Other than sunburn and a couple of menacing clouds that had enlarged prostates(with the operative words being "dribble" and "stop and start") the weekend went very well for most of the vendors. It was a bit hard to talk to buyers over the tractor pull noise a 100 yds. away, but that's what the big draw is and why the buyers were there in the first place.. The whiners complaining they didn't sell anything....well, they wanted too much money for their stuff!! One guy had a plastic case with both SAE And Metric Blackhawk combo wrenches in it that were basically new and he had to have $100 for them. The plating was nothing special and there might've been 15 wrenches in the case. He's dreaming in this economy. He was in the midst of a grop of farmers that were facing the worst crop drought in decades and didn't understand his clientele. Shade Tree did, and I made a couple more stops at his place before he left and more importantly, got his business card. He runs a recycle business, mostly appliances nearby. no less. Another guy bought up like 50 screwdrivers as his employees at his auto salvage yrd are constantly losing them.
The return trips to Shade Tree's plot yielded more major scores on Sunday as he promised he'd have more tubs to go through and he made good on his promise. This time around, I found both a Craftsman foot pound click torque wrench and an SK inch pound clicker, a Hawkeye alligator wrench with the 3 thread holes in the middle), more ratchets/sockets/goodies for oily for $25, , but I'll wait for the better photos coming off the new PC to post all that. The other score was an old boy that had a 36" Trimo pipe wrench and an HK Porter bolt cutters that were at least that long. Since I had sold him an old cast iron model toy tractor for $2, he let me have those two for $25. His wife wanted $25 for just the pipe wrench the day before. Bought a few more odds and ends, but had to keep watch over the shop so I didn't lose customers either. The guy bailed on the trailer hitch offer, so I wasn't crying about that. I'd gladly go back next year if I have the inventory and the time off work to do so.
September 20th weekend is the next flea market in Waterloo, but it won't have the traffic this one did. It will have other tool vendors that sell their stuff too cheap, just like April.
I better sign up now while I have some tens and twenties in my pocket still!! I don't have many rules as a seller, but I feel like that re-selling stuff I picked up at the same event is in bad taste and someday will come back to bite me. I also picked up a couple What Izits for that forum, just need to unload the van...AFTER I clean out the shop!!!
DM&FS
