I'm a bit of a carbooter and I've read heaps of the posts here. I have to say, publicity for car boot sales, by and large, is cronic. I've posted one that a mate of mine organises on
www.bootflea.com (good site). Carbootsrus is very out of date and there's some misinformation. I also think that most organisers aren't very good with a computer. Usually sellers know where the carboot sales are before the buyers. I was in Flanclare and it was packed with terrific stalls on a beautiful sunny day.... no buyers... one woman stopped at my stall, said she loved carboot sales, only lived a couple of miles down the road and didn't know it existed. Folk at the neighbouring stall said that when they stopped at a garage near by the folk there said they didn't know if it was still going on. Bad publicity is killing carboot sales before they've taken off. I had traveled over an hour for that one; thank goodness I brought a few facepaints!!
Thing is, if you push the publicity they're a great fundraiser. I organise an annual fundraising carboot sale in Galway. I do heaps of adverti*****t and it goes down well. You can make €500 to €1000 on a sale if it's got lots going on. I recommend a tea and cake stall (it can take over €150 even at a not so busy carboot sale) and some facepainting. I've been asked to help organise more, they really are in demand bigtime.
I had started a wee website called
www.carbootireland.com because I found I was trawling through half information on sales. If people could post the phone numbers of the organisers (or an email) to clarify that the sale is really on, that'd be great (came across some annoyed folk when I phoned them from the carbootsrus site, they were either wrong phone numbers and were plagued by calls, or were two years out of date).
Anyway there's also a group on facebook, carboot Ireland. Ye're great keeping the posts going on this. Carboot sales are already getting more popular what with the credit crunch and consumer hangover from the last 10 years. Keep them going