Friday Flea Markets

Hopefully you are having a Good Friday?

If you are in the Pennslyvania or New Jersey area and looking for a flea market
to attend on this or any other Friday, you might want to check out Green Dragon or Collingswood.

Both of them will be added to our next round of flea market openings and on-going markets, along with details about the Valley Stream market that was recently brought to my attention.

Friday markets are not that uncommon, but I only know a hand-full of vendors that sell on Fridays. Most of the vendors I know use Friday as a last-minute shopping day to get ready for the weekend. The only Fridays I've worked were at Englishtown Auction Sales on Black Friday, but the past couple of years haven't been worth the effort.

However Green Dragon and Collingswood both have a steady stream of vendors and shoppers who use Friday to get themselves organized and to do their own shopping.

Green Dragon is located in Bucks County PA., so it is a long haul from the Tri-State area however Josh (an incense and oil vendor) makes the trek from Brooklyn every so often. A full review of Green Dragon will be provided in the next couple of months.

Collingswood however is attended weekly by a good friend of mine, Ms. James, a vendor who basically sells anything she has lying around. Perhaps she is drawn to Collingswood by the low ($2-$5) table rents. Located in Central New Jersey, Collingswood offers a little of everything for those who don't mind roughing it.

Happy vending and shopping.

-FMN

Real Weekend Warriors

It's about 11:40am on Saturday morning and I can easily think of a dozen places I'd rather be, but instead I'm here at Englishtown Auction sales grinding it out.

Never mind the fact that it is 28 degrees out side, even though the sun is shining bright. Never mind that my alarm clock went off at 5:45am. Never mind that my wife is home sleeping. Never mind the hour plus drive it took to get here or the week-long preparation that goes into get ready. It's just part of the weekend warrior business.

Being a flea market vendor is often an exercise in futility. But, you never know what the weekend is going to bring. So you gather your wares during the week, show up, and hope for the best. Some us go home further in the hole and others of go home with more that what we earned all week. It is a complete crap shoot.

My hat goes off to my fellow weekend warriors. Surely we could sit around the house and work on the "Honey-do" list or play touch football, but we'd rather brave the elements and make a buck in the process. Men and women alike, old and young, some employed and other retired, foreigners and U.S. citizens, all trying to earn a little extra.

Kudos to those that work 40 hours (or more) then still make it to the market on the weekend. I applaud those who run small business and stores during the week then come to the market to haggle with bargain-seekers, after we're in a flea market.
I hold up my glass to those vendors who come out with only enough gas to get them to the market, your determination is unrivaled.

Being a real weekend warrior takes a lot of guts. Vending in a flea market is not like having a kiosk in a mall or a store front. The entire process or running a stand in any market is not easy.

So whether you are in the Aqueduct Flea Market, Englishtown Auction Sales, the Boulevard Flea Market, Cow Town, Collingswood, Green Dragon, Smiley's, Bill's, or Pendergrass, keep going hard.

And when you don't feel like getting out of bed on Saturday or Sunday morning to go the market, remember that Tommy Hilfiger started out selling his jeans at Columbus Flea Market in New Jersey. Not many of us will ever see Hilfiger's wealth, but the odds are definitely in your favor if you focus on your weekend warrior status.

Fight on my fellow weekend warriors, fight on.

-FMN