Back to the Flea Market

This weekend was my first time back at the flea market since I got my appendix out. My absence was one part not being able to lift heavy boxes and one part being too busy on weekends having fun doing other things.

But now it's only a month until I leave for Africa and so I figured I should at least try a few more times to sell some things before the trip. Pin money for bug spray and Immodium perhaps?

For those who don't already know this, my flea market earnings are all put aside for travelling money. I started selling things in 1998 for my trip with Tai to Ireland, and whole basements and garages worth of junk have gone towards trips to Spain, Portugal, Morocco, Italy and France.

"Where are you going now?" is a familiar question from regular flea market customers. Now of course some folks don't really care whether their fifty cents is going towards a safaria in Kenya or car payments and soda pop....but there are a number of people who DO seem to care.

One little old lady is so sweet. She tells me she is so glad I'm doing this, that I'll never regret it. Every time she comes to my table she buys something and usually leaves an extra dollar or two.

Another lady told my mother (who always drops by when I'm running a table) that she must be so proud. She said to me, "You're living your dreams!...I saw a show on that the other day, and now I've met a person who's actually doing it!" She seemed very excited for me and she was a total stranger. I am so glad there are people like that! :)

I'm also very glad there are people who pass on their cast-off things to me. I can sell my items without any sentimentality because they were never mine. Thanks Tracy, Emily, Karen, Bonnie and all you others who have made my basement full of ever-so-profitable junk!

Under a sunny sky on Sunday I sold such varied items as :

* eleven romance novels * a brass shark *napkins with a "tennis theme * three dollhouse chairs * a bag of rawhide bones * a microwave cookbook * a slightly deflated basketball * a chipped salt shaker in the shape of a blue bird * an A&W pin * assorted costume jewellry and oh! so much more.....

I made about ninety dollars which is less than I've sometimes made but considering that most of my items go for under two dollars it's not bad at all. As I say to many who ask how the day's going: "I'm nickel and diming my way to fortune!"

Mark, the guy at the next table, whose junk is of a much finer calibre than mine, was in a tizzy. He had just watched someone else scoop up an authentic chastity belt for only five dollars. oh, the pathos!

I'll probably never have a find like that on my table (naw, that's what Ebay is for!) but it's much more relaxing knowing I'm an honest junk merchant. Recycling you know!