One Man’s Rubbish, Another Man’s Treasure!

I have a good friend, A, who has more than a passing interest in clocks, watches...indeed, anything that goes tick-tock (you can check out his blog). He’s been finding car boot sales are a great, cheap source of old clocks and broken watches and has been trawling the booty down London way this summer. He spent last weekend visiting us (together with his long-suffering and very tolerant wife), so we thought we’d peruse the boot sales in our area...a whole new experience for B and me, as we’re really quite naive about the car boot scene. We were quickly shown the ropes by our hardened bargain-hunting friends. Turns out it’s quite acceptable (even expected) to haggle a bit over the prices and best to appear completely uninterested in an item you are just dying to get your hands on....possibly come back later as sellers may let things go cheaper at the end of the day rather than lug them back home again.

And we weren’t the only ones out bargain hunting on a sunny Sunday morning. Apparently, in recession-hit Britain, car boot sales are at an all-time high. The sharp bite of the credit crunch is prompting people to clear out their homes to make some much needed extra cash, while savvy shoppers hope to pick up goods at a knockdown price. There were loads of sellers and buyers out on Sunday and the early birds do seem to get the good bargains.

Visiting a car boot sale can certainly be a lucrative activity. Last November, a 12 cm vase by French designer René Lalique was bought at a sale in Dumfries. It later fetched £32,500 at auction at Christie’s. And earlier this month, an antique dealer picked up an ornate piece of wood at a car boot sale in West Yorkshire that may well be a 1,300-year-old artefact from the Crusades....the door of a tabernacle, a box used to carry and protect sacred texts, carried by the Knights Templar. If its origins are verified, the unusual item is expected to go under the hammer at Christie's in December.

We weren't quite so fortunate, but nevertheless, two boot sales and four hours of hard bargaining later, we came away with...

• Seven (!) decrepit clocks and a pocket watch for A’s ever growing collection


• A fun kiddie’s clock for the nursery of imminent mini A


• Several books (including some beautiful, brand new leather bound children’s classics that will find their way into my niece’s Christmas stocking)


• A lovely old brass plate for B and my hallway table (perfect for holding keys and other odds n sods)


• A touch of sunstroke (in our haste to grab a good deal we bounded out the house into one of the hottest days of the year without any type of sun protection or water), and


• An old map of Bedfordshire that includes our village and other locals...a reproduction of one drawn by Robert Morden in 1695, that can still be ordered as reprints today for £30. The copy we bought is fairly old itself...we reckon around 1950s/60s as it’s very faded and musty-smelling, which kind of adds to the appeal...but with a new mount and frame, it will look great hanging up in our newly decorated hallway.

All in, a good day’s entertainment for under a tenner....we may just be hooked!