Saving money news
Car boot prospectors rake in millions
12 September, 2007
One man’s trash really is another man’s treasure with Brits snapping up hidden gems worth a combined £890 million more than they paid for them at a car boot sale.
But we don’t always strike gold. Indeed every year 2.4 million car booters spend some £64 million on items they don’t use, or that didn’t work. The most common white elephant items, citied by 33 per cent, are CDs and DVDs that never get played.
Worryingly, a further 30 per cent found electronic items they’d purchased to be faulty – these included computers, stereos, vacuum cleaners and TVs.
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Recent research from Halifax Home Insurance revealed one-in-four second-hand electrical items failed a standard safety check and were deemed unfit for use.
A quarter of respondents have purchased board games that never get played, a ffth bough plants that died and clothes that never make it out of the wardrobe complete the top five fool’s gold purchases.
Pitching up to car boot sales appears more popular than ever. 29 million British adults have attended a car boot sale in the past five years, splashing out an impressive £1.1 billion per year between them.
More than 15 million Britons actively sell items at car boot sales at an average rate of once every 2.5 years. A further three million hard core sellers carry out at least one sale per year.
Amazingly if car boot sellers were to be paid for their time they would receive a whopping £600 million each year!
Vicky Emmott, senior manager of Underwriting at Halifax Home Insurance, said: “Britons like nothing more than snapping up a bargain, and with all those TV programmes devoted to turning trash into treasure more Britons seem to know what they are looking for.
“If you do happen to pick up a bargain it’s worth notifying your insurer to make sure it is covered against any loss, theft or damage.”
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