“Car” isn’t confusing, despite being a carry-over from railway cars.
I’ve never had to point out what I mean by saying “automobile car.”
I’d use “estate sale” to mean “yard/garage sale where the previous owner is now dead.” But it doesn’t have anything to do with the location of the objects being sold (inside or outside of the house), just the reason for the sale.
Same with “Moving Sale.” Everything can be in the garage, it’s just the reason that the things are being sold is because the owner is moving and doesn’t want to take the stuff with them.
Sometimes community groups (churches or other religious groups, neighborhoods, clubs) have things like the OP mentions, where many people belonging to the group brings their stuff to a place on a designated day. But I don’t think there’s anywhere I could pack up my extra stuff and take it to sell without making a lot of arrangements in advance. Even flea markets have sign ups and space rental rules and regulations.
The US version of a boot sale is a flea market. You bring a car or truck load of stuff to sell, and a table to display it on. When you arrive, you pay a fee to the organizer who directs you to a location where you set up your temporary shop. They are usually well organized events.
We also have garage- or yard- sales, something I have never seen in the U.K., possibly because we have more cr*p that we don’t use than you do. Here, we set up our front garden (yard) or garage and driveway with our temporary shop. It’s a great way to get some cash for stuff you don’t use any more that other people might want. It’s a great way for parents to buy children’s clothes.
Another variant I haven’t seen mentioned — although amarinth came close — is the “rummage sale.” These are commonly held as fundraisers by churches, schools, etc. People donate their unused items, which are semi-organized and sold in the parish hall / school basement / wherever. A subspecies is the “Christmas Bazaar,” which focuses on holiday goods.
I seem to recall — possibly from the BBC version of Cash in the Attic — that these are called “jumble sales” in the UK, but I wouldn’t claim any sort of authority on that.
While walking through the then-sketchy neighborhood of Powelton Village in Philly (1983), I was offered merch by two guys who pulled up in either a car or small truck. Loudspeakers, IIRC.
Growing up in South Jersey, I spent many a Saturday at the Palmyra Drive-in Flea Market. It was held at an old drive-in theater. Mix of house-clearing/jumble, antique/near-antique stuff, new stuff, pirated stuff.
1.) As noted, we have *flea markets * in the US.
2.) In addition, there are organized places that have even more formal names. In Englishtown, NJ, there still exists Englishtown Auction Market, which started out as a farm auction market (selling fresh produce from the local farms), but which has always sold other random stuff in its permanent buildings. People started driving in and selling thing from their cars (a la “boot sales”), and they soon formalized this by renting tables in what was the parking lot, and moving the actual parking lot farther out. This expansion happened several times over, until the place was huge, and dominated bny the outdoor selling. Unfortunately, internet selling has taken its toll. When last I visited, the tables were far fewer in number. The place is a shadow of its former self.
3.) Nevertheless, Englishtown still functions, as do places like Collingwood Auction Market in NJ (and, I know, other institutions in other states, like Massachusetts where I now live)
3.) When I read the title I had a completely different image in mind. Here in the US, a “Boot” is an immobilizing device placed on illegally parked cars to prevent their moving, forcing the owner to come in and pay his fines to get it released. The only pooint I could see in buying one was to put it on an enemy’s car for revenge.
http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?_adv_prop=image&fr=yfp-t-701&va=auto+boot
That’s still better than one guy I saw in China who was selling shellfish out of the gutter!
I’ll second this. Selling items literally out of the back of a truck would be highly suspicious, and most people would assume the goods were stolen.
Flea markets (mentioned above) are usually organized events, and the sellers almost always have tables set up in designated “stalls.”
The two main types of household folding tables are a card table, which is usually 34x34 or 36x36, or what’s formally called a banquet table, which come in various lengths. Here’s one that’s 30x72.
Yes, rummage and jumble are the same types of sale, often organized by churches or charities.
My record meet was in Jersey too (a very good place to collect records, BTW - a lot of great stuff never leaves the state).
Hey, I just thought of something: If you sell boots (Timberlands, Fryes, etc etc) out of your car, that too is a car boot sale.
Good thing George Clinton was American, because “Electric Torch” would have been a poor title for a funk song.
Translation: My father used to seel shellfish out of the back of trucks in Texas.
Many places have a regular place for every-weekend “flea markets” where there is a mix of goods.
Also very common are interest specific “swap meets”. I have attended these for vintage motorcycles, ham radio, general aviation, bicycling, etc. Sometimes I have heard this referred to as a “tailgate sale” which is getting pretty close to the “boot sale” idea, the tailgate referring to the fold-down door at the back of a pickup truck.
EDIT: Should read as “sell”,obviously.
One of my hard and fast rules is to never buy food from the trunk of someone’s car.
Or electronics.
The aftermath is never worth the savings.
/applause 
Selling produce from a pickup truck, by the way, seems normal and not sleazy at all.
Heh. I guess I wasn’t thinking about farmers selling produce. I was imagining a scenario where some guy opens up the back of his van and it’s full of televisions, computers, iPods, and whatnot.
I guarantee you, every single last person who saw him would conclude that he was selling stolen property.