Car Boot Meditations
chapter 7

These last few weeks have been a disappointment in CB terms. Rained off one week and found nothing the next.  I have also noted, much to my chagrin, that others have fared better.So I have been forced to ponder the esoteric and regard the perceived disappointments as part of a positive learning experience. I have been taking lessons from my  experienced companion soujourner.

I tried exercise one - leave a card with seller who trades in books. Heyho, I remember picking up a Discovering Scotland at his stall. I was virtually met with a stony stare by book man, as I started to say Children's... I say virtually because 'met' sounds too head on friendly. I was rather the recipient of an 'incredulous' right angle glare -but you get the general picture. Consequently I now have soggy paper bits in my pocket with sadly fractured cutesy ladybird motifs on them. Moral: do not attempt to introduce nice kiddies books to heavyweight collection of Red Clydeside memoirs, republican rebel songbooks and leftfield gaelic diatribes. I believe it's called niche marketing.

Lesson 2. Observation. I am fascinated by CB economics, and have subsequently drawn up my own terms to describe the unique currency distribution operation practised at CBs.

• The conch - an object of obscuranti proportion and enigmatic desirability which shifts along a stall each week. Examples include candlesticks made from animal horn, antique bellows, anything in brass over a foot long.. Oddly enough the 'conch' is so popular that no one is ever  out of pocket.for more than a week. Ponzi, eat your heart out.
• Holy Grail - it's out there, it just needs unearthed from someone's attic and it's either a 401dj, A Wonk  a Cocky or an Uncle Mac.
• Chaff - Anything available in huge supply, such as Mills and Boons, velveteen colouring boards, un-scented floating candles. probably because no one ever buys them.
• Bran -similar to the above but demands bulk buying - pile of fishing magazines, pile of dried flowers, pile of bedding.etc. In fact piles of piles.
• Yo-Yo - an object that is sold at profit and returns at a later date to be bought by the original seller who sells it again  at profit and which returns at a later date to be bought by the original seller who sells it again. and so on ad infinitum. A Millefiori paper weight is probably a good example of a yoyo.
• Prince Philip -shorthand really for any cargo-cult type object. Anyone with a PP to sell will be laughing because someone will want it and be willing to pay the price. PPs include ceramic cottages with the little basket handles, ceramic whisky bottles and ancient sporting paraphenalia such as curling stones which look ceramic.but of course aren't.
• Pop objects -  past POs would have included My Little Pony, Teenage Mutant Turtles and Pokemon cards, designed to give flow to the market by encouraging small speculators (and traders).

It's a jungle out there!

Last Sunday I suffered from post elation torpor. It was expected after having such successful finds that luck was on the wane. The previous night I had gone to see Annie (a musical) so my sleep had been periodically disturbed with an inner screeching of tomorrow, tomorrow! By nine o'clock I could stand it no more. I forced the duvet off my face and headed for CB2 Not such a bad decision after all, I chuckled to myself, on purchasing a dozen early KW titles in good condition for 10p a throw. I also succumbed to a selection of picture sleeve 45s. Recovering my elation I bounced home grateful that we still owned a turntable and all set to impress my optimistically challenged soul-mate with a rendering of early Stones on a 6 track EP circa 66. A young Jagger looking wistfully out through his fringe from the shiney cover - all for 30p!! Yep, you're right it was too good to be true; some one had replaced it with an Isley Brothers single. No Cocky, no Little Red Rooster. At all.  

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