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Post by bigdog on Feb 4, 2010 23:36:04 GMT -5
last weekend I decided to spy out the flea market in Napa, CA. I'm deciding in the next month or so which venue I will use as a regular place for me to build my customer base. So right after breakfast, I drove the twelve miles to the Napa Flea Market. It is located on Highway 29 almost exactly on the Napa/Vallejo Border. Like many flea markets this space once was a drive in movie. There looked to be hundreds of vendors (mostly Mexican). They have food wagons, fresh fruits and veggies with lots of other stuff. Collectibles were not in evidence.
Most of the spaces were outside and any vendor either brought their own sunshade/weather cover or left their stuff out in the elements. There are about twenty spaces that are under a building overhang. If I was going to try this venue this is where I would want to set up. I own a Honda Fit and there will be barely enough room to bring stuff to sell and no room for protective coverings etc.
I talked to this man who seemed older than God. He said he has been doing this flea market for over 30 years and things have really changed the last 5. Most of the merchandise being sold by vendors is geared towards the Mexican Immigrant population that lives in the area. So frankly, what I intended to sell would not fit well here. You can reserve spaces the last Sunday of the month with a permanent California sellers permit. This is the best way to assure that a space under the overhang would be available. The overhang spaces seem small though and renting a double space might be the way to go. This area of the market provides newly painted old wooden tables to place your wares. Problem is the space will not fit well with some larger displays. Spaces start at $25 for the day. The flea Market operates almost every Sunday. It stays closed the Sunday after Christmas and New Years.
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Post by susien on Feb 4, 2010 23:50:38 GMT -5
What type of things do you sell? Did you check to see if any of those covered spaces open up or do the same vendors keep them? Is there any way that you can get a canopy into your vehicle? I would not know what to do without mine. Good Luck!
Susie
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Post by bigdog on Feb 8, 2010 0:18:13 GMT -5
Thanks for the two notes. I wrote the original review on the Napa Flea market (which has a farmers market and hundreds of venders) for use by anyone in the group who is thinking of coming up this way. That being said I went there to answer similar questions to the ones Paula asked. I included the demographic of the usual attendees in my review. I figure either I must match the demographic of the customer base in attendance with my products or look for another venue. As far as products. currently I have about 500 LPs and 78s mostly pre 1970. I have vintage baseball cards, some religious stuff, crystal glass,out of print books and cookbooks especially independent publisher versions, wooden cups bowls, pottery cups, some china etc... Recently, I've been attending many estate sales and look for items under $20 that I think I can sell at a profit. So I guess I have not settled on any one thing "yet" to sell. At my first effort which is March 6th, by the way, at a yearly indoor flea market in a retirement trailer park I plan on bringing mostly books, LPs( pre-1960), and some of the brick a brack I've been buying. The space fee is just $12. I will visit the place this week to pay for the space so I will ask what people are looking for. My loose plan is to take stuff that matches the venue. I also will place ads on Craig's list advertising my wares with photos to see if I can get someone interested to attend the places I set up. That is one of the reasons I searched out this blog. To read your experiences and to write some of my own. So far I find you all very friendly and helpful. I appreciate your kindnesses. I am the type who scrapes his knees when starting something new and so I expect to need some help.
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Post by suktexas on Feb 22, 2010 19:40:27 GMT -5
i was busy with shows so i log in and read some information and then log out. i was in the quartzsite tyson wells gem & mineral show and the sella rama. the tyson wells gem & mineral show is a smaller show but there are some customers come before the show like the show open friday, they come thursday and friday because i think they have holidays. generally speaking gem & min shows are ok, and sella rama are better if the wind did not damage our tent. i do not do the arts & crafts as i think a lot of people will go to tuscon so i guess the arts & crafts will only do good for the first half not the second half which is the same time with tuscon gem & mineral show.
i read in the lines and found out that summer not too many do shows as it is too hot and there are not much show schedules at all in summer only one i have seen is in jul, the rest are sept to early apr, and then no shows within a few months.
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Post by davejs on Feb 22, 2010 19:53:40 GMT -5
i was busy with shows so i log in and read some information and then log out. i was in the quartzsite tyson wells gem & mineral show and the sella rama. the tyson wells gem & mineral show is a smaller show but there are some customers come before the show like the show open friday, they come thursday and friday because i think they have holidays. generally speaking gem & min shows are ok, and sella rama are better if the wind did not damage our tent. i do not do the arts & crafts as i think a lot of people will go to tuscon so i guess the arts & crafts will only do good for the first half not the second half which is the same time with tuscon gem & mineral show. i read in the lines and found out that summer not too many do shows as it is too hot and there are not much show schedules at all in summer only one i have seen is in jul, the rest are sept to early apr, and then no shows within a few months. Nice to hear from you again. You were in the Sell-a-Rama? I was in X-19 and then P24 for the A&C Show. Were were you located in the Sell-a-Rama? Anything interesting to tell about us that happened on Thursday, January 21st (around 5:00pm)? Summers are scorchers in Tyson Wells. Temps up around 115 degrees. Winters are nice (sometimes) between heavy rains, winds and tornadoes.
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Post by suktexas on Feb 22, 2010 22:21:18 GMT -5
i am the one who you ask for a broken ezup, and i ask you what is your name, until that time i know it is you. this is my first time doing show like this. i pay a professional to put up my tent but the metal cannot survive the wind. i do not wind protection at all as my left neighbour left, my right neighbour left too and my back neighbour left. so i have no wind block. the canopy does not fly but some of the neck of the canopy bend. luckily neighbour come and help me to pick up my loosen bead all over the quartzsite sand. this is the first time i feel there are warm from vendors.
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Post by suktexas on Feb 22, 2010 22:55:34 GMT -5
there is one suggestion i would like to make. i do not really matter on the background color. i want to see the latest post of top of the page instead i have to go to last page to see the latest post. i think this improve the reading of the post as the current are on the top.
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Post by davejs on Feb 22, 2010 22:58:36 GMT -5
there is one suggestion i would like to make. i do not really matter on the background color. i want to see the latest post of top of the page instead i have to go to last page to see the latest post. i think this improve the reading of the post as the current are on the top. If you hit the 50 most recent posts at the bottom of the page, the posts will appear with the most recent on the top of the page.
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Post by susien on Feb 23, 2010 0:50:49 GMT -5
there is one suggestion i would like to make. i do not really matter on the background color. i want to see the latest post of top of the page instead i have to go to last page to see the latest post. i think this improve the reading of the post as the current are on the top. Personally I like it the way it is. If it was last post first, I would have to go down to see what was said that people were talking about. None of the boards I read have it last post first... Like Dave said you can always hit the last 50 posts... Susie
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Post by davejs on Feb 23, 2010 7:41:36 GMT -5
Actually, there is very little that I can do. I can change background, etc. colors every so often and I can put up new boards, but things are pretty limited.
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Post by davejs on Feb 23, 2010 8:10:37 GMT -5
i am the one who you ask for a broken ezup, and i ask you what is your name, until that time i know it is you. this is my first time doing show like this. i pay a professional to put up my tent but the metal cannot survive the wind. i do not wind protection at all as my left neighbour left, my right neighbour left too and my back neighbour left. so i have no wind block. the canopy does not fly but some of the neck of the canopy bend. luckily neighbour come and help me to pick up my loosen bead all over the quartzsite sand. this is the first time i feel there are warm from vendors. It sounds like you were in the back rows where the wind hit the hardest. Those were 71 mph winds that we had and wiped out over 50 canopies. I used parts from other people's canopies to fix my two. People really helped out a lot and I am thankful to them. We had a lot of things that got wet. My wife has been busy this week washing all our necklaces. Maybe 700-800? What was your space number? There were some people that lost their canopies. Gone with the wind and never to be seen again.
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Post by suktexas on Feb 27, 2010 23:31:59 GMT -5
i was in y9 which is the first row, and in our rom, there is only 1 tent left in the whole row. some vendors after the tents damage did leave. some vendor leave before the wind blow as it is too much rain and wind for too long. i do stay until the show end, and saturday and sunday are good days for me. and i do not do the arts & crafts and i think half of this show is overlapped with tuscon gem and mineral show so bottom half of the show will be slower than expected.
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Post by davejs on Feb 28, 2010 0:00:41 GMT -5
i was in y9 which is the first row, and in our rom, there is only 1 tent left in the whole row. some vendors after the tents damage did leave. some vendor leave before the wind blow as it is too much rain and wind for too long. i do stay until the show end, and saturday and sunday are good days for me. and i do not do the arts & crafts and i think half of this show is overlapped with tuscon gem and mineral show so bottom half of the show will be slower than expected. Yah, it looks like you caught the worst of the storm where you were at. Pretty much wide open over there. On Friday, I believe that I parked my motor home in an empty space behind you and that is where I stayed until Sunday. On Fri-Sat I emptied things out of my motor home and hauled them to my space (X19) and sorted them out. Lots of things were wet. There was a broken canopy in one of the spaces in Row Y and I took some of the parts to use. Were you the person that had a couple guy's fixing your canopy on Friday morning? I had a friend named Dave, whom I have known for many years and he sells clothing and I guess he was probably in space Y-13 (?). He was very lucky because he left before the storm came in. If he didn't leave, he would have lost his canopy and I am sure that all his things would have been all over the place. The lady selling hats next to him had three canopies destroyed and she says that she lost around $27,000 worth of her inventory. The guy with two canopies behind me had his canopies go up in the air and land on top of mine and the 5th wheel two spaces down. They were destroyed. The lady selling bubble top blouses had her two canopies destroyed. A guy selling 'you saw it on TV products' had his 10x20 canopy go airborne and never saw it again.
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Post by suktexas on Mar 1, 2010 11:29:35 GMT -5
yes, i guess you are the one who ask me if you can pick up the destory ezup parts who left from my neighbour. i do know a guide who sell clothes, he pack up before the storm hit back to california. i cannot pack and go and as i just receive my beads order from china on thursday and need to do the last weekend to make some money back. i am the one of the vendor who sell $1 lampwork glass bead in the show. the only major mistake i think i made is not to pack all beads and jewelry into my car and let the tent sit alone in the wind or rain.
luckily i do good on saturday and sunday to make up some of the lost over the wind, rain, and canopy damage,,,,
there are a lot of my neighbours ( vendors ) come over to help as they know i am alone in quartzsite. and i am a lady.
i am lucky as my beads, jewelry, products can be salvage with exception there are some rust in them. the worse is the brown T shirt lady where her merchandises are all wet.
i lost some merchandises, and my newly purchased canopy, but overall it is an experience.
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Post by exgame on Mar 3, 2010 10:17:02 GMT -5
Anybody have any information on Cayucas Peddlers Fair on July 4th weekend.Just looking for something to do where it is a little cooler than the valley. THANKS
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