The GC member Carboot sale

There are many references to GC members, growing plants for sale at Carboot sales etc. Can those who do this perhaps add a post with their experiences of this?

What do you grow specifically for sale, how many do you take along and at what size, for how much?

I would like to be able to sell a few plants, not to make oudles of money but if it pays for the compost I buy or some of the seeds then it will help me greatly.

So, spill the beans! (into a tray and cover with compost etc).

Steve...

 

Hi Steve,

Usually Beans, Tomatoes, Herbs, Strawberries, Aquilegias, Forget me nots, Squashes.

Usually charge 25p a pot, thats governed by what the others are charging.

Make sure you have enough stuff to look like a plant stall though, if you've only got a few pots in with all the other stuff they tend to get overlooked.

Produce will sell quite well too.

 

This is a brilliant idea Steve.
I always thought about joining a boot sale but never could think of anything to sell because something like toys they are finished in like seven days with my kids and clothes i have barely the essential and same for the housegoods.
If i don't use something I don't keep it.

But your idea of selling plants -which one can grow from seed- is brilliant! (I will investigate about this)

I can tell you as a customer in a boot sale what I would like to see...
carrier bags suitable for whatever you are selling.
Also some board listing the varieties that you are selling with the prices so if you are busy talking to a customer for example one can already have an idea if there is something he/she is interested in.
Also it would be nice to have a special deal, maybe a few different plants already packed together for those who cannot decide what they want.
As for what to sell, just look what people buy from your local nurseries supermarkets etc I don't think it would be the same everywhere.

 

If anyone has access to the coffee machine them used cups make good pots for selling stuff on saves on the outlay for 500 pots!

 

I buy the floppy polythene pots from 2 wests & elliot. I also raid the pot recycling skip at the nursery.

 

Trying to talk my daughter into doing some to help her fund raise for her World Challenge trip, so:


Beans - runners, french or both?

Tomatoes - standard cordons like Moneymaker, or will the likes of Sungold or Tumblers sell better/attract a premium/not sell?

Herbs - what sells best, curly leaf parsley or flat leaf?

Strawberries - I deliberately stuck a load of semi-fresh manure around those in one bed last year as it's supposed to suppress fruit but encourage runners and I've got hundreds of rooted runners. I assume start selling small and carry on potting up/increasing prices?

Squashes - is it best to stick with courgettes or will the likes of butternuts, custards, etc. sell well?

Flowers - What about sweet peas? I got thousands of saved seeds (seed saving can be compulsive).

 

Its ages since I sold at a 'Car-Boot', but I found that perenniel herbs - thyme, chives, sage, rosemary went well. Also perenniel flowering plants, aquelegia, alchemilla mollis and so on.

With any selling it is always important to pay attention to presentation - clean looking pots, bright bushy plants, no weeds popping up in the compost and clearly labelled.

Re: sources of suitable pots, both Lazydog and Zigs suggestions are good, also it is always asking on 'Freecycle' as almost anyone with a garden accumulates pots and would be happy to see them used rather than just chuck them

I don't think you should expect to make a fortune though, after paying the 'gate money' (our local CB its £12 for sellers), add your petrol getting there and perhaps a cup of tea etc., so you have to sell a lot of plants at 30p - 50p just to get your outlay back - Anyway Steve, best of luck - let us know how you get on.

 

I've tried selling plants at carboot sales and been succesful, but you need to do a bit of research because I've found that at particular sale people want things for next to nothing where as in another area people are quite happy to pay good money for quality plants :thumb:

As well as carboot sales I did really well on Ebay last year, I sold over 50 (as many as I could get going) oranges, lemons & grapefruit seedlings, as well as a few canna, passion fruit, lychee, everything except the canna which were surplus to requirements came from supermarket fruit. The oranges and lemons sold for between £2 and £6 each but most were nearer to £2 each; which for something that I'd grown from a pip is great. Didn't make a fortune but it more than paid for compost etc for the garden :thumb:

I had really good positive feedback from all plants sold, some even getting in touch months after to say the seedlings I sold are growing on really well and they'll be keeping an eye out for more plants which I might sell; so I will be selling some on Ebay again this year :thumb:

 

Now I feel like I really should look into this...

 

I tried selling plants nearly 5 years ago at our favourite bootsale. I only sold one plant, the place was rammed, people were looking but no one bought anything except one guy at the end bought a foot high musa basjoo for £5.

I think I was asking for too much money in hindsight but I don't really want to do it again. I prefer buying the plants from the bootsale rather than trying to sell my own. Perhaps one day I will try again.

 

That is the trouble with bootsales, not many folk are willing to pay the going rate. I've had people trying to get plants off me for 20p, like that will cover time, compost, petrol & entrance fees.

 

Did anybody else get into a feeding frenzy when Wilkos sold these pots off cheap a couple of years ago?

72 x 80mm pots for 25p and 96 x 60mm pots also reduced to 25p per pack. I only bought a few packs of the 80mm pots as I've a source of free 3" pots, but got over a 1,000 (11 packs) of the smaller 60mm ones @ 96 for a pack of 25p as I thought they'd come in handy one day, perhaps for individually sown bean/sweetcorn seeds etc.? Found them whilst sorting out the greenhouse today:

 

hi jane,ive never sold plants on a carboot but i love chesterfield market on may day,you can buy toms, peppers,loads of varieties of mint,herbs and any amount of plants from local growers pretty cheap ..i love buying