Berkeley Flea Market Berkeley, CA
The Alemany Flea Market San Francisco, CA Email me here!
Professor Curtis's Flea Market Chronicles
Date; Saturday December 10, 2011
Weather conditions were; Cool and clear, with a no rain guarantee .
Customer Attitude; Lookie-Lou.
The regular customers are always ready to buy
their particular item of choice, however, new customers were few and far in between.
It was slow at the Berkeley Flea Market on the weekend of December 10-11 that
several vendors stated that it would have been cheaper and less troublesome to stay at home.
The vendor known as "Bald-Head Willie"
told me this; "If I had known that business was going to be
this bad, I would have spent my thirty dollar stall fee on a nice steak,
and a five dollar
bottle of wine! I could have kicked back
with my wife and done nothing for the whole day.
And if I had done that, I would have more money in my pocket than I have right now".
It was so slow at the Berkeley Flea that I did seriously consider changing my stall location.
Later in the day, another vendor who sold closer to the front of the market
as compared to selling from the back-row, as I do, told me that the day was one of his worst
days of the year. Eventually, we concluded that the County property tax were due on Friday,
and that this fact combined with Christmas at the Malls, had sucked the money out of the market.
Date; Sunday December 11, 2011
Weather conditions were; Cool with a threat of rain. 49er's Play at 1 PM
Customer Attitude; Buying bargains.
After my horrible experience at the Berkeley Flea Market on the previous day,
I went to the Alemany Flea Market, fully
prepared to sell! Knowing that the market
would be slow, I created a $1.00 sales table!
On this day, I was working with my good friend,
Steve Carter, The Estate Liquidator.
I had spoken with Steve Carter on Saturday night about slow sales
at the Berkeley Flea Market. Steve was 100% on board
with the $1.00 sales table! We approached the day with the attitude that
NO REASONABLE OFFER WOULD BE REFUSED, on any item!
The only requirement was that the offer had to be at lease reasonable.
We did well, because we were prepared
and not too argumentative about our prices.
There were a few customers that made ridicules offers
which required immediate rebuttals, straight from the gut. Some of my responses went like this;
"For a dollar, I'll post that item on an eBay auction!" The item sold immediately for $5.00.
"No thanks, for a couple of bucks I'll keep it myself!"
"A dollar?! I can't buy a cup of coffee for a dollar! No thank you!
"Okay, you plugged it in, you know that it works.
If you don't want this item for $100. then you simply cannot afford it !"
"You mean you don't want that tripod for $5.00?!"
That item sold one minute later to a woman that over heard my remark.
Some people frequent Flea Market, Estate Sales and Garage Sales
purposely to PIMP the vendor out of their valuables.
These customers will make remarks such as this;
"Oh its nice, and I know that its 100 years old, but Sixty dollars is
a lot to ask for it, and it has a tiny crack in it, right there. I'll give you Ten dollars for it."
In the future I will write and post an article called: THE PHILOSOPHY AND THE MANNER OF
OFFERING LESS THAN HALF OF THE ASKING PRICE.
Many of my Asian customers have used this philosophy successfully on me.
They had done such a good job on me, that I am now able to teach the technic.
I believe that we all should use this technic when buying in public places.
Thank you for visiting.
Please note; My sales of Gold and Silver Testing Kits increase each week.
Thank you for your attention. I'll post more notes next week.
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