How To Determine If Flea Market Selling Is Right For You – Part Two
By Robert C. Potter
The flea market dealer use to have a certain amount of leverage with their customers. Negotiating with a dealer when it comes to getting a better price has always been a part of the flea market experience. Dealers could employ a certain stopgap measure when they felt the price being offered by their customer was too low. The customer could
then, either take it, or leave it, and move on to the next flea marketeer.
But, if the dealer cannot negotiate a price to their customers liking, they will forgo the purchase and turn to Ebay for price relief. With the advent of Internet capable Personal Digital Assistants and cell phones, instant price checking is not just for supermarkets anymore. The general public now has two very powerful allies in the pricing wars, technology and online auctions.
Armed with portable Internet technology, competitive online selling venues, and dynamic on the spot pricing, portions of the flea market industry, along with dealers that support them, can loose a sale in “real time”. Visiting my local flea market just a year after I first scouted the location provided me with a shocking new perspective. I found that all of the sellers of surplus food and HBA (Health and Beauty) items had all but disappeared.
Used household products and some general merchandise were still a part of the marketplace. However, all was not right in my flea market paradise. In just one afternoon stroll across the flea market landscape, I noticed that the energy of the
venue was not the same. What went wrong in this particular part of the flea market hemisphere I cannot say for sure. I don’t know whether or not it was a market slow down, or a slow death.
The once brisling merchandising mecca seemed to resemble a human hamster wheel. Walking through the flea market arena was a revolving mass of humanity that followed each other in lock step. Only casually did some of the patrons fall out of line to observe the merchandise being displayed by the local flea market dealers. Few people actually engaged in any price negotiation, or engaged in any commerce.
However, not all markets are alike and the bleak assessment of my local flea market venue is not a blanket statement of conditions throughout the country. Market activity surrounding a particular flea market can be determined by geography, population, interest in the products being sold, as well as income levels. I don’t pretend to know what makes some flea markets prosper while others turn out to be a merchandising money pit.
I can only urge you practice some of the marketing measures enumerated in this article before you start slogging product back and forth to the flea market of your choice. Make sure that any trip to the flea market is worth your time and adds profit to your bottom-line!
Have you done all your homework and found a flea market that you think will be a profitable venue? Are you looking for wholesale or surplus product suppliers? The Ultimate Guide To Products For Resale has over 600 wholesale and surplus product suppliers in 12 different product categories.
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