Flea Market dilemma . . .

OK! I am going to do this.

Being the curator of my Family’s Museum, I keep, save, protect and preserve, and most of all display the family’s memorabilia, heirlooms, antiques, etc. So what was I thinking when I decided to gather things up to sell at a flea market sale? I really can’t say, but only for the fact that the family had a plethora of stuff not used or wanted anymore. So I asked everyone, could this stuff go into the family museum? Did this stuff have any value, be it monetarily or emotional? Would we use any of this stuff again? Resounding NOs were the replies.

So for about three weeks, I gathered, organized, priced (which not knowing the current value of the things, I did a lot of research online, finding info I needed, only to discover that there was no way I was going to sell something that was either extremely rare, or not-made-anymore, which designated it to be of more value than I was going to sell it at). Then I boxed the stuff, hauled it downstairs into the dining room where it sat until the day of the flea market sale.

The hours of the sale did not please me, or my daughter and son who helped me set it up and stay with me. When we got to the community center, busy flea marketers were setting up their tables, displaying their stuff, and look as if they were have a genuinely good time.

When we entered, we were told our table number. Finding it, I looked around and thought it was a good location, if you could say any of the places were better than others. We hauled the boxes in, placed what we could on the table, putting some boxes on the floor in front of the table.

While we were there, each of us perused the other tables, noticing many had same-like items we did. I also observed the vendors, most of them of my generation, the Baby Boomers. This explains why the stuff was repeated table after table. Our generation wanted everything our parents didn’t have and bought it all, therefore, creating an over-abundance of stuff, decreasing the value. The theory of supply and demand was apparent, squelching the desire to purchase not only what I had but many of what the other vendors had as well.

The sale was from 7:00 AM to 12 noon. After the first two hours, we sold one old book and one jigsaw puzzle. In the next couple of hours we sold three more puzzles and some picture-frame glass. By 11:00 AM, we collected a whopping $11 dollars, not even enough to pay for the admission of $15.00, which the organizer gathered from all of us vendors. By 11:30, we called it quits, as many others did, boxed up our stuff and hauled it back into the car, then back into the dining room.     

The flea market sale was a no-win situation. Lesson learned – nobody wants to buy your stuff. Either give it away or keep it. So I re-packed the boxes, setting aside the things that were too valuable to give away, such as a Vilroy & Boch vintage Coffee set, two Talbot wool pleated skirts, all my jewelry-making pieces and jewelry, and a box of vintage Dominos my daughter insisted on keeping.

The next day we took the stuff to Goodwill and felt better for donating it then selling it for less then what it was worth. So if you should participate in a flea market sale, don’t think you are going to make a lot of money. If you do, that’s great. But remember, make sure what you sell is not important to the family, because everything has a history, and that history may be yours.