S.F. Bay Area Flea Markets

[davejs]

I have had to do a number of Flea Markets this past year around here to make up for revenue lost at regular shows due to these hard economic times.

Chabot College Flea Market, 25555 Hesperian Blvd., Hayward $30 for regular space; $40 for larger. Held the 3rd Saturday of each month.

I went there a couple weeks ago and there were quite a few vendors. This flea market has gone done over the years and nobody makes very much money there. I sell new merchandise but people are looking for the $1 crap, used stuff, etc. Attendees are of the lower middle class variety along with people economically disadvantaged.

DeAnza College Flea Market, Stevens Creek Blvd., Cupertino, CA I think it's $30 per space and is held on the first Saturday of the month.

According to many, this is one of the better flea markets around here. I don't get good sales here for obvious reasons. Attendees are more of a middle class variety. Bad economic area due to proximity of Silicon Valley industries.

Coliseum Flea Market, site of the former Coliseum Drive-Inn Theater of long ago, Oakland, CA. I was going to sell on a Friday. I dropped by on the day before and walked around. The fee was $10 and entrance fee for visitors is $1.00. Absolutely the junkiest flea market I have ever seen. Mostly people spread their stuff on the ground and most of it looks like junk.

Laney College, downtown Oakland (Fallon St?) Another local Jr. College Flea Market. I know very little about it, since I have yet to do it. I supposed it might be similar to Chabot College. Held every Sunday and I have passed by it on Highway 880 above many times and saw lots of people walking around. Will do it the next time I have a free Sunday.

[caricatureartist]

You can probably "stick a fork" in the San Jose Berryessa Flea Market. Its pretty much finished. Once dubbed the largest flea market in the world, its now reduced to pretty much a ghost town on Saturdays and Sundays, once it's busiest days while being open 4 or 5 days per week. A good friend of mine was a car accessories vendor out there for the last 30 years. During the "good years," which were the late 70's & 80's according to him, he often earned over $250,000 per year. He raised a family of six kids on it, and bought a big home back then. Around Sept. of last year, I helped him close down his booth and move the remainder into storage. He's past retirement age, so to a certain extent he is happy to be gone. He goes back every few weeks to get the low-down from people who remain there. Its pretty bad. The Bum family, who owns the property, have plans to sell to condo builders, as well letting the city build the light rail to run through it. The hispanic people, who are responsible for probably 90% of the attendance figures over the last 15 years or so, don't even care about it anymore. There are some vendors there who are staying until the very last curtain call, I guess.

[davejs]

I know that it's only a matter of time before this place (Berryessa) hits the dust, but I really can't find any recent articles on it. Everything I find is 2-3 year's old. I heard that the deal fell through on these projects. It was a great Flea Market, for sure.