CAR SALES:For punters selling their wares at the Kilcully car-boot sale, it was a case of clearing out old memories – hoping for a fresh start, writes BRIAN O'CONNELL
IN THE TRAILER are televisions, family ornaments, bathroom fixtures and a well-used set of golf clubs. On a table in front are various pieces of pottery, expensive looking cutlery collections, a few mirrors, and a large box containing jewellery, much of it deeply personal. Visitors circle the contents, grab pieces from the table, take them out and ask how much. Some scoff at the prices, offering instead half or a quarter of the asking price or else just put the items back down and walk away, shaking their heads. In one sense, the shoppers are consumerist vultures feeding off the carcasses of soon to be abandoned lives. Some, though, are simply out for a nose.
The trailer and the goods in it belong to healthcare worker Louise Donnellan and her family.
Sixteen years ago, Donnellan returned to Ireland, having left for the UK during the last recession. Today, she is standing in a scout field on Cork’s north side, offloading her life’s possessions for a fraction of their worth at the monthly Kilcully car-boot sale. The money she gets will help her emigrate for the second time in two decades. Next week, she will have a furniture sale in her house and anything leftover will be sold at another car-boot sale later in the month in Rathcormac. So far though, having arrived with a full car and trailer many of the contents are gone in little over an hour. A lifetime’s possessions, sold in less time than it takes to play a hurling match. “It is heartbreaking to part with some of the stuff,” Donnellan says. “But we need to get the funds together to get started again. It is very difficult. I have sold stuff for next to nothing just to get rid of it. You end up selling stuff for 50 cent or €1 just to try to offload it.”
Donnellan was working in healthcare but the HSE recruitment freeze has meant her chances of getting sustained work dried up. She says she is hopeful of getting work in the prison service in the UK; her son and daughter have already emigrated. “There is nothing here any more. It is soul destroying. many of my friends I know are gone too – it is so so sad,” she says.
Like all stall holders here at the Kilcully monthly car boot sale, Donnellan paid €10 to sell her wares. Others selling here include pensioners, college students and families, and by 9am last Sunday morning more than 80 stalls were up and running. The recession has been pretty good to car-boot sales, with more and more of us clearing out the potential cash in our attics and those leaving Ireland using the sales to offload their goods.
Stallholder Tony Martin says the majority of households have items they will never use again which could be sold at car boot sales. Today, he is selling an assortment of tools and glasses cases, as well as some collectibles such as old plates, stamps and coins. Like many, he started with a clearout of his house and then just kept on selling.
“Car-boot sales are an early game,” says Martin. “It has taken over from religion on a Sunday for some people. With the recession, people are all for upcycling now and looking for a bargain. They are no longer going into Brown Thomas with unlimited credit cards. They want value. Every single person at home has about €500 worth of stuff in their house. That’s a fact. This is stuff that they will never use again.”
Martin says that there are different types of buyers at car-boot sales, from the casual shopper to the more expert collector. “Myself, I have a little girl and going out and buying toys for her you won’t get much change from €100. When you go to a car-boot sale you could fill up the car with toys for €10. You have specialised collectors here and also the person coming here looking for a bargain. People were snobs and now people are after coming down with a big bang. The snobbery is gone and everyone understands the value of even €1.”
On a good day, Martin says he could make up to €200 selling his wares at the sale. He has also developed his hobby a little and recently set up a Facebook page containing information on car boot sales taking place in Cork.
In another corner of the field, Lorraine Quinn is selling clothes of a very high standard, some with their price tags attached. Included are a pair of Hugo Boss jeans belonging to her husband and a suit jacket her brother no longer wears, priced at €3. Jewellery and children’s clothes sell best for her, she says, and she enjoys the interaction with the customers. “A lady bought a nice jacket there earlier. I had bought it about four years ago and I have to say it looked quite nice on her. I sold it for €2 and, you know, I got a bit of pleasure out of seeing it on her.”
Walking away laden down from the sale, which generally lasts until late afternoon, was Paul Murphy. He bought five framed pictures of Cork city at €20 for the lot. “I normally bring about €100 and, like a child going to the carnival, I never go home until it is all spent.” Also in his two plastic bags of shopping were oriental and rather decorative looking picture frames. “I am a recent widower which breaks my heart. I hope to put some very nice photos of my good wife into the frames and give them a new lease of life.”
The Kilcully car-boot sale takes place monthly at Blackpool in Cork. The next is on November 6th
