Would you buy a pair of second-hand boots? More specifically, would you buy THESE pair of second-hand boots?
I’m a big car boot sale guy, and have been going to them on and off for the last 35 years. A lot has changed in that time, particularly the emergence of the ‘vintage’ clothing concept. Whereas I would once be competing with 1 or 2 resellers, now it seems everyone wants what I want (at least in terms of clothing, my interest list is so varied I think I still own certain sub sets).
However, I can still show the young’uns a thing or two.
A couple of Sundays ago I came across these boots at a car boot sale and the lady wanted £50 for them (which meant the general resellers went back to looking for their £1 t-shirts to flip for £8-10).
But I knew a couple of things:
- Red Wings are a very sought after brand.
- Red Wings made in the USA (which they are now not) makes them more sought after.
- Engineer boots in general – particularly the non-safety versions – are very sought after.
- The best size of men’s footwear to resell is a 10 or 11 (these were an 11)
- Brown is more sought after than black.
- And finally, patina sells, and these had aged beautifully!
How and why did I know all of this?
Partly it’s just info I’ve picked up over the years, partly I have always really wanted a pair! ☺️
A wee bit of haggling later I got them for £45.
After wearing them in the house for a bit, I had to accept they were just a bit too big, but also I had to accept they were worth more than their actual value as a pair of useful boots.
Aside from what I DID know, there was extra information I DIDN’T know.
- They weren’t brown, they were burnt orange.
- They weren’t just Red Wing boots, they were Men’s 2992 Engineer Boots.
That new information, coupled with what I knew already, led to a sale on an online auction site the next night for £225. And I could have probably held out for more, but I took an offer.
I work with people who have very niche interests that they struggle to turn into a business.
They are real experts in their field, but it’s like there’s a massive fence around the field stopping them getting out and other people getting in.
And they lose faith in what they know. The one thing they SHOULD be super confident about.
I like helping them find the confidence to take what they know and run with it, rather than try and fit into a beige box! More often than not I learn something from them – and thus my ‘useless’ knowledge increases.
Now, I will probably never find another pair of boots like that again. But with information that I had sitting around anyway, I made a nice little chunk of change.
It was knowledge worth having!
