That headline may be misleading; but this is not a newspaper and, as such, I am under no obligation to make sense, which is a joyous occasion in itself.

Yesterday was the fourth Toe jam car boot sale at the Bernard Shaw: the sun shone, the scenesters came out in their hordes (but where are they on a regular day? Where?). The Topshop style advisors were there; Clare, Ciara and Lauren showed their faces and haggled people down (’I'll take it for a fiver’, ’sure, no problem’, ‘I should’ve said €4…’); falafels were eaten, cupcakes were scoffed, deliciously chewy chocolate chip cookies were snarfed, from Jo Murphy at the ingeniously-named Píosa Cake (even though Lauren had to point out the double-language wit, and I being the bilinguist an’ all).

The sun definitely helped, but, looking around, it was hard to see past the atmosphere of goodwill and general happy-making. The wares on sale were secondary in importance to the music, the ambience, the beerswilling (in a thoroughly calm and rational fashion) and the camraderie.

Bodytonic’s John Mahon was nothing but enthusiastic, optimistic and, above all, thrilled with the way the car boot sale has taken off. “I knew in my head that it would take about three of them to get a firm footing, to let the buzz get out there,” he says. “But it took off a lot more than I ever expected. The last one was amazing, it was a packed-out event. It kind of feeds itself; I have a Facebook page set up for it, and even though I only have 250 friends (on Facebook), there are 1,500 peole invited.”

And, while the aim of the car boot sale is overwhelmingly commercial for everyone involved (”We wanted to get business in the pub early, and to get Saturdays busy – and to use the carpark space we had, which was being underused,” says Mahon), there is no mistaking that this is about so much more than [lately, apparently pretty sparse] cash.

“We’re here to make a little bit of cash,” says Carly Moffitt who, along with friend, fellow student and fellow artiste, was there with her stall, Paradise Found. “But we’re also here to have a little bit of fun.” The two, art students who have just graduated in fine art from IADT, had sold eight things by 2pm. Not a bad haul, considering the sale only started at 1pm.

“We heard about it in Totally Dublin; there was an article about it,” Moffitt tells me. “We didn’t make anything to sell, it’s mostly stuff that we’ve accumulated in our houses.” The two talk to me while haggling, rearranging displays, and ensuring that their signs are prominently displayed at the front of the stall. “We painted all our signs ourselves!”

In another corner, selling items, literally, from the boot of her car, as well as from a clothing rail, some stacked-up boxes and some assorted cabinets, is Zonja Cleary. “I’m just clearing out my wardrobe,” she says. “I’m downsizing!”

Down one end of the carpark, there are two young fellas selling classic sunglasses, Kanye West-style, as well as, oddly, two Jerry Springer videotapes. The Best Of and Dramatic Romances. “They’re classics, classics!” they tell my retreating back.

Breffni McGeough is selling an assortment of goodies: books, records, and vintage clothes supplied by Ellen Kenny, who’s just graduated from the MA in Creative Advertising in DIT. “We’re Recession Retail,” says McGeough, “reasonably-priced crap.” Cigarette hanging from his lips, he tries to interest me in Alan Carr’s How to Stop Smoking. “It really works,” he says. He has a bright future ahead of him in pantomime.

“Most of the clothes are Ellen’s,” he admits. “But we’re selling all kinds: clothes, a few bits and bobs, books, videos… The main reason we’re here is just to get rid of stuff, clear out. And it’s a bit of fun.”

Píosa Cake’s Jo Murphy is a car boot sale regular, hitting the fortnightly Greystones sale, as well as sales all over Dublin, when they happen to occur. “This is the first Toe jam boot sale I’ve been at,” she says. “I noticed it because of photo bloggers [the last one was hit particularly heavily with the photoblogging phenomenon; check out Dublinstreets for a look]. This one is completely different to the other car boot sales; it’s a much younger crowd, for starters. It’s a completely different atmosphere; here, everyone’s having such a great time. There’s music, there’s more fun… It’s less people’s businesses, I suppose, and more about the enjoyment.”

“The beauty of car boot sales,” according to Mahon, “is that, what’s one person’s junk, is gold to another person. There was a car here last time, and I thought ‘this is so crap’. They were selling really boring books, golf clubs… and they made €600. That’s the beauty of it.”

Bodytonic, the organisers of the Toejam events, don’t advertise anything. “We’ve never ever paid for advertising, so we challenge ourselves to work by word-of-mouth.” This has its ups and its downs; while the car boot sale was colourful, fashionable, fun, and there was a good vibe, it did succumb to the modern evil of Dublin life: the scene. There was a real sense of an “it-crowd” at the event; and the clothing, although hideously trendy, was almost uniform. Artist Christopher O’Reilly (Cricky) once told me that this is an Irish thing. “You see it everywhere; it’s like a social uniform.”

I was sorry, when I got there, that I hadn’t dressed up; but then again, if I had, I still wouldn’t have been a scenester, I would have been a wannabe scenester, and there ain’t nothing worse.

The next Toejam car boot sale is on August 2nd; see the website for details, and contact john@bodytonicmusic.com to register your car and your goodies, but if you’re selling vintage clothes, beware: “I try and edit what people sell, so that it’s not all the same. Last time, it was very clothing-heavy. We try and strike a good balance.”

Check it out if you’re around Dublin, and if you’re not, it might just be worth a day trip. The Bernard Shaw is at 11-12 Richmond St, Portobello, Dublin 2.

• My apologies to those who were told this would be in a well-established national publication; the article was pulled due to reasons beyond my control, and so my lowly blog will have to do, for now. Thank you for your time, your chats and your enthusiasm.