How do you Find car boot sales?

[stytagm]

Does anyone know of a big Car Boot Sale within driving distance of North London? I randomly feel like visiting one tomorrow, but I don't know where there are any near me.

For reasons beyond my control I'll be out in the car at 6:15 amand free by 6:45, so I could set off pretty early to get a look before all the best junk goes.

I'm not really going for anything, I've just never been to a big car boot sale, and am vaguely interested in old computer tat (console games especially) and manky antiques that could be modded into fun stuff.


Edit - Found this website: http://www.carbootjunction.com but it's not very detailed, and hard to tell if some of the sales have started yet (a lot of them are summer only).

[jamin]

Theres a couple of big ones on Sunday near Basildon in Essex, ones just off the A127 at the Wickford (A132) turnoff and the other is on the A13 junction with the A130 (Canvey, Saddlers farm. The big cluster of 5 mini roundabouts) but I'm not sure that one is on when the ground is wet. Not sure they are on on Saturday though.... Pitsea market (Pitsea turnoff A13 )is open every sunday as it is on a hard surface. Give www.thisisessex.co.uk a whirl and search on events...

[Howard]

I only know of one off the A3 near Guildford, it's great, I do like to go there and peruse through old rubbish

[excalibur2]

Does anyone know of a big Car Boot Sale within driving distance of North London? I randomly feel like visiting one tomorrow, but I don't know where there are any near me.

Edit - Found this website: http://www.carbootjunction.com but it's not very detailed, and hard to tell if some of the sales have started yet (a lot of them are summer only).

Big one in a field near the Denham roundabout on the A40, but starts IIRC on March 24 weather permitting.

[kickstart 1]

Sorry dont know of any in your area , but i find them advertised in papers and newsagents windows,( bye the way dont know about there, but 7 o clock ish isnt early !!!!!)

[Rave]

The back of the local rag is the best place to look, there are usually a good few advertised in the back. Round here people seem to have given up on the 6am starts, we don't usually roll up until after 10 and things are still in full swing then. There used to be a brilliant one about a mile from us which didn't start until 11am but it got so popular all the people in the surrounding streets complained. Last year we mainly went to an enormous one just by the junction of the M20 and the M25 (Pedham Place I think it's called), although further up the A20 there's a good one at Flamingo Park in the summer once the football season has finished. None of these are much use to you of course.

Pedham place is probably the equal in size of (or could even surpass, I suppose) the legendary one that used to take place every Sunday at the Lewisham Centre multi story carpark. 8 floors, packed right to the top open air floor most weeks. I had some top buys there, including some great old cameras and a Mega-CD system with about 25 games and the pukka arcade controller for £50. I bet there are a lot of boot sale afficionados round these parts who still mourn its demise (which I think was because the Lewisham centre decided to start opening on Sundays).

I've been getting the itch to start going again recently; now I only get two sundays free a month I plan to make good use of them. We might start taking our own car (erm...once I've bought one), we usually go with my father-in-law and my wife's uncle, but they're round the place so quick that we don't get much time to root through all the piles of old records and books- which is the point, IMO. They mainly seem to go for the pirated mucky films.

[stytagm]

Well I completely failed this week, but I'll remember to actually pick up the paper and have a look for another week. I might be able to sell the idea to my GF just on the strength of old books.

Cheers guys - Andrew

[Stewart]

we usually go with my father-in-law and my wife's uncle, but they're round the place so quick that we don't get much time to root through all the piles of old records and books- which is the point, IMO. They mainly seem to go for the pirated mucky films.

Rave, I'd have thought a legendary tightwad like you would have niped that in the bud long ago.

Point your wifes uncle in the direction of a few Torrents with a pile of blank CDs, and he can download Dirty Ginger Nurses for nowt.

Who pays for porn in the 21st century?

* - Torrents is illegal, copying discs is illegal, don't be illegal.

[Steve B]

You're memory allocation at the bottom does not have a pointer...

[Agent]

You're memory allocation at the bottom does not have a pointer...

Geek

[Rave]

Rave, I'd have thought a legendary tightwad like you would have niped that in the bud long ago.

Point your wifes uncle in the direction of a few Torrents with a pile of blank CDs, and he can download Dirty Ginger Nurses for nowt.

Who pays for porn in the 21st century?

* - Torrents is illegal, copying discs is illegal, don't be illegal.

It's true that my tightness is legendary, but they're such a family of technophobes that I can't even persuade them to ditch their ancient Toshiba DVD player that won't play most of the discs they buy. "But it cost us £200!". Yeah, about 6 years ago. I think their family PC is a K6-2. Chances of persuading them to get BB= nil.

stytagm, books should be a definate draw, my wife has had loads, including several of the ones she needed to complete her collection of Agatha Christies, and loads of film books etc. At the big sales there's often a van or two selling stupidly cheap fruit and veg, so take some bags- take some anyway, come to think of it. Personally, I mainly go for vinyl (and to a lesser extent CDs), games, and old electronics. I tried to get myself a slow cooker last year but all the sellers wanted too much for them. I'm half tempted to score an Amiga or an Atari ST this year, just 'cos I never had one as a kid, but I'm not sure where I'd put it:/.