How does one market a flea? It seems like an odd proposal, but a few Sundays back I hopped into the car with Jessie, Dave and Katie and we went to investigate the venerable and exciting Wichita Flea Market, held one a month in cool weather only.
Now the first thing to establish is where exactly does flea marketing fall in the scale of bargain shopping. It is not to be confused with thrifting, which is all about the hunt for the elusive object amidst the junk, for those who set up booths at a flea market have already separated the wheat from the chaff and present first-rate goods. But at the same time, flea marketing is not antiquing, where one finds rarefied goods in neat, orderly arrangements. I would proffer that that flea marketing is the bridge between thrifting shopping and antiquing. And a wonderful bridge it is.
Instantly sucked into the chaos that is the Wichita Flea Market, I quickly realized that someone would have to take leadership of the group or that we would miss something wonderful. While there was some initial questioning of my ability to lead, once the group realized this was not my first rodeo and I knew where I was going and what I was doing, then everything was fine. Okay, we did lose Katie for a brief period, but she voluntarily separated herself from the group with extreme purpose. More about that later.
One of the first things that I found was a wonderful, amber-colored footed bowl that I knew would look great on my coffee table. (Jealous Michael?) A mere $3, it was cheap at even thrift store prices. I'd been looking for something similar ever since Michael was in town and found that great glass kabob. This purchase had me on my way to a new arrangements of objects for the living room.
Katie was looking for decorative objects for her new apartment and found a great embroidered wall hanging that she thought was just too expensive. She kept moaning over it until finally she decided she had to have it and ran screaming back to the booth, hoping that it hadn't been picked up by some other savvy shopper. This was the period when we were missing her, but we kept shopping away, knowing that we would eventual be reunited. And she was, tapestry in hand, happy and delighted.
I didn't really find anything else except these very strange plastic Kachina dolls (still in original packaging) and tee pees with Native American children in them. For some reason I had to have them and knew that the Kachina would be much happier living with the pagan gods in my house than he was living at the flea market. I got one of each. The other thing that caught my attention were of course the tiny "Pyrex" tea sets. Can you imagine how cute these would be in my house? Can you imagine me paying $600 for them? And this was the cheaper of the two sets!? I think these people were confused about where they were selling their wares...
Dave and Jessie found a great camera to add to her ever-growing collection. They nosed around at a couple of other things, but didn't really buy anything else. Jessie did point out the Black woman who was speaking to the "gentleman" presiding over the Sons of the Confederacy booth. We had to have a picture, so I pretended to be shooting her, but was really trying to get them. It took some maneuvering, but the shot is decent (that's Jessie on the right) and just so...strange.
Regrets? I have a few. The other night we were all regretting the Asian dishes (pink, squarish with big bamboo painted on them) that one couple tried to get us to buy. It was a huge set compete with little footed pieces that looked like sherbets, which the woman said were rice dishes. Marked $100, they offered it to us for $60 because it was the end of the day. I was good and turned them down, but regret it. What's one more set of dishes?
If you can stand the sales pressure, go late when everyone is trying to sell as much as they can so they don't have to load it back into their vehicle. Marketing the flea was a fantastic experience all around...
Now the first thing to establish is where exactly does flea marketing fall in the scale of bargain shopping. It is not to be confused with thrifting, which is all about the hunt for the elusive object amidst the junk, for those who set up booths at a flea market have already separated the wheat from the chaff and present first-rate goods. But at the same time, flea marketing is not antiquing, where one finds rarefied goods in neat, orderly arrangements. I would proffer that that flea marketing is the bridge between thrifting shopping and antiquing. And a wonderful bridge it is.
Instantly sucked into the chaos that is the Wichita Flea Market, I quickly realized that someone would have to take leadership of the group or that we would miss something wonderful. While there was some initial questioning of my ability to lead, once the group realized this was not my first rodeo and I knew where I was going and what I was doing, then everything was fine. Okay, we did lose Katie for a brief period, but she voluntarily separated herself from the group with extreme purpose. More about that later.
One of the first things that I found was a wonderful, amber-colored footed bowl that I knew would look great on my coffee table. (Jealous Michael?) A mere $3, it was cheap at even thrift store prices. I'd been looking for something similar ever since Michael was in town and found that great glass kabob. This purchase had me on my way to a new arrangements of objects for the living room.
Katie was looking for decorative objects for her new apartment and found a great embroidered wall hanging that she thought was just too expensive. She kept moaning over it until finally she decided she had to have it and ran screaming back to the booth, hoping that it hadn't been picked up by some other savvy shopper. This was the period when we were missing her, but we kept shopping away, knowing that we would eventual be reunited. And she was, tapestry in hand, happy and delighted.
I didn't really find anything else except these very strange plastic Kachina dolls (still in original packaging) and tee pees with Native American children in them. For some reason I had to have them and knew that the Kachina would be much happier living with the pagan gods in my house than he was living at the flea market. I got one of each. The other thing that caught my attention were of course the tiny "Pyrex" tea sets. Can you imagine how cute these would be in my house? Can you imagine me paying $600 for them? And this was the cheaper of the two sets!? I think these people were confused about where they were selling their wares...
Dave and Jessie found a great camera to add to her ever-growing collection. They nosed around at a couple of other things, but didn't really buy anything else. Jessie did point out the Black woman who was speaking to the "gentleman" presiding over the Sons of the Confederacy booth. We had to have a picture, so I pretended to be shooting her, but was really trying to get them. It took some maneuvering, but the shot is decent (that's Jessie on the right) and just so...strange.
Regrets? I have a few. The other night we were all regretting the Asian dishes (pink, squarish with big bamboo painted on them) that one couple tried to get us to buy. It was a huge set compete with little footed pieces that looked like sherbets, which the woman said were rice dishes. Marked $100, they offered it to us for $60 because it was the end of the day. I was good and turned them down, but regret it. What's one more set of dishes?
If you can stand the sales pressure, go late when everyone is trying to sell as much as they can so they don't have to load it back into their vehicle. Marketing the flea was a fantastic experience all around...