Latest news with #carbootsale
The Sun
4 days ago
- Business
- The Sun
I paid £70 for rare painting worth £8,000 at car boot sale – my three must-follow tips to find gems
ANTIQUES lover Sally-Ann Cathcart can often be seen hunting for treasures at car boot sales - but one find has left her quids in. The 50-year-old antiques dealer from North Shropshire paid just £70 for a pair of paintings - and she's now been told they could sell for £8,000 at auction. 4 4 4 She was on one of her regular car boot sale trips in Bridgnorth when she spotted the paintings and immediately she knew she'd stumbled across something incredibly special. That's because the ultra-rare paintings were the work of one of the UK's most famous artists, Percy Shakespeare - and they were going for a bargain price. 'My eyes lit up when I saw them,' she told The Sun. 'I literally had that little heart flutter. I knew instantly what they were.' Sally-Ann said the man who sold her the paintings was a regular at car boot sales but 'clearly didn't know the value' of the art. The seller had got hold of the paintings while doing a house clearance for a lady. Unbelievably, they had been sat at the bottom of a trunk underneath a pile of old newspapers and magazines. The 1928 watercolour paintings show two children - a young boy and a girl - and Sally-Ann believes they may have been the children of the lady who owned the trunk. The paintings hadn't been in a frame or come with a plastic covering but Sally-Ann said they were in incredible condition as they had been kept inside the trunk for so long. She says she snapped them up immediately, and still has them 10 years on. Sally-Ann is a huge fan of Percy Shakespeare and is planning to keep hold of the paintings because she loves them so much. Antiques Roadshow guest is stunned by huge value of charity shop earrings bought for £5 But it was only recently that she decided to get them valued - and she was given a huge shock. An expert told her she could likely get £8,000 for the paintings if she took them to auction. 'I just have a second of thinking, 'have I heard you correctly?',' she said. 'I wanted to punch the air.' Other pieces of art from Percy Shakespeare that have gone to auction have sold for 10 times their estimated value, Sally-Ann says. If that came true for her, she could net herself a whopping £80,000 - although of course you never know what someone will pay at auction. The money might be tempting, but Sally-Ann says she plans to keep the paintings. 'I would only sell them if I absolutely really needed to because I just want to treasure them,' she says. The antiques dealer might be planning to keep hold of this rare find, but she's also made a small business out of buying and selling treasures from car boot sales and vintage fairs. Some of her clients include Cath Kidston, the National Trust and Pinewood Studios. 'Pinewood Studios is always fascinating because it could be like 'right we're doing a 1950s film and we need a petrol blue car'. 'Sometimes I'll be like, yeah, actually funnily enough, I've got one in the garage. Is this any good to you?' She's even sent an order to St James's Palace, where Princess Anne and Princess Beatrice live. Sally-Ann started out collecting antiques as a child when her grandma used to take her to Birmingham rag markets. 'I guess I've grown up with that old-fashioned rooting through, finding the best bargains,' she said. She bought her first antique - a 1920s art deco wallet - at around seven years old. 'I've always felt very comfortable in old places, old buildings,' she says. 'I love that whole old-fashioned mentality of let's make do and mend, which I think is perhaps coming back into fashion now. And then I've built a business out of it.' Now she'll often get requests from clients who ask her to search for specific items and she'll go on a hunt for them. Sally-Ann says she might for example be able to pick up a mirror for £5 and then sell it on for £120 to £150. Other memorable finds SALLY-ANN says she buys everything secondhand and her best finds end up staying with her. These are the ones she treasures the most… Vintage barometer The antiques dealer owns one of the oldest barometers produced by optician James Aitchison, who later went on to form optician chain Dollond & Aitchison in 1750. Sally-Ann says she picked up the antique for just £2 at a car boot sale last year. Photo album Another find is a photo album from the 1900s, which she snapped up for just £1. Sally-Ann says the photos inside show holidays and some sort of boating event. Photo of a World War One soldier Sally-Ann also picks out a photograph of a soldier from World War One. 'He looks about 16, and it's a beautiful French photograph of him,' she says. 'It hangs in my house and it has done for about 25 years.' Sally-Ann's top tips for finding valuable antiques The antiques dealer says she's developed an eye for something valuable over the years, but it's always worth going along to a car boot sale and seeing what you can find. 'The key things for car boots are take plenty of change, take comfortable shoes, take lots of bags, get there early,' she says. But her biggest tip is to remember your manners when talking to sellers. 'People will expect you to haggle at a car boot. So, if somebody says the item is £2, it is absolutely fine to say, 'would you take £1, please? 'And if they say, no, I wouldn't, no problem, you just decide whether you want to pay the £2 or not.' Sally-Ann says that around 70% of the time sellers will take the lower price, so you shouldn't be afraid to haggle but 'just do it with politeness and courtesy'. Sally-Ann says she's seen people throwing items back down onto the seller's table after not getting a lower price - and that's not the way to go. Another of her tips is that if we see something you like, you shouldn't wait around. 'Because if you leave it, I promise you, when you go back it will be gone,' she says. Sally-Ann says it's easy to start buying and selling antiques. 'You haven't got to invest thousands of pounds. You can take £20 or even £10 in cash this weekend, go to the car boot sale and just see what you can get.'
The Sun
17-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Sun
I paid £15 for an antique at a car boot sale that's worth £1,000 – my five tips for spotting treasures
CAR boot sales can be a goldmine for bargain hunters, but to sort the treasure from the trash you need to know what you're looking for. Mum-of-two Emily Anscombe has become so good at snooping for secondhand relics and reselling them for a profit that it's now her full-time job. 4 4 4 4 The 32-year-old lives with her partner, Ben, 34, and their two sons, aged eight and three, in Shrewsbury, Shropshire. Emily told The Sun: "My most exciting recent find was a set of three gold-plated Art Nouveau bowls which I bought on a whim for £15 at a car boot sale in north Wales. "I was lucky to spot them as they had been chucked into a grimy box full of old cutlery, but I spotted they were hallmarked and snapped them up." When Emily later looked online she found a similar bowl selling for £2,000. A local auctioneer estimates hers are probably worth £600-£1,000, but they could go for more when they go under the hammer next month. Emily normally lists her car boot sale finds for sale on her website and her Instagram page @ She also sells them at vintage markets up and down the country. But with certain valuable antiques, like the bowls, it makes sense to go to an auction to help reach a wider audience. Auctions can attract collectors from around the world who tune in online to find rare items. Typically, Emily heads to car boot sales every Sunday in search of bargains to sell on. I made £3k in one day from secondhand shops finds - what to look for and why you shouldn't ignore the dusty old plates She said: "I spend a lot of time treasure hunting – usually several hours a week – and aim to visit as many car boot sales as I can within a 50-mile radius. "If we travel to visit family in Devon and Cornwall, we visit car boot sales while we are there. "We do the same when we go abroad – I found a great one in Malta when we went on holiday with the kids." She first got into secondhand treasure-hunting a decade ago. "My first win was a puppet which I bought at a car boot sale in Brighton in 2015, costing just 50p," she said. It was made by the highly-collectable vintage toy brand Pelham Puppets, and she resold it on Etsy for £40. It wasn't long before she really got the bug for finding bargains. "For a few years, I went on doing this alongside raising my family and my little business went from strength to strength." In 2022, she decided to make it her full-time job and set up her website. Emily's big wins Over the past year, Emily's had some notable successes. She said: "I bought a huge haul of Snoopy stuff, including rare toys and books which cost me a total of £200. "I resold all of this on my website and made around £2,500." She bought four rare 1980s rare art posters by American painter, John Kacere, for £40, and resold these on her website for £400. And she has made some major mark-ups on furniture she's found at car boot sales, too. "There was a 1970s Italian chair which I bought at a car boot sale for just 50p and resold for £60. "And I found a set of mid-century bamboo side tables, which I bought for £10 and resold for £80." Mid-century Scandinavian homewares are her speciality. A few weeks ago, she bought a collectible Norwegian bowl with a lotus design made by the Cathrineholm factory. "I found it at a car boot sale in Wales for £2 and resold it to an American customer for £80," she said. "I also bought a Finnish coffee percolator at a car boot sale for £3 and resold for £150." The whole family get involved in her car boot sale scavenger hunts. She said: "My kids help me out by digging through boxes and lugging stuff through muddy fields. "They have a good eye for it and my eight year-old son is even boosting his pocket money by buying and selling vintage car badges. "Back at home and I clean the items, fix them up, photograph them and get them ready to sell." Emily's top five tips for finding treasure If you want to follow in Emily's footsteps and make some extra cash she has some expert advice: Keep an eye on what's trending in interior design to get ideas on the best things to pick up – look at magazines and see what modern items are being sold on the high street that are replicas of vintage decor as lots of trends are recycled. Don't be afraid to get your hands dirty and dig through the grime at the car boots - that's often where the best treasures are hiding. Research each item properly and make sure you consider its condition when pricing for resale – you can speak to local auction houses or look on websites like Be prepared to put the time in – set your alarm to get up early and go to a car boot sale every single weekend, trying out different locations to see which ones are best. Post your items on multiple different platforms including Vinted, eBay and others. Other ways she boosts her earnings Emily is also a dab hand at upcycling items that she finds. "I make lamps that I create from vintage ceramic cats and dogs purchased from car boot sales," she said. "I pay between £1 and £30 for the ceramic animals and can then sell these lamps for between £80 and £300." She loves giving these old and unwanted items a new lease of life. 'I strongly believe we already have enough beautiful things in the world, so there is no need to buy new,' she said. And Emily also gets paid to source items that interior designers need for their projects and for TV and film crews looking for props. She said: "I source things for those who don't have the time or energy for a 5am wake up on a Sunday to go treasure hunting themselves." Some of Emily's finds have even made it to the big screen. "A few of my pieces have been bought by Warner Bros studios as props. "Earning money from car boot sales doesn't really feel like hard work to me, as it's my passion."
