Right, I'm not bothering with the local car boot sales any more. I got to the car boot sale an hour early to set up - 7 tables there in total. Looking at the contents of the other (regular I think) tables, I thought, oh oh . . . what a load of tat. I sold 5 things, all at a loss, but needed rid, especially the little Chinesey inlaid table I'd bought. That went half price, but I had no need of it and touching up damaged bits with Blackboard paint the day before had done it no favours. A lovely lady with her daughter and mum came along as we were packing up, and browsed my box of sewing charts etc and I did her a really good deal on several things as she was the right person to have them. We had a lovely chat about children and sewing.
Tam and Rosie came along later, and went to Greggs to get a late breakfast for us. Rosie was as good as gold, bless her. I am getting much better at packing the car (channelling Keith again - he was brilliant at it). After the boot sale we went to Aldi so Tam could do her weekly shop, and I spent the grand sum of £12.64! Then I nipped to Tesco and got two bags of the expensive cat biscuits the girls insist is the ONLY thing they will eat. At least they were on offer. I resisted a newspaper, magazines (just took a photo with my camera of a recipe I might try), chocolate, sweets. Wasn't I good?!
I didn't unpack yesterday - it was too hot and muggy when we got back, with very high humidity. Tam and Rosie are back home now but I'm going over this week to see them, get two more v. cheap t-shirts from Matalan - hoping they have the pretty green colour in the stripey one I got last week - and have asked Tam if we can visit Hafod, an estate now owned by the National Trust, which is about 10 or 15 mins' drive from her, and was a grand dream which pretty well bankrupted the chap who had the dream. It is an organized landscape with deliberate vistas, follies, walks. I remember a lecture about it when I was at Uni, and there was a book, Peacocks in Paradise, about it and the Johnes family.
I won't have to cook tonight, as I bought a stir fry mix and two good sized chicken breasts at Aldi. So I can have the other half of that for my meal tonight. The other chicken breast went straight into the freezer. I never got around to making the Rhubarb and Custard cake over the weekend, and it's pointless making it with only me here to eat it, so I will quickly cook up the rhubarb and freeze it to make the cake when I have a houseful again. Saturday ended up being a bit full-on with sorting out old stock to make one box of £5 pieces. At least I've got it organized now.
I need to start listing some of the many old auction catalogues we've bought at Malvern down the years. Keith always believed that you can't have too much information and we always learned from these catalogues, even though much of the stuff was unlikely to ever be within our remit! I will keep the furniture ones - such wonderful things from specialist country house auctions - but the militaria and tribal ones can be listed on Ebay or put on my stand at the Antiques Fair next month. I need to start listing the books of Keith's I'm not keeping too. The Richard Bebb ones on Welsh furniture (signed copies) are listed for £85 with Abebooks/on Ebay. That would be handy. Some of his militaria books quite desirable too, and a little out-of-print book on Sheffield knife makers is worth a similar amount. One on Bayonets sells at three figures! I just need to sit myself down and start selling.
It's currently 1/4 to 4. I've been down an hour or so now as I was suddenly wide awake. I may put a loaf in the breadmaker so I have good fresh bread for breakfast.
What a disappointing boot sale. All that work for a poor return. I've never been on the selling end of a boot sale but did take part in neighbourhood garage or yard sales in America. It was the thing on a Saturday morning to drive around the 'hood at ungodly o'clock looking for tables laid out on people's drives hunting for bargains with breakfast on the way home around 9 ish from a drive through. Good luck with eBay and other outlets.
ReplyDeleteThe yard sales sound a much better way to "shop" and perhaps sell too. I can remember following, briefly, a woman who made a job of going round yard sales looking for stuff to sell on. Some of the stuff on offer! Ye Gods - 2nd hand Willy Measurerer anyone?!!!
DeleteSorry, one "er" too many in measurer. . .
DeleteFresh bread sounds good - my stomach is rumbling just thinking about it 😀
ReplyDeleteLike you say the money for the books would be useful, good luck with your ebay sales.
Alison in Wales x
It smells very good, I have to say. Just waiting for it to cool . . .
DeleteI MUST start the Ebay sales today. Right now, my brain is very tired though so I think I will have a nap first . . .
Car boots can be very variable..is there some sort of grapevine to find the best ones to be at.. without visiting them all to find out?!
ReplyDelete3am is a waking hour..I usually do something small just to justify being awake...them go back to go to sleep to the radio on low! On the other hand you have given the day a really good start!!
The Carms ones were MUCH better. Here, everywhere is SO spread out and you only get bigger/busier car boot sales near towns. My friend Pam said that the boot sales had changed since Covid - reckon she's right.
DeleteThey certainly have..as you said..a lot of tat
DeleteCar boot sales here are very big this year, due to an even bigger one in Essex no longer running but all the same people selling all the same tat every week. I've found nothing of interest and haven't even bothered going many weeks - haven't even found books!
ReplyDeleteHope you can get a goodly amount for those specialised books.
I grew up in Aberystwyth. I remember Hafod before they tidied up the ruins. It's still magnificent. I think my love of art was shaped by the memorial to his daughter now outside the National Library of Wales.
ReplyDeleteThank you for your blog. Thank you for taking us with you on the last few weeks. Honest, sad, uplifting, you are amazing.
Round here BB there is a site called Nextdoor - one registers on it and then can post about blocked roads or trees down, floods etc but people also sell and give stuff away. I’ve got bit from a lovely lady who was selling her mums things after she had died, she took photos of several items grouped together and people just replied with what they’d like.
ReplyDeleteYou go and collect it yourself so if you did this - if it exists in Wales- you could list prices etc and people come to you to pick it up! No running around or posting. So much easier. Hafod looks amazing , do take photos! Danette xxx
Or Facebook marketplace? Not sure how safe it is having strangers in tho. Woman alone etc. lizzy d
DeleteCar boots can be very hit and miss, the best ones to do are always right at the start of the season when everyone has been missing visiting them all Winter, and other regular dealers are looking for fresh stock.
ReplyDeleteWe only every took things we really didn't want to bring home with us to car boots, and let things go at ridiculous prices towards the end. But you have things of much greater value, so that's a bit harder to do.
Just another thought..is Hafod the one linked to the holy grail in legend?
ReplyDeleteIf so, I had a stall at an art and craft fair there before the renovation..I remember a rose growing inside through a window frame and blooming. It was a successful fair as well
Maybe the car boot sale was bad timing? Even at the height of my flea marketing visits I never went in July or August. Tho of course it is very hot here, plus beach traffic. Anyway, maybe check out the small sales again in the Fall, like October?
ReplyDelete