reuters
Thu Aug 25, 2005 11:04 AM BST
LONDON (Reuters) - Car booting has become such a national pastime that every year Britons spend nearly 1.5 billion pounds buying other people's cast-offs, research showed on Thursday.
Nearly two thirds of Britons aged over 16 have rummaged through other people's attic and garage junk in the hope of bagging a bargain, insurer Prudential said.
The average car booter will go to sales five times a year and two million people go booting more than once a month.
"We conduct regular research into people's spending and savings habits and every so often a trend like this will show up," Prudential's Anthony Frost said.
"It seems that car boot sales are very fashionable this season. They are the 'retro' version of e-bay," Frost said in a statement.
Car booters spend an average of 9.61 pounds per visit totalling 1.46 billion pounds over the year and the most profitable place to hold a car boot sale is Greater London -- where a boot full of booty makes it seller an average of 83 pounds.
Next best is Wales where a trunk fetches an average of 80 pounds.
The most popular car boot items were books (16 percent), toys (14 percent) and clothing (12 percent). Computer games, software and electrical goods are among the least sought after.
Prudential's survey of 1,014 adults found the Welsh and those living in the South West were the keenest car booters with 71 percent saying they have been to a car boot. Londoners (52 percent) and Scots (51 percent) were the least likely to go to boot fairs.
