Boot sale bargains

On Sunday I took myself on a special excursion to the huge Battersea Park car boot sale, which runs every week, starting at a leisurely 12pm. I paid £3 to enter before 1.30pm (when the entrance fee reduces to 50p), eager to find some early bird bargains. I've been once before and not found anything I wanted to buy.

I quickly lost enthusiasm; this car boot sale is full of dealers with stalls (so not rock bottom prices), people selling knock-off cosmetics, and the occasional twenty-something trying to sell their old clothes and shoes. I was looking for middle-aged couples, with houses full of antiques and wanting to downsize - but I couldn't see any.

After almost an hour I was bored, empty-handed and ready to leave, even though some stalls had not even set up yet. I decided to do one final circuit of the dealers' stalls, and oops - within about 5 minutes I had bought a massive stash of second-hand goods.

My haul included:

Two tiny teacups, dated 1794, from Czechoslovakia. I didn't think they looked that old, to be fair, but my friend's husband Colin helpfully (or not) pointed out to me later that Czechoslovakia didn't exist in 1794 (only from 1918 to 1992, in case you're interested). Still, I wasn't buying them as an investment. I think that in my imagination I have an alternate career as a prop stylist, with the need for tiny and impractical tea cups...

And another three teacups - without saucers. I deliberated for quite a while about my official stance on cups without a saucer - even writing them off and going to a different stall - but then I decided I couldn't go too wrong with 3 cups for £1.

I only wanted one plate, but somehow I ended up with four plates and one matching saucer...

The below plates aren't all from this trip (the milk glass plate was from eBay and the bird plate was a gift) but I am beginning to have the vision realised for my kitchen wall. My favourite plate is the bird plate, which was a perfect gift from my friend Jenny.

As it turns out, at least the dealers understand the car boot sale clientele - and their prices were really reasonable. I just looked blankly at one newbie stallholder who tried to sell me two pretty tins for 5 times the price of the two older tins I had bought from a regular dealer.

Will I be back next week? Perhaps once a month. I'm trying to buy some stock for my tiny Etsy shop - but I end up wanting to keep everything for myself.