I rose at 4 a.m. on Saturday. I left the house at 5:15. Started setting up at 5:40 in a corner spot right by the second-busiest entrance/exit to the flea market. It was already 78 degrees, but this was in a parking garage, and though the traffic whizzed by behind me, it was pretty breezy so not too bad.
People started buying around 6 (mostly other dealers), the flea formally opened at 7, and I stayed until 12:30. I set a goal of $250, made $388, and had a lot more fun than I thought I would.
Suburban treasure hunting isn't all about keeping it all (that would be Hoarders). I don't sell much, but when I do I usually list it online (good stuff) and donate everything else. Well, with sequestration furloughs about to begin, and retirement looming, I decided to attend this month's First Saturday flea as vendor. And it was more eye opening than I thought it would be.
Lessons learned;
1. The prep work is the hardest. I decided to do this 3 days before the flea, and I sacrificed price tags for display. That's not a bad trade-off when you know your product, and other than my senior moment sale of a Furla clutch for $4 instead of $40 (it's a $300 bag new), my memory was good ... and people horse trade anyway.
2. Great choices - a 4" PVC pipe stuck into a Christmas tree base on which I hung purses (got a ton of comments), a 3-level jewelry box for "project" pieces (at 50 cents ea then 25), and the sawhorse-and-luan-door "table". Especially when you have a bad back and no helpers. Oh, and the cooler full of ice water and soda, enough for me and fellow sufferers - it got to 99 degrees and even the breeze was hot.
3. Jury is still out on the red single top sheet I covered my "table" with - red gets attention, prompts impulse buys (supposedly) but it was a LOT of red. Also, the spinning earring display - looked fantastic, set it all up the night before and stuck it in plastic to transport, but what a pain in the ass for the customers to use.
4. Never again will I use the spindly TV tray. Even covered with a vintage tablecloth it looked like crap.
5. Thanks to helpful vendor-buddies I learned that while everyone loves bowls or baskets with other stuff inside through which people can rummage, unless the thing is obvious (like the jewelry box) you MUST pull at least some of the items out to entice the buyers.
6. Collar my kids to show up at least once, if for no other reason than I never got a chance to prowl around and buy.
I didn't sell everything - my main purpose is to clear my house, but someone who would've offered me $4 for the Furla bag would've gotten a clear "no." And I literally gave away several things (especially with bulk buyers), and even sold at well below what I paid (on purpose!) a few times. See, I want to learn (maybe for retirement), and learning demands a Price. (And, let's face it, after the time involved, and the fees, eBay is a pain in the ass.)
Even though I roasted and spent most of Sunday recovering, even though I didn't make what I could've made in other places or times (it was a holiday weekend), I do believe I'll do it again in August.
This time I'll be a little bit smarter, and take a lot more pictures.
I can't wait!
