Car boot prospectors rake in £890 million

One man’s trash really is another man’s treasure according to latest research from Halifax Home Insurance. Indeed over the past five years 5.6 million Britons (12%) have snapped up hidden treasures at car boot sales, which they now believe to be worth a combined £890 million more than they’d paid for them.

Fool’s Gold

But Brits don’t always strike gold. Indeed every year 2.4 million car booters (5%) spend some £64 million on items they don’t use, or that didn’t work. The most common white elephant items, cited by 33%, are CDs and DVDs that never get played.

Worryingly, a further 30% found electronic items they’d purchased to be faulty – these included computers, stereos, vacuum cleaners and TVs. The findings confirm a recent report conducted on behalf of the insurer in which one-in-four second-hand electrical items failed a standard safety check and were deemed unfit for use.

A quarter of respondents have purchased board games that never get played (25%), a fifth bought plants that died and clothes that never make it out of the wardrobe (21%) complete the top five fool’s gold purchases.

Car boot bonanza

Pitching up to car boot sales appears more popular than ever. 29 million British adults (65%) have attended a car boot sale in the past five years splashing out an impressive £1.1billion per year between them.

16 million Britons (35%) actively sell items at car boot sales at an average rate of once every 2.5 years. A further three million hard core sellers carry out at least one sale per year. Amazingly if car boot sellers were to be paid for their time they would receive a whopping £600 million each year!

Vicky Emmott, Senior Manager of Underwriting at Halifax Home Insurance: “Britons like nothing more than snapping up a bargain, and with all those TV programmes devoted to turning trash into treasure more Britons seem to know what they are looking for. If you do happen to pick up a bargain it's worth notifying your insurer to make sure it is covered against any loss, theft or damage. Although Halifax offers unlimited home contents cover we still need to know if you have an item of particular value in your home.”

Emmott, continued: “It’s also worth remembering that all that glitters is not necessarily gold. Millions of Britons find this out the hard way by forking out a small fortune on fools gold items at car boot sales. Car booters should be particularly wary of second hand electrical items, especially since electrical fires are the root cause of 18% of all house fires each year.”

Halifax Home Insurance recommends the following advice relating to purchasing second hand electrical items:

Look for the CE mark, the BEAB mark, the BS safety mark or British Standard number when you buy electrical equipment

If you are unsure if goods are safe you should not buy them

If you have already purchased an item and an appliance appears faulty stop using it and have it checked at once

Distributors and retailers including second-hand dealers and auctions must only sell appliances that are correctly fitted with an approved plug with sleeved pins and the correct fuse

A seller should provide clear wiring instructions for the plug if it is of the re-wirable kind

Electricity must be treated with respect as it causes many accidents and fatalities