Tuesday Photo Challenge – Junk

They say that one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.
We found that at car boot sales.
When we were selling the cottage, we wanted to revamp our kitchen and also increase the height of the front fence, but didn’t have the money to do it.
So we joined the Car Boot craze and went through everything we possessed, putting to one side things we hadn’t used for a year plus, things no longer needed, clothes that didn’t fit (not many!) books (well over 100), plumbing fittings, even our old front gate found its way into the car and we got a fiver for it.
Over a period of six weeks, we raised almost £600 which was more than enough to do what we wanted with a little bit left over.

We had a lot of fun and couldn’t unload our wares fast enough as people came up ready to barter in the hope of getting a bargain. Everything we sold was in good working order, some of it, like sheets and towels, were still in their original wrappings, and we’d bought an ‘A’ bench for the garden but never put it up, so that was also still in the packaging.

Obviously there were the traders which spoilt it a bit from the usual Joe Public and a few unscrupulous scoundrels selling electrical goods that didn’t work or misleading in their description regarding size or condition.  Several would arrive early and leave their colleagues to set up whilst they did the rounds to other sellers, picking what they wanted to sell on their own stall. One guy bought something from us for a few pounds and tried to get £20 for it. It was still for sale when we left.

As buyers, we’d barter and having little to no spare money when we first got together, we did all our Christmas shopping at car boot sales.
In later years I bought a drop down kitchen table for £2 having knocked it down from £4, an ali-baba laundry basket for £2  though we nearly ended up with 2 as Hubby saw one as well and I just managed to stop him, and a few other bits and pieces for our home usually for pence rather than pounds.Hubby and I collected hedgehogs at one stage, and I was given the little guy on the left of the top picture as a birthday gift from the girls at work one year. It was one of a set of six, so I was thrilled to find another at a boot sale for £1, though I never found the other four and the set was discontinued.
The two in the lower picture were not of the same quality but again Car Boot Sale bargains for 50p. We still have them all, plus a few others though from different places.

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