I’m so NOT ready for the flea market this weekend!
Hello, hello, hello! Good morning ya’ll 🙂 I hope today has brought you sunshine and the birds singing! We are getting closer to Spring and that means we are about to be back in shorts and flip flops! I CAN’T WAIT!!!
We have a busy day so get ready to start your engine and fuel your gas tank (eat a good breakfast!) If you’re gonna hang with me you betta wear some comfy shoes too! 😉
Let’s get organized and then get hopping… !
Today’s to-do list:
- Unload my trailer with flea market inventory from last weekend and reload it for this week end!!! I do not want to keep bringing the same stuff back each week. How boring would that be? We have got to stimulate sales and keep our customers thrilled to see us, right?!
- Pull items from the flea market inventory that needs to go back into the ebay room. I have got to be smart about this and not sell the items at the flea market that I can double my money on selling online. It was almost painful selling items for $1 to $5 that I get $10-$25 online all day long. (Lesson learned… be careful what I pack because the flea market could easily turn into a going out of business sale for my eCommerce!)
- Clean out the ATTIC! I’ve got tubs and bags of toys in the attic (from years of having kiddos) to pull down and go through. It’s a great feeling every time I load up items that I have carried around for years putting off dealing with… you have got to try it!!! Then when you come home to a house that has a little less clutter you have a feeling of freedom and peace you did not have before.
- Fit my daughter’s old bike in the trailer somehow!
- Pack the last little bit I have left piled in the living room and the office and throw it in too!!!
- Pick which tables/shelves I need and leave the rest at home.
- Size down to try to minimize having stuff piled up where nobody will go through it.
- Put all stuffed animals in clear poly bags and clip them to a rope so when I get there I can just hang the rope and have all of them out of my way. They have to be in the bags because the dust/dirt is really bad and lots of items got really dirty that first weekend 😦 ugh!
- Bring sheets to go on the wood tables so items stand out better. Don’t forget the extension cords and radio.
- Pick up to date clothes to hang on the rack (instead of vintage items). Boys, Girls and Men’s clothes sell way better than the women’s!
- My friend cleaned out her house and had me pick up a car load yesterday (happy happy joy joy!!! 🙂 ) but now the work begins! I need to go through it and separate out what goes to eCommerce and what goes to the flea market (and what goes into my closet and on my walls! She gave me some REALLY CUTE STUFF! 😉 )
- Print pictures of the puppies and make a poster board showing each one, their birth date and their future adoption dates. Get phone numbers of anyone interested. Ask $45 for each and plan deliveries for 5 1/2 weeks. In this picture below she had only had 4 of her 7 puppies! We ended up with 6 girls and 1 boy. All are spotted and are too cute! Daddy is a blue spotted chihuahua and mama is jack russell/rat terrier. I will
post new pictures soon just to share our joy. It is always thrilling to have babies 🙂 but it will be a challenge to find homes for all of them. If anyone can help or wants one you can message me or comment below. Any help is appreciated. This is the 2nd unplanned litter so mama will be getting fixed asap! No mas bambinos!!! lol 😉
Pricing my Flea Market Items:
I have Pricing Issues! My daughter and another vendor is telling me I am definitely selling too low. I have a tendency to ask too little for items up front in fear of them walking off so I low ball it and end up feeling regretful when I sell it for that. To top it off about 9 out of 10 times the customer ends up low balling my low ball! lol I have got to get a backbone and get better at holding my price because you know what… even at the low ball price they can still just turn around and walk off. And they do! I don’t even know why they ask how much it is if they really have no intention at all of buying it. Such a tease! (lol) But I guess that’s just part of being a flea marketeer!!!
IDEA 1: I am going to make a price list to bring with me. Maybe that will help me bring in a few extra bucks and help me remember I’m there to make money not just give everything away for a third of what I need for it!!!? The videos I watch all say to not put price tags or signs on your items because it’s all about “the deal.” The buyers want to have some fun too and part of that is feeling like they got a good deal on what they buy. If there is a price tag on your items it tends to intimidate them and they don’t even seem to try to make an offer. They may not even stop. If they don’t stop to wheel and deal on the 1st item that catches their eye then guess what, they won’t see the other item that may catch their eye if they hang out long enough to see it!
Idea 2: Get things out on the tables that catch people’s eyes so it will draw 
them in to see all the other great things they may “need” but not be thinking they are looking for… does that make sense to you? I have seen it happen. Example: we had a little kids’ toy on the table. It was a play metal detector. I bet 20 stopped and looked at that little kids metal detector that day. Nobody bought it but they all stopped and it gave them a chance to break the ice, feel a little more comfortable and look around.
Flea markets are a Social Event:
It is a place to meet interesting people, see interesting things you can’t find at the mall or Walmart and you may even make a few friends! If you go just to make money you will make less than 1/2 of what your potential is. I’ve only sold at flea markets a few times but I’ve been the buyer many times. The bottom line is I will not buy from a person that is rude, obnoxious or greedy. There is a huge difference between greedy and needy too. I will pay more if they appear to really need it but I will walk away if they just seem greedy. I will not care what they have. It will never be worth giving that person one dime of my money. Period. Now if you give me a stupid sales pitch, like a carnival worker or a car salesman, I will not stop either. But… if you are a real person and you’ve brought items that are not dirty and trashed or broken, if you look approachable and give me a smile… then I’ll give you a smile back, say hello and give you a few minutes of my time to visit because you’re literally waiting for someone to talk to you. This is a people vs. people thing. If you don’t like people or like talking to them or if you don’t like them touching your stuff then you are in the wrong business.
Something I saw that happened just last weekend (example): OMGosh last weekend I watched a seller fuss every time somebody started looking at her stuff! She flat out asked them “are you going to buy that?”(bark bark) and then she would say “if you’re not going to buy that then don’t be playing with it!” (bark bark bark growl) I was like holy cow!!!??? Did she just do that? I went straight over to my daughter and told her to stay far away from that one because if she was mean to my daughter my redneck side come outta my booth and that wouldn’t go well at all! But I do have to say at the end of the day my neighbor vendor across the way was visiting with her and honestly she didn’t seem evil or mean at all. I was packing up my things and listening to them talking for a few minutes and when I had a chance I told a story about one of my customers that day, we all laughed and I walked away feeling a little guilty for thinking she had horns and fangs all day. I found out she has been doing this, selling in that same spot, for over 25 years at this same flea market! We never really know what makes people do what they do. We don’t know what roads they have been down or where they go at the end of the day. Part of me thinks maybe I should pay attention and learn something but the other part of me thinks… I hope I never treat people like that! lol I definitely have a tendency to look at the employees on a new job, listen to their attitudes about the company and picture myself 10-15 or 20 years down the road… are they happy? are they miserable? And will that be me some day if I work there? It will make you think that’s for sure. Just food for thought!
Judy's StopNShop 