A summary of how to get started in the flea market business, along with ideas on what type of merchandise to sell.
Seasonal items are a great way to make money, since they're often marked down to a fraction of their normal cost after the holidays. Buy up these bargains, then set them out in your booth next year. Another way to add many more items to your display is to purchase leftover yard sales. Approach the yard sale near closing time and ask the owner to sell you the remainder of the goods. Look them over well before making this proposition to see if it will be worth the investment. Many people will sell you the leftovers, if only to spare themselves from having to drag it back inside the house or garage. Church and benefit yard sales are well-known for selling the leftovers of a yard sale, since many of these items have been donated and there's no way to return each item to the original owner.
Another very popular booth at any flea market is a food booth. Selling homemade cookies, pies, cakes, candies, or even just canned drinks on ice, can be very profitable. Other ideas are sausage or bacon biscuits, barbecued chicken, hot dogs, hamburgers or even cold cut sandwiches, covered in plastic wrap. Be sure to plan on a way of keeping hot foods hot, such as a small warming oven, and cold foods cold, such as an ice chest or cooler. Make sure you check with the flea market management before setting up this type of booth, since many flea markets have their own concession stand and don't allow others to sell similar foods.
Some flea markets have "permanent booths" where you pay for the entire year and save a few bucks on weekly booths. If you can't use the booth the entire year, but you'd like to save money, check around to see if you can find someone to split the costs with you. You can work out an arrangement with them to where you take turns on weekends, or one of you has the booth for 6 months, then the other for the remainder of the year. And some flea markets also have storage buildings that you can rent, rather than carry the merchandise back and forth. This is a plus if you have quite a large selection of items.
If you're selling handmade creations, it helps if you're the only one selling your type of goods at that particular flea market. If you paint tee shirts and there are several other tee shirt booths, your income won't be as good as if you were the only one selling tee shirts. Visit the flea market one weekend before setting up to see if you have much competition.
