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I recently received an email from Ron in Florida who states:
“Bob, We are at the Pasco county flea market and have been since September of this year and the economy is terrible and haven’t found the right niche with the people who do go there. There is around 70 to 80% of old people who go there and they walk around like they are half dead and don’t seem to be buying anything. This is in Florida.”
My response to Ron was:
“Well, you bring up an excellent point.
I have a couple of thoughts: First, if we get real basic, we need 2 things to be successful in a flea market business. One is traffic or people. Without them, it doesn’t matter what our product is, we won’t sell anything. OK, now all that traffic has to buy our flea market items, I call that conversion, as we need to convert that traffic into traffic that buys stuff.
So, if you are at a flea market where the traffic (people) don’t buy, then don’t waste your time at that market. Find a flea market in a nearby town or city and scope it out to see if folks are buying. If you are in an economically depressed area where people go to the flea market just to take a walk, then you will have to find another market.
So, go to a different flea market, and see if folks there are buying. If they are, then find out what kind of products they are buying. Take a note pad and write it down. Those are the kinds of products you should be selling. I’ve seen some so called flea market “experts” tell people to try to be unique and don’t sell what others are selling. Well, I got news for them, those flea market vendors that are selling stuff have figured out what sells. You need to sell what they sell, only do it better, or slightly different, or sell those products back at your original flea market. Then, after you are able to at least start selling those flea market items, experiment with other flea market items to expand your offering, but only little by little so you can test the market before taking a big leap. See the results and make adjustments.
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To get more tips on the flea market business and flea market items click here.
After you read this short article, you will feel more confident about starting your own flea market business. As you read down the page, you will gain an understanding of the basic steps that you should follow as you start your flea market business.
Before actually starting to sell your own flea market items, visit several flea markets in your area that you could eventually sell at. Obviously, gather the vendor information from the managers of the flea market. This will include the costs to rent a space, the days and hours they are open, any restrictions on what you can sell, and their policies and rules. You should be aware of all these before signing up for a particular market.
When visiting the flea markets, take a notepad along so you can write down any thoughts that you have about that particular market. Also note what the vendors are selling. Sometimes flea markets will have a vendor directory, make sure you pick up one so you know who is there and what they are selling. Also take note of how busy the market is in general and how busy (or not busy) certain vendor booths are. You will need this research when you begin to think about what flea market items you are going to sell.
Carefully evaluate the products being sold. I can’t stress this enough. You will need two main ingrediants for a successful flea market business: 1) traffic (potential customers) and 2) products those potential customers want to buy.
You must have traffic, so ask the managers of the flea market for some attendance figures and compare the different markets that you research.
You must have good products, so if you are just starting out, sell flea market wholesale items that other vendors are selling. Don’t try to discover an un-met need, this will come later on. For right now, sell flea market items that others are successfully selling, you can get fancy later.
We will discuss the next steps in my next post, so stay tuned . . . .