Today's Boot Fair Bargains

[HighlandTiger]

After a few posts with the Mad Hatter, I thought I'd start a new thread where we can posts any little bargains we come across at boot fairs or flea markets. Although I'm not in the MH's league, I didn't do too bad today.

 

Todays tally included a small box of GB coins which I got for £3.00. Although due to the fact there was a modern 50p in the box which the vendor did not notice, this makes the box only £2.50. There were 5 silver coins. 2 pre-1920 .925 weighing 12.5g and 3 pre1947 .500 weighing 13.8g. For a total value at current prices of.£6.91. A little profit of £4.41.

 

But my piece de resistance was a pair of 1858 sterling silver tongs, made by Joseph II & Albert Savory in London. (Great fun trying to research the hallmarks online). Cost £9.00. weighing in at 49.4g for a value at current prices of £17.10. Another nice little profit of £8.10.

 

Ok, my petrol costs today probably wiped out any real profit, but I probably would have gone out in the car anyway. Right Mad Hatter it's over to you.   

 

 

[watchesandwhisky]

good score there buddy:) those tongs are worth more than scrap so really your profit margin is higher! my day was not so fruitful today, woke up at 5am and headed for the early morning boot sale, could not find any silver at all from what I could see, picked up a pair of small practika binos for 40p, some speed stacking cups for 30p, and a chef from south park keyring in packing for 20p. (I really do pick up some random crap if i feel i can flip lol) Went home. 

 

Then at 10am went to another boot sale, again really slim pickings, bought a ring marked 10k for a quid but it turns out it was fake (if its dirt cheap I will just buy and move strait on to next item), only thing I found was a 7.8 gram silver chain what I paid £2 for. 

 

End result today im down because of fuel costs.

 

-£7 

 

Cant win em all though wish I could!

 

Good idea for the topic:)

[HighlandTiger]

The daft thing about the tongs, was the lady had £15 tagged on them, and before i could even think of a counter bid and without even speaking to the lady, she piped up and said "you can have them for 10 quid, they are silver you know". I thought well you know it's going to be your day when the sellers are haggling prices down for you already. I said Give you £8 and we settled on £9. I grabbed and ran. Wish it was this easy every weekend 

 

 

Oh and todays buys have put me just over the 100 oz of silver. I've got 100.47 oz t. to be exact. Yeehaaa. i'm a proper stacker now

[watchesandwhisky]

Hehe that always helps sometimes people just need sales badly and dont want to lose you as a buyer. Ever tried metal detecting? Similar buzz

[HighlandTiger]

I had a cheap metal dectector decades ago when I was a kid. I think they are a bit better now. All I ever got was bottle caps. I'll stick to my bootfairs, flea markets and antique fairs. You can always find something. You've just got to be discplined not to over spend on any one item.

[watchesandwhisky]

They can be so much better ,had great fun with mine last year and pulled up 7 gold rings including one that was 18ct and weighed 8 grams,does help to live near a beach though.

Same buzz as finding a bargain really,its like a drug for me and almost as addictive lol.

Agree with that you can always find something, though it does make me laugh when people are asking higher prices than ebay !

[Danny-boy]

I used to metal detect at the beach when I was a kid.

This was at a time when cornetto wrappers contained metal, got very boring after a while!!!!

[watchesandwhisky]

Lol i can imagine! Ring pulls are themain problem fir me,for every bit of jewelrey i find i must dig hundreds of bits of rubbish/coins lol.

[Danny-boy]

I'd love to have the time to go detecting, I reckon a decent detector would pay for itself fairly swiftly.

A decent rig seems to be about a grand.

I guess it's all about land, and I know a fair few people with lots of land.

[Ares]

The real kicker is research, the people who strike the best finds have researched the land & its history.

 

e.g if you devote say 100hrs to looking, you'll find more if you spend 90 hours researching where to look and why than spending 100hrs detecting worthless farmland which has only been farmland for thousands of years.

 

But this has wandered a bit OT from boot sales

[watchesandwhisky]

A grand is about right for a top of the range setup, 350 for a more than adequate one

Sorry i put my hands up there lol, it is wandering OT..

[Keithoil]

Back in May I spent around 6 hours at two boot sales and got absolutely jack nicks.

 

Except on the way out I got a London underground £2 coin for my coin hunt collection, these sell on eBay for around £4-6.

[garthy]

I often see guys metal detecting down at the thames when the tide goes out, You can hire them from HSS hire, I've often fancied getting one for the weekend and having a go.

[Kman]

I often see guys metal detecting down at the thames when the tide goes out, You can hire them from HSS hire, I've often fancied getting one for the weekend and having a go.

 

I watched this the other day

 

 

Looked bloody horrible metal detecting on the thames lol. 

[garthy]

Cheers Murray enjoyed that, but yeah as you say metal detecting on the thames looks well grim, and with all those rules and regulations I think I'll give it a miss, shame as I bet there's some great old gold and silver coins down there waiting to be found.

[HighlandTiger]

Todays Bootfair bargain was.......................................sweet bugger all. Couldn't find a thing that interested me. Bought an ice cream, and got sunburnt

 

I'm wondering if madhatter got up at 3am to start working my patch and got all the decent stuff.

[watchesandwhisky]

same here lol couldn't for the  life of me go sleep last night due to the heat so ended up sleeping about 3am and slept through my 5 am alarm, woke up and went at 7 but any deals were long gone, did pick up a new pair of shoes for a fiver and what i think is a ww2 fist weight, sort of like a nicer version of a knuckleduster lol.. ? il post a picture, bought it of a lady who said it was her grandfathers and it was from the war, but i dont have a clue what else it could be. was 50p so what the heck it might just be nothing. 

 

silver picking nil, some weeks great and some weeks a lost cause, the buzz of a good find makes up for it though:)

[Danny-boy]

So you need to go proper early to get the good deals then?

I didn't realise it'd be quite that early!!!!

What time do they usually admit the public?

[watchesandwhisky]

So you need to go proper early to get the good deals then?

I didn't realise it'd be quite that early!!!!

What time do they usually admit the public?

 

Yes deffo, good deals will picked out the moment they hit the table and there will always be at least a few other people there for the sole reason of obtaining gold or silver they can find at the right price, its massively competitive and you have to get stuck right in, Quite a bit of luck involved but you quickly get an eye for who is a dealer and who is a member of the public having a clear out. 

 

Entry times vary from sale to sale, some let the buyers in same time as the sellers, some let sellers set up for an hour first then let in buyers, these type sales buyers dont have a chance because dealers buy any decent stuff before the public gets in, so i pay my pitch fee, sell a few bits of junk and get an hour buying before the public..if serious thats essential.

[HelpingHands]

The real pros go early, buy the good stuff and sell it on their own stall later on at the same boot sale.

[StackemHigh]

Auction houses and car boot sales. Any good ones near you?

 

Always looking for a bargin?

 

What should i know when silver hunting at an event?

 

Spot price is an easy one.

[HelpingHands]

-Careful with things that might be filled or weighted with some other metal (eg. candlesticks).

-If there's no deal there's no deal. It might be tempting to overpay just because you've made the effort to go searching.

-Hallmarks.

[Keithoil]

Found this in among some old junk, now I used to buy old necklaces from the boot sales for the beads for fishing eons ago could have come from there. Anyhow it weighs 4.55g, and is 19.3mm diameter.

 

Looks like it could be the real thing.

[watchesandwhisky]

Not a bad result for me today! no silver..however some stuff thats almost as good, i bought a "euro collecting" folder that has a total of 27 euros in it for £2?? im really confused to this one but il take it and exchange it. and ps3 games and controller, this can be taken to CEX for instant cash, spent out £7 and CEX buys for cash £23 so a result there, also i bought some warhammer figures and paint for £2, estimated resale £10/15 on the bay. a gale center speaker £2 estimated resale £7. 

 

so no silver but once I have flipped this lot I should be able to get about 3 ounces. 

 

Thats one thing you sometimes have to do, if no silver try and buy other things to sell at profit and then buy silver with the proceeds lol.

 

Will be going to another sale at 10am but dont expect to find anything.

[watchesandwhisky]

second bootfair 34 grams sterling for £7.50 and a pair of silver and amber earrings for three quid. Took the ps3 stuff to CEX so got 23 back on that, and was able to exchange 21 of the 27 euros for £15.80, they only accept 1 and 2 euro coins, so im left with 7 euros of small coins.

 

Overall a great day carbooting! more silver would have been nice but its just not always there.