The Journey's First Stop

What can I say?!

Saturday was the Wraysbury Indoor Car Boot Sale. We’d seen an ad for it a few weeks back and both of us got very excited. There are stalls or tables for rent at church fairs and things but they are always SO expensive. My church fair runs £25 for a table – I know it’s for my church but considering how much you’ll probably make it doesn’t seem worth it. So when we saw this one for £5 we jumped at it. All I needed to do was sell one pair and the stall would have paid for itself.

 

Neil decided to get rid of some “brick a brack”, he brought along a collection of pottery he’d collected, some cool shot glasses I think I sister would love and even a cool glass fish that looks like it belonged in my Aunt Pearl’s crystal collection. Then Neil decided to make some marmalade, he’s done a lot of stalls at fairs and such and he said it’s always a draw. It is yummy!

 

So we went to the indoor car boot sale. There were over 20 vendors there. Some selling old rubbish, some selling cool vintage tools and stuff, some selling DIY essentials, some selling DVDs. The lady next to us was selling natural household products that I think my friend Pam would appreciate like laundry detergent, deodorant, smoothie and drink mixes. None of the vendors sold too much. In the end one of the vendors started giving things away to the other vendors. The man next to us yelled out he’d take any offer on his cool vintage tools and stuff. I really wanted the set of optics he had for sale but Neil wouldn’t let me get it; he said “I can’t afford to stock it”.

 

I’d never been to a car boot sale before. The day before Neil started having reservations about it. Part of me wish we’d pulled out then. People go to car boot sales to buy old tat and rubbish. They don’t go looking for new things. I wanted so badly to start talking to everyone who walked up. I did talk to a few people, which made them walk away before they got a good look. Neil said English people do not like a hard sell. I don’t know what’s hard about being friendly and courteous. The clientele in Wraysbury probably aren’t interested in repurposed or upcycled jewelry anyway. I had several ladies stop and look, a couple even asked questions. One said to me "They are very nice but I wear the same jewelry every day" and "I don’t like to stand out anymore". And when I watched the ladies walking around the sale I noticed a lot of them didn’t even have pierced ears. 

So, what can I say? I took it as a huge blow. I’m trying to decide if I should even carry on doing it. But maybe it’s like Neil said; this was just the wrong market and the wrong audience. The Car Boot sale was heavily publicized on Facebook but that’s all. They didn’t even put up signs in the village or send out fliers. Also as the lady with the natural products said the village is very cliquey, which I have experienced myself and Neil has had to deal with his whole life. I think that played a big part in it too. She said I would do better at the Christmas market so I may give it another try; especially since I just invested in my Christmas designs for this year.

So we shall see how the journey moves on from here.

*** As a side note I just want to thank my dear friend Pam for being an inspiration to me. I hope your next journey is as successful as your previous one. Go with your heart! Thank you for sharing your beauty with us.