On Flea Markets...

I went to a flea market yesterday. I really love flea markets. I love the bargains you can find, but what I really love is the thrill of the hunt. Searching and searching through a vendor's things until you come upon that 'one thing'. Today it was a knock-off Louis V change purse for 2 bucks! In fact I bought two. (I recently found a knock-off Louis V backpack for $20)

You can find flea markets pretty much everywhere. Some people refer to them as swap meets, but I've always known them as simply flea markets. The term flea market comes from what is supposed to have been the first flea market, Marché aux Puces, in a suburb of Paris in the late 17th century. Flea refers to the flea infested clothes that were sold there.

There is a flea market, though I think they call this particular one a swap meet, in southern California at the Rose bowl stadium parking lot that is HUGE. I'm not sure if it's the largest in the country but it could be. There is also one in Tennessee that is actually held along a highway. The vendors set up and sell their wares from the shoulder of the road. That doesn't sound too safe but I think it's been going on for quite some time, so it can't be that bad.

When I lived in New York I frequented a flea market in Greenwich Village. I actually saw the singer Phyllis Hyman there once, she was fussing with a vendor about a price and seemed really, really angry. But in the middle of her argument I said hello and she turned to me and smiled and said hello, then she immediately went back to her haggling argument.

I'm not sure if everyone uses the term haggling or haggle, but that's what I grew up calling negotiating a price with someone like a flea market vendor. Actually that's one of the best parts of flea marketing. I love seeing something and asking the price then making a face that says that's way too much and starting to walk away, only to be called back and asked 'how much do want to pay?'. I smile on the inside when that happens but keep a poker face and usually end up with what I want at a good price.

A Poker face is absolutely required when haggling over a price for something you really want. Robert DeNiro's character in the film Heat said (paraphrasing) 'You have to be willing to walk away from everything in your life in a split second.' Well that's sort of like haggling over something you really, really want. You have to be prepared to walk away and you have to be able to look like it's no big deal to do so. If you look desperate or give away that you are totally crazy about the object of your affection, you're done. Once you start to walk away if the seller doesn't try to stop you, you just have to keep walking or end up paying the price.

My favorite things to buy at flea markets are music, knock-offs and movies. A few weeks ago I bought the movie The Departed for $5, and it wasn't a bootleg. I never buy bootleg music or movies (anymore) the quality is usually really bad. But knock-off designer bags, oh my, Dooney & Bourke, Prada, Louis V - and I'm in heaven.

I think a amazing vacation would be to pack up in a fancy RV with some friends in the spring of the year and go flea marketing coast to coast. I can imagine returning and all of us falling out of the RV with all of our loot tumbling out the door (me with a hundred or so knock-off designer bags!). Now that is my kind of vacation!