The San Jose Flea Market is the largest flea market in the world. For years, they have barraged television advertisements all over the bay area in California. If you’ve ever wondered what’s really at the San Jose flea market but you don’t trust their website or advertisements, read on!
The first thing you’ll notice is that there are a ton of obsolete game systems and games. The market is flooded with vendors collectively selling hundreds of original Nintendo systems, Playstation 1 and 2, Super NES, and even some Gamecubes and xBoxes. Of all the game systems being sold, the original Nintendo systems are by far the most common in the market. There are also thousands upon thousands of old games for these systems. Interestingly enough, the most common games to be found are for Playstation 2. Playstation 2 has turned out to be a surprisingly successful console gaming platform, and in many measures, is still more popular than Playstation 3. This perhaps contributes to why so many PS 2 games are being sold at the San Jose flea market. If you don’t have a PS 2 and don’t want to buy one, you might want to consider downloading a PS 2 emulator for your computer and buying a couple games at the flea market.
Other than obsolete gaming systems, the market is flooded with DVD, many of them bootleg. The vast majority of vendors are Mexican, so if you are looking for movies in Spanish, or made in Mexico, the San Jose flea market is where you want to be. You should make sure to check which region your DVD player is before buying any DVDs at the market. There are, of course, typical Hollywood DVD movies for sale as well, which may make the market worthwhile if you see something you like. However, only the movies that nobody else wants ends up at the flea market.
One thing that is very surprising about the market is that there are a lot of furniture stores. Surprisingly, these furniture stores actually looked like they had some decent products. If you’re looking for new or used couches, tables, chairs, etc. the San Jose flea market might be a very worthwhile place to look, since there are literally dozens of furniture vendors.
Some of the vending stations have nearly no theme at all. For example, some vendors may be selling a variety of tools that have been heavily used, stolen, or both, as well as selling old Nintendo systems. One station appeared to sell some instruments, including a flute, trumpet, and even a violin. Frankly, if you’re trying to find a cheap musical instrument, the San Jose flea market is the last place you want to be. Unless you’re looking for a violin with most of it’s strings missing or broken, look somewhere else.
The flea market seems like it is built more for kids than it is for adults. You can expect to find dozens of vendors selling cheap, foreign toys. There are plenty of toy guns, Japanese robots, and dolls.
That just about covers it. There are some out of place booths for random services like hair cuts and selling cars, or paintings, but these are very limited in number. There is a large produce section, but every vendor seems to be selling the exact same things, most notably nuts and bananas. In short, unless you’re looking for obsolete electronics, stolen car radios or tools, game systems, DVDs or furniture, I’d recommend you skip the market and go look in a normal store. Otherwise, you can take an hour or two and check out the market. The only thing you have to lose is 2 dollars for parking on weekdays or 6 dollars for parking on weekends. Unfortunately, they control the only parking lot for about a mile, so unless you want to do a lot of walking, these fees are unavoidable.
