I barely noticed the couple as they looked over the items I had set up on the pavement at a flea market last weekend. Two large metal outdoor watering tins, one vintage. A wall planter with tulip pots by Stangl. White plastic outdoor chairs. Sony PlayStation controllers. And other odds and ends.
Then they glanced at the table of glassware I was trying to unload, much of it lovely items I’d picked up as part of box lots. Then they moved on.
“You’re right,” he sniffed to the woman. “There’s nothing here.”
That was rather rude, I said to my auction and flea-market buddy Janet. He didn’t even wait to get out of earshot of me before trashing my stuff. Couldn’t he have whispered to the woman? Or was he just a miserable person who wasn’t home-trained in civility?
I go to flea markets and yard sales, and in some cases, I don’t find anything I want to buy. But it would never occur to me to insult the seller. What one person may consider nothing could be that right thing for another. It all depends on what you’re looking for.
After the man left (and I fumed to Janet and called him a few select names), I started to watch and listen to other people’s reactions to the merchandise and the prices quoted or tagged. It didn’t take long for me to see other rude encounters.
Near us, the most seemed to be inflicted on an auction regular whom we’d gotten to know from our auction haunts. He was selling vintage items – but not at giveaway prices – along with some lower-priced items. Among his vintage stuff were countertop chewing gum and cigarette racks.
Buyers and lookers come to flea markets with pennies in their pockets, not nickels. So they’re looking for steals, not bargains, and can get huffy when you won’t give away your nickel stuff for their pennies. Example: A woman spotted a small basket among my stuff and picked it up. “How much,” she asked. “$1,” I answered. She put it back down without a word and walked away. At least she didn’t insult me.
Flea markets have evolved, but unfortunately many buyers have not. Yard sales usually indicate that sellers have cleaned out their basements. That’s not necessarily true of flea markets. Many of those selling do this for a living. Our next-door seller was one of them.
Several people asked him for the price on a red bicycle he had propped in his space: $200. They weren’t interested. Janet overheard one of them say to a companion: “He bought it for nothing and raised the price.”
“Of course,” Janet said. “Do they want him to lower the price?” That wouldn’t make much sense. (Click on photo of bike above for a fuller view.)
The bike was a Goodyear Hi-Way Patrol. In Googling, I found it mentioned often in bike forums (most seemed to be 1950s models that buyers had found at auctions). I couldn’t find one for sale, but did find a Gold Eagle bike by Goodyear that sold for $374 on eBay. Bikes sold under the Goodyear name were apparently made by other companies.
In another encounter, the flea-market seller told me, he offered someone a good deal on an item. “This IS a flea market,” the non-buyer balked. No sale.
During a lull in the procession of lookers, I decided to check out the other sellers. I did not see much that drew me to the tables, except for some nice vintage cameras and beautiful buttons. I saw many people, though, hunched over tables examining the merchandise or walking around with bags filled with goodies. They apparently found something to their liking.
Interestingly, I was at an estate sale a few days later when I overheard a conversation that had the right tone. One man had just arrived and walked up to another whom he apparently knew.
“Anything here?” he asked. “Depends on what you’re looking for,” the other remarked.
Right answer.
The last shopper was right, it all depends on what you’re looking for. It sounds like you had a few yard sale shoppers who thought they had pulled into a yard sale obviously not knowing the difference. If they took the time to roll up in a Goodwill these days, they’d have appreciated the $1 price tag on your basket. As a seller, I’ve just come to ignore the rude, as there are some. I hate it the most when people come through my booth and look over my pieces and say “I can make that”… then they continue to peruse slowly, as I’m assuming to see what else they can copy … drives me crazy.