Tiffin Flea Market Tomorrow

We'll be heading out to the Tiffin Flea Market in the wee hours of the morning. Vendors can start setting up at 7am so we want to make sure to be there early. The market opens at 9am and goes on until 4pm.
I am so excited about this one. We "shopped" there last year and it was great! Hoping that tomorrow will be good for setting up. Check back on Sunday for Pics!

Mansfield Flea Market Report

We went to the Mansfield Flea Market at the Richland Co. Fairgrounds in Ontario OH this past weekend. It wasn't as big as it used to be. It was actually really disappointing. As vendors, we had to pay $25 per space. The spaces are only 10 feet wide. So, we needed two to fit all of our wares there. So, needless to say, we spent $50 to set up.

I'll tell ya, I have never been so scared that I might not make
back our vendor space fee.


The flea market was extremely slow. Other vendors said they hadn't seen it this slow before. I wouldn't know because I haven't shopped this flea market in several years. It used to be really big! They used to have several building packed full of vendors and the roads around the fairgrounds would be packed as well. It would take several hours to see all of the treasures there. Not any more. We counted vendors outside.... ONLY 25! I couldn't believe it. This is nothing like they told me over the phone when I called. The lady I spoke with said there would be approx. 250 vendors and about 2500-2800 shoppers over the weekend. I would be surprised if we even had 500 shoppers during the weekend!
On the other hand, the shoppers that did come, didn't try to haggle prices. They just kept paying the price we had on our stuff. That's the first time that has happened. Only one customer asked me to come down on a price! Thank goodness those that came were spending a little money there. We were able to make our vendor space money back and bring home about $150.
Anyways, I took some pics to share. I did see some really neat items there.

St. John Neumann's Flea Market...Pics

Here's one of our happy shoppers! He's actually a frequent customer... We see him at almost all of the flea markets we go to.








Lots of beautiful antique glassware this year!

















That's my uncle in the background being silly. My dad is on the side of the pic helping our happy shopper!














He who dies with the most toys wins..... I guess that will be my dad. He has collected vintage toys for years! There are Girder and Panel sets by Kenner, Sky Rail set, Trains, American Skyline sets, and lots, lots more!













Here's a pic of our handcrafted items...
we had handbags and clutches, dammit dolls and hand knitted baby hats and booties.

Springfield Extravaganza

My dad, Uncle Dave and I decided to be vendors at the Springfield Extravaganza this past weekend. My son, Matt, came along to help. It was held at the Clark County Fairgrounds in Springfield, OH. It was so much fun!
We arrived on Thursday evening to get everything set up. We have a really big canopy that takes about 1/2 hour to set up, so we decided to set it up the day before and get everything out and ready to sell. We camped at the fairgrounds in our trailer and van.
Camping was an adventure there, as we were just using our trailer that we hauled all of our stuff there in. No windows, no beds, just sleeping bags on the air mattress. Uncle Dave slept in the back of the van on a mattress. Matt decided to set up a tent outside. The first night was really cold. I kept waking up because my sleeping bag was tangled around me and I was cold. It was hard to sleep anyways because I was excited to get started with the booth the next morning.
The first day was great... we sold lots of antique glassware and got lots of comments on the handmade purses that my sister and I made. Dad and I got to shop around since Uncle Dave just wanted to "hold down the fort" at the booth.
The second day, was lots of fun. We would go walking around looking for bargains and just sitting at the booth. There was all kinds of items there.... antique furniture, clothing, and toys. Lots of misc. items. There were a couple of vendors there with wrought iron fences, benches, and planters. Another vendor had all sorts of antique telephones. I could go on and on, but, there were 2500 vendors there, so it would be hard to list everything.
The third day, we opened up and sold lots more stuff! Before we were even opened, we sold an old wooden crate. That set the stage for a great day! Lots more glassware was sold and we even sold some of the toy train building kits. Before we knew it, it was time to pack up and come home. It's about an hour and a half ride home and we were all pretty tired. It was a long weekend, but we are all looking forward to our next big event: Memorial Day Flea Market at St. John Neumann's Catholic Church in Sunbury OH. Hope to see you there!