If you don’t know what a flea market is I will tell you. First I want  you to know  that  we don’t sell fleas there, how  it got  the name  I don’t  know. Some places call them  public markets, in case  you have  never  been to one they are operated by a person or company who has  a large  lot and  wants to make  some  money on it, so they  rent out  spaces for  so much a day depending on the size  of  the  space, then any individual can bring  in their  own merchandise and  sell it  to the public.

Image via Wikipedia    Typical flea market scene

In Boise Idaho the fairgrounds rents out one of their exhibit halls for a monthly flea market. There is  another  company  in Boise called Spectra Productions that puts on  exhibition shows, it  might  be a home improvement  show  or a  car  show, when they do that they contract for  the three big  exhibit  halls for  their show.

My friend Ted and I would travel around to the different shows together and setup our tables and tents next to each other and sell out merchandise. I was selling costume jewelry, like earrings for $1.00 a pair, I had a display that held over two hundred pairs. Ted used to sell knives, tools and any gadget he could get that we thought   would sell.

We would also buy used jewelry clean it up and sell it and make a nice profit. We used to get there early while the other vendors were still setting up and look at  their  stuff and  buy  what  we  wanted, then take  it  to our  table and  sell it at  a profit.

Ted had a little Isuzu car that we went to the market in, it was a diesel so it did not take much fuel. Let me  tell you  we  packed  that car  to over flowing, we had  E-Z up tents , jewelry  cases, tables  and  chairs all stuffed  in that little  car besides all the merchandise.

Our territory went from Bakersfield, California to Sacramento , California, we had  a schedule  set up the  we could  do a show  every day  of  the  week. We went up and down Hwy 99 as it used to be called. Now it is I-5 and some of the side highways as well, such as Hwy -88 and the famous Hwy 49, to the gold country.

Part  two is  on the  way it will be  here  soon.