The state of your local flea market(s)

[bikingjahuty]

In our current year, what are your local flea markets like? I'm fairly certain everyone laments when their local flea markets used to have a lot more games and the games that were there were cheaper, but does anyone still have a decent amount of luck at their local flea market or flea markets?


There are two flea markets in my state. The big one is about 20-miles away and it is an absolute piece of crap these days. I used to go there every weekend from like 2010 until 2012 and walk away with a ton of games and consoles every single time. The deals started drying up and I started going less and less, until over the past 4 years I go usually once each summer and find next to nothing or as of my trip today, literally nothing. The main problem with this flea market is that it's 95% resellers who are there every single weekend and they have the same stuff every weekend. Occasionally they'll get something new in, but it'll likely be overpriced if they do. The 5% who aren't resellers is where you find deals rarely these days, that's if you beat the resellers to them.


The other flea market is about 60-miles away and while it does have a smaller reseller presence, it is oversaturated with collectors and resellers that have turned it into a wasteland of scraps. Sometimes someone will post a cool pickup from there, but it is still pretty rare.


Essentially my local flea markets are more trouble than they're worth and I only go there these days when I get a wild hair and feel like a brisk morning walk lol

[aliensstudios]

This year I went to a couple and I saw the prices and selection and was like

[soera]

We used to have 2 large flea markets in my central area. One has been plowed and repurposed into a city government building. The other one is a shell of what it used to be. Formerly had 4-5 different booths, some of which had really decent deals. Now its just a local shop that moved here to save money on rent but the prices/stock reflect it still being a store.

[totallycrushed]

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[98dgreen]

The two flea markets in my county are only twice a year and not every weekend so it isn't the same stuff or same vendors every week.  I would one like a 5 and one eight.  Never really find anything great but can usually get last get stuff for dirt cheap and usually do well selling at them.

[thewelshman]

Living in a small town in Northeast Texas, they're pretty abysmal unless you like Cowboy themed stuff. A lot of the time they're mostly craft tables or the random person selling VHS movies and overprice Baseball/Football/Basketball cards. Once in a rare while there will be someone who's selling games, but even then they're usually sports games or AAA games you can buy for cheaper and in better condition online.

Your best bets around here are garage sales.

[kamikazekeeg]

Flea Markets are pretty reasonable in my area of Florida.  Finding stuff regularly is hard with all the competition, but they are usually pretty active.  I live pretty close to two of them, there's another I haven't been too, and I"m sure there are others strewn about that I don't even know of.  They aren't as great in the summer, because it's hot as hell, so once it gets to Fall, it's more active and all the garage sale folks are out.  Me and a local gamer group try to get together once or twice a year to get a booth and sell stuff for a day.

Speaking of, a few of us are probably gonna travel to one in Pinnelas Park, FL next month.  A game collecting youtuber, Scottsquatch is doing a meetup and folks who are going can sell at his booth, so I'll be there to sell a few things I got and just hangout.  Maybe check out some garage sales or other places while we are there.

[robert89]

One vendor had an NES for $100 and said he would come down to $80. He had over 50 games with prices going from $5 to $50. Another vendor had just an NES console for $60.

I've seen Atari 2600 games, but not in the best condition.

You only see sega genesis and Saturn games once a year.

Mostly you seen Xbox, playstation and wii.

[burningdoom]

We have one guy at ours that pretty much is a local retro game  store, he has so much. Always has the goods. But is also pretty close to market price on stuff. Still, it's cool to have.

[hoshichiri]

My flea market was bulldozed into a Lowe's a good decade ago. The internet tells me there's one or two more around, but with a significant drive & online photos making it look like more of a Mexican goods & bootleg market, plus (apparently) laws that change how long flea markets can be open & how often people can have booths, and a terribly high collector factor picking over the fleas/thrifts/yard sales... it's usually easier to hit up game stores around here. You can absolutely still score at the thrift stores & yard sales from time to time, but it takes a diligence I simply don't feel like putting in anymore- especially given the relative rarity of what I look for these days.

[Cartagia]

The major local one has a single big reseller.  Never found too much there.  Haven't been in like 2 years.

However, there have been occasional attempts to get smaller ones that are open more often off the ground.  I've occasionally found some pretty good deals at these, but that has still been at least a year since my last good find.

[shfan]

The actual second-hand markets in my part of the UK are decimated - councils pull them apart and use half or the majority of the space for hard-standing, possibly some arty-farty installations nobody cares about and a few benches. The hard standing's rarely used for anything at all.

Car boot sales are the new markets - 70-80% of the local boot sale stalls are resellers or dealers flogging cheap warehouse stuff like dog beds and rubbish batteries. It might be different in other parts of the country, but right here the bootsales are feeding frenzies where people clearing out are swamped by crowds waiting for the car boot to be opened. It's not a good environment for a bargain, not that interesting things don't show up, but the chance of you being the one getting to buy them are minimal.

[oldgamerz]

erased post

[lgndrygamefreak]

I live in a rural area in Aus and we had a monthly market that was pretty good for uncommon games many year ago. Now its all dried up and the vendors there only sell household goods and plants and the like. Since moving to a city area the place i have the most success is actually at cons. Its pretty common i come across stalls selling older ps2 era titles for reasonable prices, and more rarely 64 and earlier titles (for closer to retail).

The last con i went to actually had a stall dealing in very old collectors editions and merch, and i managed to pick up a Hatsune Miku Project Diva arcade controller for half retail. Had a good chat to the owner and he was apparently a fan and had bought two, and just wanted to move the other. Thats the thing i like most about buying older games - talking to the sellers and getting to hear about their gaming passion. Its super fun to geek out over classic titles, haha

[sworddude]

I don't really know if it really has chanced that much as far as like a 5 year time frame goes.

There was a pretty small flea market near my place I'd say up until 2 years ago before it closed down.

The thing was while there were only like 60 vendors I seemed to be the only one looking for games

so I scored expensive ps1 ps2 titles gamecube etc for pennies regularly. Even business vendors had great deals it was pretty small so for the competition it wasn't worth it to come there traveling costs etc. I could come late and nothing would happen deals where there this was just 2 years ago.

While in bigger flea markets you have to be lucky that someone unpacks stuff. I've scored boxes full of snes stuff and rarities for cd systems on flea markets and that wasn't to long ago. I don't go to flea markets that often though unless there big. However when scoring stuff I was or early the first one to arrive or someone was unpacking thus being the first to see the items.

I don't think the state of these kinds of things chance in just a couple of years the thing is when there is allot of competition the stuff will probably be gone I might even say hours before the market officially opens when it isn't a super big one not to mention that even when your early you have to compete with many others.

you have to imagine that while walking on the market there might be dozens of other people in different spots that you haven't passed yet even in the early stages, whether they like the hobby or want to have a quick flip, many people are looking and if your not first someobody else might have beaten you, especially when there is allot of competition and your not first there is almost no chance of finding good stuff since there are allot of people who go to every stall when people are unpacking there stuff, the reason why I don't go to flea markets that often. those antique resellers are crazy 

While stuff on flea markets will most definitely decrease when the years go by and ps3 ps4 wiiu etc will replace those empty holes. the thing that impacts these dry flea markets the most are the amount of fanatic people looking for stuff, especially the early ones who help people unpack there stuff. I actually think that there are some people who go to the markets many hours before the opening time.

Things don't chance in just a few years, the deals are out there and while it slightly decreases every year it is simply due to that many people are looking, you cannot be at all places at once so naturally for many people the deals will be slim. If you have places with less competition deals are pretty easy to get but in competitive areas unless your pretty hardcore you will be just one of the many people who picked up a mediocre deal here or there in other words It's not worth it to go to the flea market.

If you score something nice at a flea market you where probably the first to notice it usually when it was just unpacked if not it means the competition is low to non existant.

not to mention that in a pretty big yearly flea market in my country just two months ago I've seen other people score big also retro stuff for cheap and those are just collectors, I can't imagine what resellers scored people who do this for a living thus needing to have the drive to find deals. The early bird gets the worm while the others are left with the leftovers It's just how it works a few get the deals while the others barely get anything. deals are out there but the competition is fierce retro game collectors and resellers alike.

Just remember smart phones have already been here for years It's not going to chance that much in that departement, there are just to many buyers resellers looking for stuff. If everything has been looked through before you have been there it's only natural that deals will suck.