Car boot sale leaves Amy with a £250 headache

Spare a thought for Daily Record scribe Amy Devine, who recently conducted a car boot sale – only to come out of the other side of the experience with a screaming migraine and a fraction of the cash she hoped for.

Amester cooked up the get-rich-quick scheme with her sister Zoe (who is older and really should be wiser) in order to raise enough cash to fly them both to Milan on a jolly.

Bank worker Zoe is moving house and came up with idea of flogging off all her unwanted goodies to lighten the load. So after pooling a vanload of old clothes, books, CDs and other belongings, the pair booked their slot at Edinburgh’s biggest car boot sale.

The event in Greenside Place car park runs every Sunday from 9am-1pm and the organisers even offer the opportunity to hire tables and rails for the effective displaying of wares. Knowing Amy and Zoe they will have had the best presented frontage in the whole event.

However, nothing could have prepared the intrepid duo for the bargain-hunting excesses of the great British Public. Within minutes they were under siege and poor Amy was wilting under withering looks when she dared to ask for more than 50p for her prized posessions.

Best sale of the day was £15 for a Hobbs coat – but only after a particularly determined lady buyer had haggled ruthlessly while trying the garment on a dozen times and wearing down the Devine sisters’ resolve. Designer jeans went for £3, books for 50p each, CDs for a £1, while an old DVD player fetched a fiver.

Heartbreakingly for Amy, her designer shoes fetched just £1 a pair – and even then she had to fend off a bloke who was begging to buy them for just 50p.

While Amy struggled (hence the migraine after four hours of hard bartering) her sis showed a Del Boy Trotter style knack for the art of boot sale. In fact, so convinced was she of her prowess she got carried away and sold a £150 Miss Sixty (I’m told it’s very trendy) leather bag for a tenner – eyes agleam with thought of their upcoming Italian jaunt.

But when it came time to count the takings, once the Isle Of Man coins, washers and chocolate money was removed from the cash box, the sisters were left with just £250. Not quite enough to take them both to Milano.

To drown their sorrows the pair repaired to Italian deli and restaurant Valvona & Crolla instead – and downed several bottles of fine Italian red instead.

Despite the bruising experience Amy and Zoe have not ruled out a re-run. Mama and papa Devine would be well advised to lock away the family silver and any other heirlooms.