Advice on organising a Car Boot Sale

grind gremlin

I am considering orgaising one of these to raise money for charity.
Can you give me any tips / advise on what to do / avoid when organising one.
Do you need to get permission form the Guards?

Judgement Day

As far as I know Garda permission is not needed but you will need the following:

A venue with public liability insurance.

Car parking and toilets.

A guaranteed number of sellers (your friends, contacts etc.) otherwise you will end up with an empty venue and a bad reputation if you go to run other events.

Don't allow vans.

Plenty of publicity.

Stewards.

Avoid clashing with any major sporting event.

I'm sure somebody else will be along with more suggestions.

Anthony O Brien

@Judgement Day
Why no vans?

dmcronin

No LARGE vans perhaps? To encourage 'amateur' rather than 'professional' sales persons??
Maybe if there's large vans, slap on an appropriate entry fee?

Anthony O Brien

My point being that from an organisers point of view if 40 large vans turn up @€;20 that will be €800 before they open the gates to the public

The idea behind it is to raise money not to have a nice little bootsale

@grind gremlin
You dont need permission from the guards of a permit from the council once the event is being held on private grounds
You should write a letter or try to meet with the local sargent to inform of your intentions
You should also contact the council for permiission to put posters up on the roadside of the surrounding areas and there are different rules for different areas

Judgement Day

You may do well filling your boot sale with 50 Hiace vans @ €20 a pop, selling toilet rolls, dodgy electrical goods and bootleg DVDs but once word gets out you won't get many buyers turning up.

Anthony O Brien

ill give you two examples of bootsales which both started in the south of Ireland about ten years ago

One allowed all types of sellers in and grew in popularity with both the sellers and buyers very quicky

The other one, you had to ring them to book a space, so they could sus you out on the phone, there model was they wanted a traditional bootsale with nice old dears clearing out there house

Both venues were the same in size

Both venues were held once a month

Both charged the same admission for both buyers and sellers

The venue where you had to ring up had much more paid for advertising

The first one that allowed everyone in was set up raise money for a local church renovation

They've made so much money since they could build a new church

Word have mouth has spread that its the largest bootsale in munster and they get a massive crowd every month of both buyers and sellers

The other bootsale lasted about three months, the organisers stopped because it wasnt worth their while, the reason was that they werent getting enough sellers and the buyers stopped comming

I can see from your point of view as a buyer you wouldnt like going to a bootsale if there are lots of people selling new stuff, but ive been on all sides - buyer/seller/organiser I cannot see the reasoning behind not allowing vans, theres just no logic to it, the op asked for advice on how to raise money not how to have a nice little bootsale to suit a minority when you can aim to a much larger amount of people by having both new and old stuff

Greaney

I organize a fundraising boot sale (with a pretty good rep) once a year. I do it because there were no boot sales in my area and I love 'em!

My tips...

1) You don't need 'permission', just from the landowner. (We've used church car parks etc. obviously with permission from the church, but not the law.

2) Since it's for charity (or in my case a sports club) they should have 'fundraising' on their insurance policy (it's the norm) and you're covered.

3) You can't do enough publicity, Local newspapers, internet, facebook, text everyone you know and tell all your mates, email them the poster and ask them to put it up at work. Get the members of 'the cause' to hang one poster each and get the club/charity members to turn up on the day for 'bodies'.

4) Getting seller's isn't too hard, the buyers are tough to build up so make sure that you have a few boards (I paint my own... they work) saying Carboot sale, date and location, on the road the week before. All approaching roads to the town.

5) An oul tea and cake stall will make you an extra E100!!;) I do face painting at mine too!

6) On the day, get there about 15 mins earlier than the sellers, wear a high viz vest so they know you're 'in charge', Have a change pouch.

7) Don't stress too much, most carbooters (even those with vans) are pretty okay and they'll figure it out. The reason to charge vans a bit more is, they are pro and you want too encourage the amateurs 'cos their stuff is cooler and cheaper whereas the pros take up two or three 'pitches', their stock is expensive and it's usually tat. But yes, I let them all in.

8) Finally, bring a few bin bags to clean up after and don't forget your boards on the road.

You can make anything from 300- 900 Euro, but remember, PUBLICITY!!!!!

Finally, I usually let the local Guards know. One year I had a few unsupervised kids from a certain community (not with any traders) and they were a pain.