Have you ever tried to sell something that you knew was valuable, but no one would buy it?

There is only ONE RULE in the flea market business:
An item--Any item--is worth ONLY WHAT SOMEONE WILL PAY YOU FOR IT.

It's a hard rule, to be sure. Nevertheless, this is a rule that you cannot afford to ignore.

For pricing your merchandise you want to do this well in advance of the market. And be sure to determine your prices for everything you'll be selling, even if you do not use price tags. Also, prices for your items may change from week to week, depending on which market you're selling at.

A reader posted this question:
"I found a great deal of good info from this lens, but can you clarify on the pricing thing? I buy from a wholesaler and my retail is usually 3x the wholesale. If I go by your 50% rule, I'd have to sell at a high volume to make any decent profit. Should I price 5x higher than what I bought at wholesale? Thank you."
Tom

The pricing information I have here are GUIDELINES only. If you have a price strategy that is working well, by all means stick with it.

If you regularly purchase most of your stock from the same wholesalers, this usually eliminates the need for alternative pricing strategies. Since you know what your cost is and what the market will bear, you'll be safe with a simple markup policy.

If, however, you make your merchandise purchases from diverse sources other than traditional wholesalers, you'll find that the simple mark-up process will not apply. That's where the strategies presented here come into play.

A good rule of thumb for pricing any merchandise which can be purchased in retail stores: The magic selling price seems to be about 65%-75% less (or greater) than an item's retail price. I've experimented with pricing merchandise at half of its retail price--and failed miserably. Buyers (especially women) will not buy anything from a flea market when they know they can buy it on when it's on sale at a store. For example, say you're asking $18 for a "doohicky" (whatever that is!) which sells for $25 in stores. No one will buy it from you--but they will buy it from the store when it goes on sale for $18. This same principle applies even if the "doohicky" retails for $2,500.

~ INSIDER SECRET ~
The FIRST thing you want to do when your roll into town for a weekend flea market...go and purchase a local paper, Saturday edition. It will have all the sales inserts for that weekend. Check the inserts to see if any of your merchandise is on sale. If any items are on sale, reprice those items well below their sale price.

One time I was selling a really nice, high-end Sears shop vacuum for $35 (shop vacs usually sell like hotcakes). Much to my dismay no one showed any interest in it. That afternoon one gentleman was kind enough to inform me that Sears was having a huge sale that weekend, and their $85+ high-end shop vacs were on sale for $35!

Then there was the time I was selling at an antiques flea market in San Francisco. I prominently displayed a very old and rare electric train set (in fact, that train was the sole reason I came to this particular market). All day long, no one showed any interest in the train. Finally someone told me that the weekend before, Butterfield & Butterfield (a prominent auction house) held an auction of a huge number of antique electric trains. They had completely saturated the market! All I could do was chalk it up to experience.

~ INSIDER SECRET ~
You are not always going to have lots of buyers, even if thousands of people are attending your event. That being said, if someone is haggling with you--and they walk away Without the Item--you've LOST. When this occurs, I'll often call after them "OK, I'll give it to you for X dollars." As long as this amount is exactly what they offered, they'll buy it. Besides, you're still making a profit. On a slow selling day (which usually means low sales) this technique can turn your day around and provide you with greater profits.

With any potential buyer, take the time to find a price you'll both be comfortable with. Create a "Win-Win" transaction.

~ INSIDER SECRET ~
Sometimes folks think that they're getting a good deal only if they can beat the seller down to the lowest possible price. Use some common sense here and avoid these very rude and inconsiderate individuals at all costs. Don't waste your time haggling with them or even talking with them, otherwise they'll distract you from connecting with other buyers. If you do interact with this type of person, in their wake you'll find that they leave behind a psychic garbage dump, a palatable aura of Negative Energy. And that negative energy is hard to get rid of and it will drive away other potential buyers.

You need to make a living too. I'll never forget the women who kept coming back all afternoon with an offer of .35 cents for a $5 item. I've long forgotten what the item was--but I've never forgotten that woman!

~ INSIDER SECRET ~
How do you set a selling price for an item when you've no idea of it's value? Normally, pricing something higher than the buyers are willing to pay would counter-productive! But you will want to use this strategy to discover what the market will pay for said item: start with a high price and then gradually lower it. The feedback you get from folks will eventually clue you in to the correct asking price!

~ INSIDER SECRET ~
"You make your profit when you make your purchase." This advice was given to me by an old-time flea marketer. He sold tools that he acquired at auctions. This man quit his real estate brokerage business and began selling at flea markets--where he made $100,000 annually.

This seemingly simple advice guided me for many years. When you buy merchandise for resale, if you're able to purchase it at a low enough price, you'll be making a profit no matter what selling price you set. That old timer purchased huge volumes of tools at auctions for pennies (or less) on the dollar. He really knew his business!

By now you're probably muttering "For heaven's sake, Steven Curly Bear, TELL ME HOW MUCH PROFIT I CAN MAKE!"

Ok! here's my rule of thumb: "Five-to-One", or "5:1". With items that I purchase to resell my goal is to sell it for 5 times what I paid for it. This is also a good rule of thumb to use for making purchases of individual items (at garage sales, estate sales, etc.) to sell later.

You won't always be able to get a 5:1 return. When something does not sell after a couple of flea markets, then it's time to drop the price. You'll learn as you go. And that's part of the fun! Also, lowering the price converts those items into ca$h, which allows you to purchase fresh inventory!

~ INSIDER SECRET ~
It is very important that you NOT focus on "How much money" you want to make WHILE you're selling. As Kenny Roger's advises in his song 'The Gambler': "You don't count your money when you're sitting at the table. You count your money when the dealing's done." This same advice applies to selling at flea markets.

Be careful not to get too emotionally attached to anything you're selling (especially if you're selling personal possessions). This alone makes it Very Hard to sell! You may cherish it and you may feel your price is justified (as it well may be). But remember the FIRST RULE of flea market selling: Any Item is Worth ONLY What Someone Will Pay You For It.
(see WHAT'S IT REALLY WORTH?)

GET THEE AN AWNING / CANOPY!!!

"What Kind of Awning / Canopy Do I Need and Where Can I Get One?"

QUESTION: In how short of a time would it take for you to get heat stroke by standing outside on hot pavement with no shade the entire day?
ANSWER: Don't answer that question--just get a canopy!

When you are selling at any open-air market--without any means of shade--you are essentially placing yourself inside a HOT OVEN all day. No matter what the air temperature is, the temperature of the pavement will be much hotter. This heat penetrates strait up through the soles of your shoes, into your feet and right up through your body, and dangerously raising your vital core temperature. So even if you're wearing a wide-brimmed hat, you'll still getting fried. In this situation, drinking lots of water will not help (although you do want to drink lots of water--especially if it's a hot day--throughout the day. But make sure YOU stay in the shade!).

My neighbor--a nurse--continually reminds me to stay out of the sun as much as possible when I'm selling. She's seeing a greater number of skin cancer cases than ever before, in a region that historically has not had skin cancer. Have I convinced you yet of the necessity of getting a canopy?

There are 3 main types of canopies you can use for your selling booth. The first type is a shade canopy with plastic poles. The second is a pole-and-tarp awning. The third type is a pop-up awning. If you are only going to sell once or twice you can get by with a plastic pole canopy. But make sure YOU stay under it's shade, since they provide only a small area of shade.

For serious sellers, investing in a pole-and-tarp or pop-up type of canopy is a must.

Pictured above is a pop-up canopy/awning I used for several years. When folded-up it stands a little under 5 feet tall and about 12 inches square. It even fits into a sub-compact car!

Side panels are optional with some pop-up canopies. These side panels very useful for keeping out rain, providing shade and securing the contents if leaving the awning up overnight.

~ INSIDER SECRET ~
Here's how you can make your own inexpensive side panels for rain protection: get a roll of 3-4 mil. thick clear plastic sheeting at least 50 feet long...wrap it around at least 3 sides of the awning and secure it with spring clamps. It does a great job both of keeping you and your merchandise DRY while keeping you 'Open for Business' when it rains! While most of the other vendors get rained out.

Oh!...and always travel with 6 or more cheap (and I do mean cheap, they cost .99 cents and are good for one use only) clear plastic drop cloths. This way, if there is an imminent threat of rain, unroll the plastic over any exposed tables & merchandise. Tuck the ends under the table (or clamp the ends down). This keeps any exposed merchandise dry and keeps you open for business! When someone expresses interest in an item, just pull it out from under the plastic and hand it to them.

Now, having said all that, I can't help but recall the time I sold during a long heatwave. Hot. 102 degrees in the shade. Not a cloud in the sky. While loading supplies I neglected to pack--for the very first time--any plastic tarps. Yep, it was hot all day long, still 102 degrees when the thunderstorm clouds rolled in with their buckets of rain! I had to take down my booth and stop selling for lack of drop cloths!

~ Corollary: Always check the weather forecast the day before you sell. ~

Pole-and-Tarp Awnings:
These are less expensive than pop-up style awnings. They're made from 1/2" metal poles and covered with a tarp. I started out using a pole and tarp awning. However, I disliked the weight--the poles alone weigh twice as much as an instant pop-up canopy/awning. That being said, if you need to cover an extra large selling area, Pole-and-Tarps are the only way to go.

Tarp Guidelines (for Pole-and-Tarp awnings):

PLASTIC Tarps:
no, No, NO! Plastic tarps HOLD the heat in. Been there, done that!

Blue Tarps, however, are perfect to use. They are woven together and the weave allows the hot air to escape (um, no puns intended!). Also they're handy to use as drop cloths, protecting your merchandise from the dirt/grime that's always on the ground. Buyers much prefer to browse items displayed on drop cloths instead of on the bare ground.

Silver colored tarps are the BEST: they reflect light and heat, and retains the shade's cool air.

~ INSIDER SECRET ~
All pop-up awnings/canopies are made the same, right? Wrong! And it is a BIG difference. Inexpensive pop-up canopies have two drawbacks: 1. Their frames are not very strong; 2. Their legs are splayed (like the one in the photograph above).

The splayed legs present several problems. The front two legs will ALWAYS stick out and trip people as they walk by or browse your goods. In the above photograph I avoided this hazard by leaning items against the poles (besides, where else could you get an antique toboggan in the middle of summer?). This method may not always work, depending upon the arrangement of your tables,etc. More importantly, these two exposed legs will cause you to lose valuable selling space. You also cannot put such awnings next to each other (again because of the difficulty with the legs).

Another drawback to splayed legs is that it is difficult to attach tie-down weights to them. Without proper anchoring the entire canopy can take off like a kite in strong gusts of wind. I've seen it happen. Once the awning goes airborne the frames (which are weak to begin with) warp from the stress and are rendered useless.

If you are just starting out selling at flea markets and have little money to invest, I suggest starting with the splayed-leg type of awning. I used mine for several years. They're relatively inexpensive (about $100) at most hardware and sporting good stores. Just be careful and anchor it well. Be gentle with it and it will serve you well.

The other--and much preferred--style of pop-up awning (picture below) has an extremely strong, reinforced frame. I've seen vendors hang clothes from three sides of the canopy, adding a load of about 200 lbs. Talk about strong frame! With the other, splayed-leg style I didn't dare hang any load of more than 10 lbs. from each side!

You can see from the photo below that this style has STRAIT legs. This make a Big Difference overall strength of the frame (and potential buyers will not trip over the legs!). You can easily use two or more of these awnings side by side to greatly increase your covered selling area.

Also, these canopies can be set-up in as little as 1-2 minutes (or in 5 minutes if I haven't had my morning coffee). Easy set-up means easy take-down. Which is important at the end of a long, hot, selling day...when you are dead tired, it only takes 4-5 minutes to collapse the canopy and put it in its storage bag!

Event Tent 10' x 10' Instant Canopy

This is a Patented, rust resistant, folding steel frame that sets-up in less than one minute. The water and flame resistant royal blue polyester top offers excellent sun and weather protection. The system ships complete with anchor stakes and carry bag.
Steven Curly Bear says "Check It Out!"

If you are planning to sell at an outdoor venue you haven't been to before, look it up in Google Earth. This is a free program that you can download and view satellite photographs of the entire world. You can even zoom in close enough to see people on the ground! Use it to zoom in on the location of the market you're going to get an idea of the layout. You can usually zoom in even closer than in the picture below. Here's a satellite-generated photo from Google Earth of a Drive-In Theater's flea market that has 409 Selling Spaces:

~ INSIDER SECRET ~
It is important to know where the prime selling spots are located (this takes a little advance research). Once you've found the good selling areas (which you've confirmed by talking to various sellers), ask the vendors what time they arrived in line that morning. Flea market spaces (unless you have advance reservations) are "First come, first serve". Therefore, your arrival time will be the KEY to securing a great selling location.

~ INSIDER SECRET ~
Always Bring A Compass! This will enable you to select a selling location where the sun will always be at your back!

Oh, and for those of you who sell mirrors...please pay attention and reposition them throughout the day. Otherwise they reflect the powerful rays of the sun directly in the eyes of your potential buyer's! Perhaps now you have a better idea why mirrors--along with your other merchandise--do not sell easily in the afternoon. Flea market buyers avoid any afternoon booths that sell any medium or large mirrors.

You've seen them...towards the end of any flea market: "$1 Tables" where any item on the table is only $1. This seems like a good idea, but in practice it fails miserably.

Towards the end of any flea market, vendors will stack s-l-o-w moving merchandise on a table with a "EVERYTHING $1" sign. One reason this fails is that the majority of vendors put their $1 Table up at around the same time, late in the selling day. But more importantly, Buyers know that the vendors are trying to get rid of stuff that hasn't sold. And so they automatically ignore any $1 table.

~ INSIDER SECRET #1 ~
Put your "$1 Table" up at the START of the flea market! Your merchandise will be fresh and will attract many bargain hunters. And you won't have any competition!

~ INSIDER SECRET #2 ~
Odd Numbers
"Odd numbers?!? NOW what in the heck is he talking about?!?" I hear you wail. It's simple. Using Insider Secret #1 above, you will still run up against buyers who are jaded from seeing umpteen $1 Tables. And thus ignore them. But if you change your $1 table to a .75¢, .50¢, or .25¢ table, you'll find that their previous reluctance is overcome by their innate curiosity and by their overwhelming desire for a bargain. This will draw much more people to your booth, providing you with greater opportunities to:

1) Create a CROWD of Interested Buyers (crowds draw more people!).

2) Get rid of your slow moving items.

3) Sell your higher-priced merchandise!

4) Make more money (but you already knew that!).

Vendors who apply this strategy report a significant increase in the numbers of folks coming to their booths.

Do you know why buyers automatically ignore prices of $1 -- but a price of .75¢ (or .50¢ or .25¢) grabs their attention? It is because .75¢/.50¢/.25¢ are essentially "odd" numbers.

But wait...isn't $1 an odd number? Mathematically speaking it is. However, in the flea market business odd / even numbers are quite different than their mathematical counterparts.

Even Numbers are the prices $1, $5, $10, $15, $20, $25, and so on. These are prices that Buyers like to bargain on. It is sometimes harder for buyers to bargain downwards if you use "odd numbered" prices ("You want $17 for that? I'll give you $15!" "Sold!" you cheerfully reply). Basically "Odd Number" prices are anything other than $1 and any $5-incremental prices.

Melinda submitted the following question:

"I am getting ready to sell jewelry at a local flea market. It is not anything real expensive but it is very pretty. I was wondering about how to protect my merchandise from being stolen? Because of the size of the merchandise, I think it would be easy to do. Any tips?"

This is a great question! Theft prevention is one important issue that all sellers must be vigilant of. You've heard the phrase "due diligence"? I call flea market theft prevention "Due Vigilance".

For new sellers, dealing with theft of merchandise--and avoiding theft--can be unnerving. To help remedy this here are some guidelines you can utilize:

The size of your merchandise does not matter to a thief. Certainly smaller items are easier to purloin. However, a thief once stole a heavy, 35 lb. and very bulky electric motor from me. It was the one thing I didn't bother to keep an eye on since I figured it was so bulky and heavy that no one would bother trying to steal it. Was I ever wrong!

When you lay out your tables, keep your expensive items located in a central area of the tables. Have the less valuable items on the outlying tables further away from you.

~ INSIDER SECRET ~
Here's my "2-1-2 Strategy" for handling your Expensive Items: only give out TWO items at any ONE time to any TWO customers to examine. Always make eye contact with and acknowledge anyone waiting and tell them you'll "Be with them in a minute". That's very important! Meanwhile, keep your main attention focused on the folks handling your expensive goods. I have experimented with handing out expensive items to 3 customers at a time. This doesn't work because each person will have questions. Typically, each person will usually have 3 questions, so that's 9 questions you're busy fielding at the same time! It's way too confusing to answer many questions while keeping track of your merchandise.

For selling at large markets, it's better to have a friend help you in the booth, particularly if there will be a lot of people attending your event. But do not deviate from the "2-1-2 Strategy". The larger the crowds, the more important this strategy is.

Your less valuable merchandise will be out in the wings, so-to-speak. You have, haven't you (just say "Yes sir!"), determined beforehand what prices you'll be asking for ALL of your merchandise? If you haven't determined the asking price of any of your merchandise, DO NOT PUT IT OUT. If you try to price items "on the fly", the vultures will smell your confusion and move in for the kill.
Steven Curly Bear says: "Never Give a Vulture An Even Chance."

OK, let's get back to the subject of thieves. By following the guidelines above, if the crooks are going to steal from you, they'll be forced to steal from your lower priced items from your outlying tables. Ahem, you have put those items that just won't sell out on the ends of those tables, haven't you? (wink, wink, nod nod).

~ INSIDER SECRET ~
Here's another scenario. Someone asks to see one of your expensive items (let's say it's a camera). You hand the camera to them to examine, while explaining its features. The potential buyer responds with:
"Are you CRAZY? This is the worst camera I've ever seen! WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU? Look at what's wrong with it..." While they're yelling this, they are also looking around and gesturing to other potential buyers to get their attention. They'll continue to point out all that is "horribly" wrong with your camera.

If this happens to you, KNOW that this is a set-up for an outright theft or a swindle! The FIRST step is to take a deep breath and force yourself to stay CALM. The SECOND thing you need to do is get the merchandise BACK in your hands! Reach out to hold it and say "What part is broken?" While they point it out to you, say "Let me take a look at that" and forcefully (but not abruptly) pull it out of their hands and securely put it away OUT of their reach.

Tell them to take a hike and call security if you need to. Also alert your fellow vendors (e.g. "HEY SAM! I'VE GOT A THIEF OVER HERE!"). This really turns the tables on the thief...hehehe!). We all hate thieves...and thieves really hate attention.

Often thieves will work in pairs, where one creates a ruckus and the other one, when no one's watching, steals whatever they want.

This is a World War II submarine--the USS Pampanito. Although you can find practically anything for sale at a flea market, you will never find this particular item for sale! (I just couldn't resist adding this photo).

The USS Pampanito is located at Pier 45 of the San Francisco Fisherman's Wharf Marina. It has been restored and is open for public tours. It is a fascinating piece of history.

You never know what you'll find at the flea market! Keep your eyes open and your mind open to expecting really good finds.

Here's a link to more information about this submarine:
USS Pampanito

Coming Soon...............!

"How To Make More Money Selling At Flea Markets And Swap Meets" by Steven "Curly Bear" Brown: The Flea Market Guru is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.

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