flea market @ lucky plaza

*back dated entry*

had my first ever flea market today!!! i was really looking forward to it for the passed few weeks cause i think it will be quite an interesting experience.... i shared the space with 2 of my friends & we never expect what we were in for.... the whole thing was not as fun as i imagined it to be & it was definitely tiring.... to make things worse, the place was quite chaotic so we had a shock of our life... as a result, i didnt manage to take any photo so i had to kope pictures from other blogs just to emphasize some of my points....

queue to enter the flea market area, photo taken from here....

the flea market area is located on lucky plaza 6th floor, just opposite the famous jollibee.... we applied for our slot here, it cost like $100 for a slot on saturday..... since we are only make-shift sellers, we wont have a slot allocated to use, you have to chop the table based on first-come-first-serve basis... hence, you will see a queue outside the area... people will start queuing about 10am & you can enter around 11am+ & here is where the shocking part start..... from the instructions online, we were not supposed to start selling outside the allocated area.... but once we joined the queue, many Filipinos flocked to us & rampaging our bags...  literally rampaging like during war time.... i understand they want the first look & chop the best items but seriously you need to order..... since my items were cheapo clothes, rampaging was still "acceptable" but my friend had some brand new branded items to sell & can you imagine people damaging the stuff? heart pain man..... since we were all in a shock, my hubby had to tell some of the people off to stop snatching..... so word of advise, you had to be mentally prepare for the "war" once you joined the queue.... but the real nightmare start once you enter the place....

table for flea market, photo taken from here.....

once you enter the area, you must run & snatch the best spot cause the place get filled out in seconds.... & you can see from the picture, each table was pathetically small.... i think it was like 1m x1m table... i was expecting a 2m  x 1m table since we paid like $100 for that..... naive me initially thought of neatly aligning our clothes & maybe sectioning them according to prices but hell NO!!! people practically pour their clothes onto the tables..... once the table was loaded, people will flock around & rampage..... so we had to join in the war....

crowd inside flea market, photo taken from here....

you can see from the pictures that the whole place will be filled with people almost instantaneously.... i would say 99% of the patrons will be filipinos so be sure to be in for bargaining.... one very important lesson we learn was that, people at flea market didnt care about quality.... most of our clothes were still in good or even brand new conditions so we started with pricing like $10 for a dress & $5 for a top.... we told them the  items were new & all but seriously they dont care, once we told them the price, they were turned off.... so lesson learn, you have to sell cheap & in quantity in order to cover the rent.... we saw our surrounding neighbours selling like $2/items or even cheaper towards end of the day... so we had to bring down our items prices & sell them off at really cheap rates.... patrons will also bargain with you, so be prepared to give discounts.... thankfully another fellow flea market seller bought quite a number of my clothes so i managed to get rid more than 90% of my items.... after the rental, think i managed to earn a profit of about $150.... i believed i spent more than $1k for all the items that i sold but is better to get  back some $ instead of throwing them away.... but honestly speaking, we think it wasnt really worth to do a flea market if you are expecting to earn some profits.... cause you had to spend so much time & kind of taxing for your body.... you might not even earn back your daily pay.... but for me, it was more of trying out new experience so i think it's ok to give it a shot =)

here are some of my advise if you intend to start a flea market:
1. bring lots of things to sell & prepared to sell at cheap prices.... some of them even think $1 is too expensive for a good condition dress?!?!?! seriously!!??!?!? another note, like my friend said, filipinos LOVE bags, all sorts of bags..... for clothes they prefer sexier style & something  more mature....

2. bring masks..... since people sell second hand stuff in flea market, items conditions will be old & kept for long time so the whole place was super dusty.... my friend started sneezing in afew minutes & i joined in after about 1hr... so prepared some face masks for yourselves....

3. wear comfortable clothes & footwear.... be prepared to stand the whole day, you can always sit on the chair but it will be hard to keep track of your items so we end up standing for like 7hr straight....

4.eat a heavy breakfast cause you might not have time to get lunch

5. bring enough fluid to replenish yourself.... since you will need to bargain & shout around to attract people, drink enough fluid or else you will get sore throat...

6. prepare loose change.... i think this is quite understandable since you will need to give changes to people since not everyone will pay you in exact

7. CHECK payment amount.... i encountered a person who gave me $10 instead of the agreed $12, luckily i checked the amount or else i would lose $2.... sometime it could be a miscalculation cause they might paid in small notes but sometimes they want to try their luck to cheat afew bucks if you dont check the amount... so be extra careful with payment

8. take care of your items, be it for selling or personal items.... since the place was so chaotic, you have to be vigilant.... items might dropped on the floor when people rampaging through the pile or even steal them when you not looking....