Flea Market Flip, AKA Who Pays $700 at a FLEA MARKET?!

Cafe Society
1

I recorded this because I like flea markets and wanted to get some idea on what’s the new hot item out there, but holy jeebus, they’re SO EXPENSIVE!

For those of you not in the know - 2 teams of 2 people go out and buy shitty furniture and then do some cosmetic makeovers in 3 different themes and then sell the pieces at the Center Of Hiptown - The Brooklyn Flea (Market. It’s now hip to leave off the end of everything. It’s ridic and I find it hilar.)

I’ve gone to flea markets for the better part of 15 years. NEVER have I seen an item for $700. Am I just going to the wrong ones? Don’t get me wrong - the stuff they sell is, by and large, very nicely refinished. It’s just… who pays $700 for a loveseat at a flea market?

2

I’ve been to a lot of flea markets that have that sort of item, and higher. They’re called “Flea Markets” in the technical sense but are really just regularly held open-air antique malls.

3

Yeah that’s not weird at all. Flea Markets run the gamut.

4

It’s actually been going on for a while. 20 years ago, Forbes magazine had an article about swap meets that would have luxury car dealers set up shop.

5

I don’t know if this happened in other parts of the world, but in Quebec offering expensive items in flea markets was a workaround for Sunday shopping blue laws. For many years, stores weren’t allowed to operate on Sundays, but those restrictions didn’t apply to flea markets. Gradually, flea markets started selling new furniture, wedding gowns, and all sorts of pricey goods to take advantage of the gap. The law was eventually changed to allow Sunday shopping in stores, but flea markets here still have more expensive (and brand-new) goods than you might expect.

6

You and I may think it’s stup. But the hips in Brook don’t have time for all those syls.

7

raises hand - I have - and I still ahve the item I purchased - and before I even left the area where I purchased it - had someone telling me to “name my price” to sell said item to them. This was close to twenty years ago, before the internet and e-bay effectively killed the flea market.

A MINT set of 1967 Star Trek Leaf trading cards - no, not the 1981 reprint, no not the European reprints either - the legit set.

8

We bought a fairly expensive saddle for my daughter at a flea market. I don’t think it was $700, but it wasn’t spare change.

9

Well, she is your daughter. So it’s worth spending that little extra so that she’s as comfortable as possible when you’re riding her.

10

She said I rode her all the time. “Do your homework!” “Go to bed!”

11

I am a novice about flea markets, but I thought flea markets are about getting a deal/bargain. If these people bought the bargain and flip it for a 60%+ upcharge? I guess if I was a buyer and saw this program I would feel like I was taken.

12

You’re just trying to stirrup trouble.

13

Star Trek TOS phaser w/Nimoy certificate of authenticity: $500 I didn’t have. Knew it was real because it was only good enough to pass on a 1966 25" Philco. Real props are only good enough.

Mounted white buffalo head that my wife wouldn’t even look at because she’d had enough trouble already with Deer Woman and Mescalito.*: $3000 I didn’t have but couldn’t spend because even the children of White Buffalo are way too big medicine to fuck with.

Getting winked at by an infomercial star during a demonstration: Priceless. I’m straight, but it’s nice to be appreciated.

But these were at the Kane County Flea Market, which is a bit upscale.

    • Word to the wise: Don’t marry a witch. Not a Wiccan or Satanist; they’re harmless. I mean a Wise Woman or Bruja. They can poison you undetectably.
14

I have seen many items over $700 at various sites here.

15

My mother and I long theorized that the “buyers” in Flea Market flip episodes were given the cash by the show’s producers. Otherwise, the fact that some of the horrible, terrible things produced on the show are sold, let alone for the prices they are, is too fantastical to believe.