I love flea markets and garage sales. When I go I always look for two items. Pedestal cake plates and Wallace Nutting pictures in original frames.
Yesterday at the flea market I found both. But did not buy them. The cake plate was one I have been searching for, for ions. A Fostoria American pattern 10" square pedestal cake plate. The seller had a price sticker of $185.00 and would not budge on the price. The plate had a flea size chip in it that was not visible but could be felt when one ran a finger along the scalloped edge. I pointed the flaw out to the seller and he still would not budge. I also told him the plates usually sell for $125.00 on eBay, he still would not budge. Schmuck!
EBay has the plate every so often, but I never win the bids. Usually I am to late to up my bid, and I have lost confidence in the eBay system as a whole. To many scams and con-artists sell and buy on eBay.
The Wallace Nutting picture was in the original frame, but the matting had a huge water stain on it. The seller was asking premium pricing for the picture too. I did even bother trying to negotiate the price for the picture because of the water stain.
For 25 years this particular flea market has been home to many sellers of junk treasure, but recently it has been invaded by sellers of knock offs. Handbags, sunglasses, clothing, baseball caps, t-shirts, toys, tools, belt buckles etc. These sellers take up 4 and 5 stall spaces, displaying their awful Chinese imported crap. This type of seller takes away from the true meaning of a flea market, the ambiance is no longer nostalgic, no longer a treasure seekers place of divining for treasure. It's turning into a cheap importers paradise. Only junk, not treasure junk. If I want junk I will go to Walmart. If I want treasure I want to be able to go to the flea market to search for it.
Instant Pot Christmas Roast
8 years ago
3 comments:
One of my fondest memories with my mom is our flea market days. We used to go once a month to the Kane County fairgrounds in St. Charles, IL. We both had collections of depression era glassware. We both gave it up and sold it all later for a slight profit, but the fun of doing it was really the big return!
I know what you mean about the crap sales... such a shame.
My brother had a garage sale after my mom died, and I just had one a couple of weeks ago. There were a couple of treasures in thoses sales and it was fun to see the collectors find them and feel so happy. I don't think we gave anything away, but there were some rare finds at decent prices. (I did a little pricing research on Ebay, but I'll bet a missed a thing or two)
Flea markets are way more fun than ebay anyway!
try again on ebay. I buy and sell on there all the time and everyone I've dealt with has been honest.
I think you might be able to have ebay send you notices that the bidding is about to close so you won't forget about it.
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