Buy Low Sell High

Buy Low Sell High

The above statement is what flea market selling is all about.

It was a lot of fun setting up and selling as a vendor at the flea markets in the East Texas area. It is also a load of work setting up and taking it all back down.

We have some trade-days offered in various cities within a 50 mile radius of my home and I tried this out for about a year and a half.

I would go to garage sales, thrift stores, library book sales and auctions to purchase the items for my booth at the flea market. I generally chose books, craft booklets and vintage items of varying types.

There was great camaraderie among the vendors. If you had to go to the bathroom or go to the food carts there was always someone who would watch your booth for you.

Owners of the pavillion will ask what you sell. They don't want to put you next to a person selling the same thing at the larger markets.

The people who did the most money were the ones selling reconditioned lawn mowers, weed eaters, blowers and such. Also people selling DVDs of music or movies did really well. Antiques in good condition did well if not way over priced. Handcrafted items like ornate birdhouses did very well also.

People made jewelry, birdhouses of all kinds and descriptions and plants did well in the spring and summer. People brought vegetable starts and planters filled with different herbs to sell.

Think about the things you would like to buy new, used or reconditioned to save money, those are the things others probably want too.

Back to the load of work comment. Toting a load of about 800-1000 books around in boxes and setting up the tables and spinner racks was hard work. We could start setting up on Thursday evening and start selling on Fridays.

Fees varied according to the popularity of the flea market or trade days location I would go to for the weekend. Location, location, location. This is a great thing to consider to get the most traffic by your booth in the larger markets. Your price for your booth, or in some cases you would set up in a pavilion, or maybe even outside on the grass, is based on the owners value of the site.

I could make between $100-$800 a weekend. I couldn't do this every weekend, it wore me out setting up and taking down all the tables and equipment by myself. I did all this with my Ford F150. 

Gas prices are a very big reason for the decline in the popularity of flea markets. The biggest decline was in vendors coming to large flea markets in states away from their homes. The cost of gas to drive a motorhome and pull a trailor would definitely have eaten into their profit margins.

Additionally many of the flea markets turned into mini shops for people who bought wholesale to resell at the flea markets. Lots of duplication in the offerings from one pavilion to the next made it less attractive to people looking for vintage items for decorating or antiques for their homes..

 To resell you will need to contact your states sales tax division.  You will be required to apply for a Sales License or it may be called something different in your state. 

You will be required to collect sales tax on the items you sell and report to the state, county and city for the taxes you collect.  Many of the vendors did not get this license and never got caught, however the ones that did get caught paid stiff penalties and fines.  In Texas they had agents who would spot check the markets to see if the vendors could produce their sales license when asked to do so.  I was checked several times at the larger market places.

Some people who sold the big ticket items would get a merchant account to be able to run credit cards on their sales.  This is not as costly today to set up as it was when I was flea marketing.  You can get a cash register for under a hundred dollars if you want one with a bar scanner costing more.  You can now get a scanner attachment for your cell phone to run a credit card, what a boon.

You can write off your mileage to and from the flea market, so be sure to keep a log.  You may also write off your mileage when you shop for your merchandise, keep a notebook in your vehicle to keep track of these miles. 

Any fees you pay at the flea market for booth or site rent will be a deduction, if you go somewhere more than 50 miles from home you may be eligible for a food deduction, check it out, things change over time.  If your rent tables or hire someone to help you set up these fees are also deductions from your income.

Using EBay and Ebay Pulse is a good way to see what the most popular items are on any given day. I used this to find out what books were hot and to check prices for other items. Ebay has a completed listing box you can use to see if an item is selling and what the market is willing to pay. You can only use this if you are a registered member of EBay.

If you have specialized knowledge of a product or service you could sell on EBay and at the flea markets too.

In Dallas there are auctions at the Salvation Army and Goodwill stores. Goodwill has a separate auction site from the store.

They will have a preview time before the auction begins for you to see which cart, bin or lot has merchandise you want. Take a note pad with you to mark them down and determine a bid before the auction starts.

They sell for cash big roll around bins or carts of merchandise. If you have seen the movie The Fugitive, in the scene in the laundry room of the hotel are these large laundry carts full of linens, that is the size of the Goodwill carts and the ones at the Salvation Army were bigger.

People pull up with huge tractor trailor rigs to load up their purchases. They sell everything in big batches like books, glassware, clothing, linens, small toys, shoes and more. They sell lots of computers, sporting equipment like golf clubs, exercise equipment, strollers, and much more.

They will sometimes allow you to request a separate bid for one item. Anyone in the auction could bid on the individual item against you. One of the bad things about the auctions is you couldn't pay for or load your item until the auction was over. Do take someone with you to help watch your purchases while you are loading things into your truck, van or whatever.

You will need your own boxes or crates for moving your purchases too.

Decide what you are going to buy determine a price you are willing to pay and will net you a profit on resale and don't go over the set price.

People who made yard art, trellis, chairs, benches and other outdoor decorations did well in early spring. People making rustic cabinets and tables from weathered wood did well also.

Another venue for selling is shops which sell booth space year round. You pay for your space fill it with your booksheves or other display units to accept your merchandise. They give you a booth number and you have to number and price each item. A manager will collect the money for you and keep track of your sales. They will issue you a check at the end of the month based on your sales. Most of these types of shops will allow you to sell for yourself at anytime.

Some will take an additional fee or percentage of your sales from the profits. 

If you have a specialized area of expertise or make crafted items no matter how large, testing out sales in a shop might be a good way to start.

Start small, test the waters, make some money and have fun.