One Hundred Dollars and the Best Flea Market in the World--a low tech poll

[gurdonark]

One of our coolest north Texas attractions is the First Monday Trades Day in tiny Canton, Texas. On the first weekend of each month, a massive flea market is convened. The flea market is huge--many have claimed it's the largest in the world. Folks drive in from miles around, largely in pick up trucks, to browse through the used wares and arts and crafts. The whole thing is a grand celebration of Texana and of small town life in general.

For the last several years, on-line life has added ebay and a host of minor auction services, which also have that wonderful flea market feeling. Just yesterday, my five dollar Dixiecraft yarn loom, a wonderful vintage sixties toy, arrived (Dixiecraft, of course, turning out to have been a New York company). I love that sense that I can spend little or nothing on ebay and yet find a favorite reading copy of a book, a bit of nostalgia, a practical used thing, or a bit of whimsy on ebay at any given time.
Lately, I also play on google's marketplace, froogle.com, which is much more diverse if not as bargain-oriented.

I love the idea of having a small sum to buy anything used or out of the way. The pleasant sensation I feel just naturally translates to me into a low technology poll question---

"Assume that you have one hundred dollars (or the local currency equivalent) and access to a flea market, live or on-line, in which you can buy yourself any collection of things you wish to buy within that budget. What do you bid on? What do you buy?".

For me, the current list of "what would I do with 100 dollars" runs to the following: used aquarium and set up (20 dollars), offbeat musical instrument (cheapo) (10 dollars), cheap kite and kite string (3 dollars), off brand used bongo drums (25 dollars), book about childrens' crafts (6 dollars), yet another book about cacti and succulent plants (6 dollars), a work of almost free outsider art from ebay's curious "self-represented artists" section (15 dollars), an assortment of semi-precious stones (10 dollars), and
a book on soap carving (5 dollars). Actually, I already bought the book on soap carving, but you get the idea.

So what would you buy with your 100 dollars at the best flea market ever?

Comments

[kayre]

Hymnals, jewelry, musical instruments, books, as long as it lasted, which wouldn't be long!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I keep wanting to go buy old books which are just a bit too old to still have copyright protection, and in particular old hymnals and "folk song" type books. I have a fascination with the sacred harp and shape note stuff, but I'd love to see what people sang in 1890, say. I bought my autoharp for 100 dollars based on a greensheet ad, and it's really cool--with electric pick ups already added.
But nowadays, I'll bet I could find something even cooler. I keep thinking that all these cool third world instruments should be inexpensive on ebay and the like, but so far the mark up always stops me :).

Thanks for commenting--good list!

[platofish.livejournal.com]

......$100 and cluless sellers would result in.....

- Fountain pen that needs re-nibbed. Turns out to be a special edition Mont Blanc ($10)
- Heavily annotated travel guides. Lots of humorous notes, scribbled in pencil and red ink in the margins ($10)
- G.Loomis fly fishing rod ($10)
- Sage flyshing reel ($10)
- Carved and decorated wood hiking stick ($10)
- Signed Ali boxing glove and photograph ($10)
- Donation to someone collecting for 'helping hands', the charity that trains small monkeys to become helpers for quardraplegics ($38)
- Bar of Cadbury's rum and rasin dark chocolate ($2)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Those are great buys, plus a cool humanitarian cause! Thanks!

jobs

[platofish.livejournal.com]

Not entirely altruistic....i just don't any more junk....I've already got more than anyone ever needs!

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Hmm..

- african drum $15
- pretty stones in a beat up box so they look dull and nobody else noticed them $1
- old SF books that've been out of print for years $20
- old guitar without any strings but still seems sound $20
- some other weird musical instrument $20
- a pile of used radio ham gear that only an expert could love (for Forest) whatever's left of the money! :)

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

Although re-reading your question and seeing it was the "best flea market" that was just "generic flea market".. never actually been to that kind of place that sells what I want, tho Ebay does have its moments, usually at a price however...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Great list, and I really resonate with "some other great weird musical instrument" because as a virtual non-musician who loves music, I am always enchanted by weird instruments. Each time I run "theremin" on ebay, I can hardly keep myself from buying.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

I'd love ot play around wiht one of thsoe! I try and limit my weird instrument purchases because when I can't manage to play them its just frustrating ::eyes chest in corner of room full of interesting musical purchases:::

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

you probably know it already, but in case you don't, the lark in the morning website (http://larkinam.com) has a great "odd instruments" away, including the wonderful aqua (or whale's) harp, which sounds like a synthesizer playing whale song, but is really water in glass.

[hobbitblue.livejournal.com]

::whimper:: I've spent hours on their site but thanks to the rotten exchange rate on the dollar, the cost of postage and, worst of all, the bloody customs charges once things arrive at this end I have had to be good and not succumb.
Yet.
::grin::
Though if I ever find a nice enough person living close enough to their store I cuold always come up with some complex plan for them buying the stuff on my behalf and sending it marked "gift"... lol

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

an assortment of small collectible dolls from various cultures $15
3 old leather bound books about circuses and freak shows $12
plastic case of costume jewelry in which many rhinestones are to be had $5
drawer full of dingy odds and ends toys and game pieces $10
3 old painted silk kimonos $25
small metal eiffel tower souvenir $.50
5 small porcelain buddhas $2.50
cigar box full of vintage used postcards $4
jar of snake vertebrae $3
stack of old art books including Miro, Klee, German post moderns and surrealists $12
tiny wooden chess set to send to my friend gurdonark $1
a Mary Poppins doll (in the box) like the one i had in the 4th grade $10

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Wonderful buys, and I'll bet it's better to pay the 3 dollars than it is to "make" the bones as your wonderful past journal entry described.

Very thoughtful on the chess set.

Re:

[voodoukween.livejournal.com]

hee hee hee

i had a dream about you last night

you were in san diego and i saw you at the Carmel Valley Artist's fair in may where'll i'll be working with my friend Johanna

you were staying town for a week at the EconoLodge!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Carmel Valley. I really do get around! Actually, in May I'll be in trial in McKinney :).

We shall assume that this imaginary flea-market is in the US...

[nukke.livejournal.com]

-Tons of old Greetings From postcards
- commercial tin-signs/ diner signs
- tiki mugs
- snow-globes
-old children's encyclopedia

Re: We shall assume that this imaginary flea-market is in the US...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

If the imaginary flea market were someplace else, that would be fun, too.

I love it when I see childrens' encyclopedia at the thrift store or at the library used book sales.
I never can bring myself to lug home a set, but the older ones are truly charming, and the 60s ones are radiant with optimism.

Re: We shall assume that this imaginary flea-market is in the US...

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

and if it were in Jerusalem, by the way, what would your answers be?

Re: We shall assume that this imaginary flea-market is in the US...

[nukke.livejournal.com]

I don't think that there is one here. Rather, there is the big bazzar in the Old City, where I buy Christiana - icon cards, postcards (to trade for Greetings-From cards mainly), and those weird 3d cards. It is also a good place to buy sweets and spices. The Jaffa flea-market nowdays is not more than a place to get India-imported cloths and cheap Jewellary. But there's a store nearby called Palestina/ Eretz Yisrael that sells Israeliana. What I'd buy there for 100?
- a Keren Kayemet Le'Israel money box - about 45$
- 10 pics/ cigarrette cards - 5x 2$ 10$
- advertising poster from the 1950's/ 60's - 45$

Vintage is EXPENSIVE in Israel. Lots of demand but not much for sale as everything was (and still is ) in a much lower scale than in the US.
THanks for this great thread :)

[microbie.livejournal.com]

Old Tupperware containers from the 1960s and 70s (colors like harvest gold and avocado) $20
Vintage fabric and patterns $40
Old microbiology books $20
Lenox table wares in "Fire Flower" pattern $20

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Yes, those earth tones! I would love to have old microbio texts, particularly with color plates.

[ex-sinnie785.livejournal.com]

crystal inkwell ($20)
vintage parker fountain pen ($30)
small wooden rocking horse ($40)
two old cookbooks ($10)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Ooooh, a rocking horse! That would be a find!

[gregwest98.livejournal.com]

Fountain pen, eh?

I've been wanting to try and make one of those. (I turn the barrels out of wood and use common parts to build up the pens). The parts I use wouldn't be all that classy I expect but it would be interesting to try.

So tell me, what separates an expensive fountain pen from a cheap one? Do they feel different? Do they pump up the ink from a little bottle or do you just stick in one of those plastic tubes of ink?

I have this perverted desire to know this sort of thing in order that I might learn to produce some myself - they would make great gifts at Christmas time, no?

[ex-sinnie785.livejournal.com]

They would make remarkable gifts!

I have used very inexpensive pens as well as pens that cost more than my rent -- what separates the pens that are crappy from the pens that are functional pieces of art is much more than the cost. The nib is the most vital part of the pen -- some nibs are scratchy and tend to make the pen feel completely detached from the brain and hand...some nibs, especially the hand-tooled ones, let the ink flow smoothly and facilitate a true connection between brain-hand-pen-page.

Also, it seems the more costly pens have a good balance...not too top heavy, not too bottom heavy. I have never had a pen that was a "dipper"....I've only used plunger or bladder tanks...there's a ritual to writing with an instrument that requires so much effort just to get it moving.

I think you should really go for this whole pen making gig! It would be way good. Way. :)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I wonder who makes nibs are raw supplies? A google search in the making!

Re:

[gregwest98.livejournal.com]

Plunger or bladder... not sure what that means. Is that a mechanism to suck the ink up out of the bottle?

I think I have the wherewithal to polish the nib if it felt scratchy. I can do lots of things when I put my mind to it.

I think I'll try it for next Christmas season. I don't have the necessary stuff yet but I'll get started on it. I may need a person to test drive one of them though... if so, I'll say something :-)

[laruth.livejournal.com]

* Some form of drums (african, bongo, etc)
* Old SF books
* Odd musical intruments
* Old styled postcards
* Rubberstamps
* Paintings/sculptures etc from local artists.
* Metal "arty" work (the people I boarded with had a fantastic pelican made from scraps of old metal. I guess the sharp edges are dangerous for young children, but it looked great. I've been keeping an eye out for similar work but haven't seen any yet)

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Great list! Do you have "yard sales" and "flea markets" and "rummage sales" there? I know ebay is in Oz now, but is there an "Oz only" ebay type service?

[laruth.livejournal.com]

We have garage sales, where individual people sell their belongings in their garages. I attended something this morning, which I think is similar to a flea market? People had a lot of their second hand stuff for sale there. I managed to pick up two SF books and a spoon and fork wood carving. This one didn't have any art though.

As for eBay like things, I use ebay.com.au (the aussie version), and there's www.stuff.com.au. Otherwise, there doesn't seem to be anything else like that.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry to be such a Curious George, but I always am interested in what folks call things. For example, we have church "rummage sales", but as near as I can tell, in the UK, the same thing is a "jumble sale". A flea market here (and in the UK) is a place where people with temporary (and in some places permanent) little stands in lieu of shops sell used stuff (read: junk) to folks passing by.
We call the individual sales "yard sales" and "garage sales".

That stuff site looked cool! You know, I keep thinking that it's too bad that good sites for third world countries that seem exotic to me don't exist.
I like odd musical instruments, for example (I seem to recall you put that's one thing you'd buy, too).
When I go on the 'net on ebay or someplace with a google search, all those fun, wild African and Asian instruments are being sold with a mark-up by westerners. I wish I could pay a bit less than the mark-up, but more than the native artist is usually making, straight to the folks in the country of origin.

Here in the US, we get Mexican folk art very cheaply, but at many multiples of what it costs to buy it straight from the artist. I wish that on line auctions somehow "cut out the middleman". We've had some talk here of the "fair trade" movement in coffee, where people buy directly from growers, and ensure the producers make some income. But I see great potential in on line auctions to do the same function, if only somebody could make it happen. Oh, but now I'm completely rambling, sorry, :).

[asphalteden.livejournal.com]

Plastic mesh bag of assorted plastic dinosaurs--$3
Tiny knit hat, for sock monkey--$6
Eerie comics--$10
Cookie cutter shaped like snowman--$5
Big darn windchimes--$40
Marvel Superheroes lunchbox--$10
Lone Ranger beltbuckle--$5
Tweed jacket with suede elbows, size 38 reg--$20
Hot Dog--$1

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Your list is grand. make that big darn Partch style wind chimes! They aren't quite Harry Partch, but they sound like a 60s spaghetti western. Or gamelan chimes! Yes.

In Canton, your hot dog would become "sausage on a stick", a grilled smokey thing you'd love, or "smoked turkey leg", which is a matter of taste.
You might also get roasted corn on a stick instead :).

[nacowafer.livejournal.com]

You know, I have dreams sometimes about the perfect thrift store. Usually there are piles of perfect vintage cashmere cardigans, for three dollars each. I never want to wake up from those dreams...

Meanwhile, this is a really difficult question...One hundred dollars at the best flea market ever?! So, that means they have what you want and it's cheap? Well, that's what I'm gonna assume. Let's see...

box of milagros (too may to count)--$3
plaque by the Baltimore Glass Man (skeleton)--$20
5 cashmere cardigans (2 beaded)--$15
Girl Scout troop leader uniform ca. 1950 (it fits!)--$5
box of vintage ladies hankies--$5
charm bracelet--$6
horseshoe--$1
green cake stand--$5
an old framed print (Charles Meryon!)--$15
April March "Voo Doo Doll" 7"--$2
G.I. Joe holy grail (?????) for D.--$10
Lime Aid + hot dog + candy apple--$5
lot of vintage paper halloween decorations--$8
mystery grab bag from little old lady with no teeth--$5

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Now that is one rockin' thrift stack. I'll bet most of those items exist at some thrift store or other, but it's just a matter of pulling them all together.

The GI Joe one reminds me of the Joe I had with a cool black French beret. One of the neighbor kids convinced me to trade that beret for a bunch of other stuff, by using a sad sack story about how underprivileged he was. I miss that beret even today. I don't even know where my Joes are, but I miss that beret!

A Meryon! and a Baltimore glass man. I'll bet you could find some cool art stuff for nothing, though! I was readig a rockhounder site lately, and the best advice for how to get one particular something was "wait for an estate sale of a collector in Texas".

Cashmere cardigans are cool.

[nacowafer.livejournal.com]

Hee! I think cardigans are about the most perfect article of clothing. I'm wearing a rather dingy grey one right now, over my pj's. And cashmere?! What could be better than that?

I bet your beret-wearin' Joe was really cool. Did he have flocked hair? I could only find one of D's sportin' a beret. Can you find him in the pic?:



Maybe this will give you a sense (a wee sense) of the madness...Yours was probably a 12" though!

When is your digi cam gonna be up and running? I can't wait to see pictures of your creations!

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

Wow! What a collection. My guy didn't look anything like those guys, but on the other hand, he may have looked EXACTLY like them, and my memory is all off. A little googling tells me he was called the French Resistance Joe, which matches my memory.
He wore a turtleneck sweater, because, as you know, all resistance fighters could evade Nazis more easily in turtlenecks.

I was amazed how much vintage Joe is available out there in the marketplace. Your gift shopping fears are over, if you can ever get a comprehensive list of what D. has, so that you can aim for what he doesn't!

I do need my digicam up. My friend Greg gave me his, which I've never hooked up, and then I was going to get one that might be more compatible with my system, which I've never done. But I did get a
CD of a few of my pictures, and I do have a recent poll on weblog services (I could probably use yahoo or AOL, but I hate pop-up and the AOL one is hard to work), so I need to sign up for a service and go!
My chess set looks forelorn, but it deserves display.

[nutmeggie.livejournal.com]

My fav. flea market purchases so far have been... let's see...

I have a really pretty hand-embroidered dresser scarf on my piano (50 cents).

DH bought me a whole box of crumbling sheet music on time ($10).

I have tonnes and tonnes of music books and music instruction books, I usually never pay more than $3 for any one piece, and I also bought copies of the first set of music books I ever had at a used bookstore one time--very thrilling to own.

Vintage clothes and scarves and things like that--I had a boyfriend once who had set up an account for me at a few different stores but what I really wanted was cash so I could go with my friends to the Sally Ann.

My husband has the Audels Carpenters' and Builders' Guide from from 1923 ($10 for the complete set of 4), filled with great things like how to make a box kite or hoisting apparatus.

My daughter really likes her paint-can pencil sharpener with it's matching paint-brush eraser (25 cents).

I have a Holly Hobby doll that is only 4 inches high (10 cents).

A really, really cool box of sewing supplies ($5) that had inside it a vintage 60s dress fabric (now on the back of a quilt), various other fabric scraps, a complete set of crochet hooks (do you know anyone who can crochet?), garter clips, a bodkin, a small wooden six-inch ruler, a Robin Hood Flour card of sewing needles, wooden spools of thread, an old-fashioned clamping mason jar full of bakelite, shell and metal buttons, a tiny decorative brass thimble, too small for even a child, a beautiful wicker basket, quilt templates, a pattern for making your own bras!, bits of trim and ribbon, a pair of stork scissors, balls of cotton and wool yarn, lots of left-over bits of all kinds of things, a book about how to tat, along with a tatting shuttle, and a bit of unfinished work, a measuring tape that winds up into a silvertone brooch, amond other things. A woman had died and her daughters had no use for any of these things.

The Fannie Farmer Boston Cooking School cookbook, second edition ($2).

Various old schoolbooks, I just love them (never more than $5).

Books, books, books, books.

A multiple-strand necklace of faux pearls which turned out to be real pearls and a crystal-embedded closure ($25).

A victrolla cabinet less the victrolla, free, where I keep all our photographs and things.

That's about all I can think of right now.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

You've really made out like a bandit at thrift stores. My favorite thrift store finds are a 1912 chess book and a copy of Gertrude Stein's Alice B.Toklas in a "first bookclub edition", which cost me 10 cents in each case, but in each case sold for 12 dollars :). My best find of all time is my Bobby Fischer's Games of Chess, autographed, which I found for 4 dollars in a used bookshop years ago.

[nutmeggie.livejournal.com]

Bobby Fischer, wow!

Thanks for the question. It was fun.

[marstokyo.livejournal.com]

need I say-- stuff for the theaters-- tiny tiny stuff

•Unusual and old buttons
•miniature dollhouse items
•old National Geographics from the 20's-50's
•old postcards and picture magazines from that period too
•gumball machine toy prizes
•small charms and broken jewelry
•broken watches.

[gurdonark.livejournal.com]

A great list, and 100 dollars at a thrift store or ebay would go far with this wish list! Gumball machine toy prizes! My 11 year old nephew had a sort of elongated celtic cross to show me last night, from the gumball machine at CiCi's pizza....50 cents!