In all my life in the UK, I never saw one yard or garage sale.
Regarding car size, you’d be amazed how much shite you can fit into a VW polo. I reckon we’re just more efficient packers. Mind you, many of the pros have vans, trailers, or small lorries.
Are hypnotists at car boot sales as much of a problem as we’ve been led to believe?
Look into my eyes, look into my eyes, don’t look around my eyes, look into my eyes…
C. S. Lewis had the Narnia kids call it an “electric torch.” That’s the first time I’d heard that. I had to figure out what that could be.
Someday their command of the English language may catch up with that of the people in Queens. :rolleyes:
A flea market in the States can be a mix of people selling old housewares, as well as a bunch of stuff that fell of the back of a truck/lorrie, and some counterfeit shirts or other bogus brand name clothing. Flea markets can happen in fields, convention halls, parking lots, etc.
Generally…IN THE STATES;
-Community organized flea market: mostly people dragging their junk to a spot they rented and setting up tables.
-A weekly flea market at a dedicated location: more of the “fell of the truck/lorrie” variety, people selling crafts/candles/quilts, cheap versions of brand name clothing, watches and sunglasses, etc.
-A yard or garage sale: is someone selling their house junk in front of their house.
-A moving sale: instead of hauling your stuff outside, you display your items in your house (the stuff you don’t want to move), and usually includes exercise eqquipment, furniture, bookcases, light fixtures,window decorations, etc. People come by and walk through the house and look around.
It might even approach that of the denizens of that center of linguistic mastery: Pratts, Mississippi.
Speaking of UK words, “prat?” 
When I saw “car boot” I immediately thought of that metal thingy that the cops (or parking police) put on illegally parked cars to prevent the owner from driving them away, thus marking them for towage (or to keep 'em in one place until the fine is paid).
My first three cars were MGBs, so I knew what it was. Heck, I still call the hatch over the engine a “bonnet”. A “hood” is a convertible top. (Or a criminal. BTW: The MGBs had a “B” on the know for the bonnet release. Makes it hard to forget.)
Do you really call those tables “wall paper pasting tables?”, because that’s a long way to go to describe a folding table, or portable table…or just table for that matter.
i am an x brit imigrant . on the whole the british are less practicle than americans. But selling out of the boot , or trunk of the car, is a progression in practicality. You bring a large group of buyers and sellers togetther the cost of adminsion is about the same as edvertising your garage sale . you are less comitted to waste time when you have sold. You dont have to have anybody come to your house.
I have heard of “trunk sales” here, but never seen one. Lived in the Pacific Northwest most of my life.
The closest thing I’ve seen in the US is impromptu gatherings outside organized meets such as record conventions. There’s a tradition that the Really Good Stuff is restricted to the parking lot, early in the morning, before the hall opens for the day. It’s a kind of old boys’ network, away from the fuss and crowding (and table fees), but all you have to do is hear about it from a past attendee and bring cash. Perhaps it’s also to allow the sellers (or buyers) to go on and trade during the main show.
Out west they’re sometimes called “swap meets” which is to me a particularly euphonious term for plunking down crap on a table. A few have morphed into indoor locations full of small permanent stalls selling cheap stuff, like the Compton Swap Meet
(if you recall, a gift certificate to the Compton Swap Meet was part of the prize for winning the “$20 Sack Pyramid” quiz game in the Dr. Dre song of the same name.)
No, a “trunk sale” refers to the sale of apparel (usually the latest styles or supposedly limited editions) directly from the manufacturer. It dates back to the 19th Century when the dressmakers would send their salesmen out to the dry goods stores with trunks full of their new stuff.
In menswear, at least, it’s a trunk show. A high-end maker like Oxxford Clothes or Alden Shoe will send out a rep with samples of the upcoming season’s fabrics, leathers, etc., to larger cities, and you can make an appointment to be measured and put down a deposit.
Selling things out of vehicles in general has a sleazy air.
There used to be guys in Texas selling shellfish out of the back of trucks. Might as well have had a sign - “Git yer hepatitis A here, dirt cheap!”
<insert zombie thread joke here>
I live in the rural South. Here, it is still common to see farmers selling vegetables from the back of their pickup trucks parked around the courthouse square in the small towns in the area.
There’s also estate sales, which seem to vary in popularity from place to place. Basically, the entire house is opened up except for a room or two, and everything that isn’t tacked down is for sale.
How did they designate the boot release?