places such as Facebook and Online Car Booty will even provide them with a poster to print out and hang in places like shops. The booters are able to ask sellers questions and chat about each item, including the chance to haggle. Sellers can add p&p to their items and Online Car Booty recommend that sellers use collectmyparcel.com for all their postage needs. They also recommend using PayPal to take payments so sellers need to take into account PayPal fees when listing prices.
Charity Stalls
Charity stalls are free to set up and come with a 100 item stall. When setting up a stall the seller needs to list it as “Just Giving” and then add their JustGiving link, this will direct buyers to their unique site to make their payment.
Agents
Anyone is free to become an agent for Online Car Booty. The role of an agent is to advertise stalls on the website in their local area. For this, the agent will receive 80% (minus PayPal fees) of every stall they sign up in their area; their area being defined by the first two digits of their postcode. It is based
on a first come, first served basis as there is only room for one agent per postcode. Potential agents pay a yearly fee of just £350 or £200 for 6 months and would advertise in their local area by whichever means they can. You can reserve your postcode for seven days by placing a £50, non-refundable deposit. Ways of advertising can include social media, blogs, posters, newspaper advertisements, car stickers and shop adverts. Payments are made weekly, after each sale has finished. As the site gains attention, you will ultimately have to do less advertising to see the same results.
An example of potential earnings:
If you attracted 100 stalls from and they paid an average of £5 per stall you would receive 80% of £500 = £400. If this figure stayed the same each week for that year you would be taking £400 x 52 = £20,800 per year. You need to allow for PayPal fees.
There is no refund should you fail to attract sellers to the site and unless you do anything that is against the T&C’s of the agent agreement, you should be offered to renew your contact as the local agent each year rather than it being given to another interested party.
The website is very easy to use with everything set out clearly. Initial registration and stall set up is quick and simple. As well as the website, Online Car Booty offers an Android app on the Google Play Store which makes managing and browsing a stall even easier when you are out and about during the week. Apple or other device users can take advantage of their mobile site.
The Online Car Booty site really is great if you love all the thrill of a good car boot treasure hunt but don’t want the hassle that comes with the very unpredictable UK weather or the early Sunday morning rises.
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