If you enjoy people watching as a hobby, there is no better place to go than a flea market. Of course, the customers that mill about the tables and booths offer a veritable treasure trove of character traits and amusing anecdotes.
But it is the flea market vendors that are the real characters. There are three basic types of flea market vendors at your average flea market.
The first type of flea market vendor is the one-shot seller. This person, often a woman, or group of women, has come to the flea market to unload the accumulated junk from their kids’ closets, their husband’s garage and shed, and the attics of their suburban homes.
These flea market vendors only come to the flea market one time, or maybe one time per year. They consider it to be a fun outing or even an adventure, and gossip and gaggle with the shoppers and the vendors on either side.
At their table, you will usually find a plethora of toys and baby goods, gently used or even new clothing, and house wares. Kitchen gadgets are prevalent on their flea market tables. These people set high prices and can be talked down with a smile.
The second type of flea market vendor is the full-time salesman. These are the people who are at the flea market every single week, and often travel around to different flea markets during the week. These full-time flea market vendors are most often male, or consist of a middle aged or older couple. The usually drive vans, pick-up trucks with caps, or box trucks.
The full-time flea market vendors have the most interesting items on their tables. They will have some of the appliances, toys, and clothing that the one-shot marketers have, but it will be interspersed with more serious goods. These flea market vendors are further broken down into two groups: the new merchandise sellers, and the junk dealers. New merchandise sellers buy products wholesale and resell them. Junk dealers will sell anything, neatly cleaned and in good working order. These flea market vendors expect to haggle, and they are experts at it.
The third type of flea market vendors is the most interesting. They are the flea market nuts. The nutty flea marketers’ tables do not usually have a lot of items, and what they do have are usually not things a lot of people will want to buy. Why? Many of these vendors make the round of the trash containers after the previous day’s flea market is over. They pick out any items that other flea market vendors have left.
They also try to sell items that are in dismal condition, don’t work – “Radio for parts!” – or are really only parts of a whole. These nutty flea market vendors often set ridiculous prices for their merchandise, often intending to haggle angrily over every nickel and dime.
These three types of flea market vendors make going to the flea market a purely entertaining experience.
