Sarah Gluck
Flea Market Review
Who: The vendors of New York City
What: GreenFlea Market
When: Sunday, May 3rd 2015
10:00am – 6:00pm
Where: Columbus Ave, New York, NY 10024
Every
Sunday the indoor/outdoor GreenFlea Market can be found along Columbus Avenue
featuring an eclectic group of New York vendors selling vintage clothing,
jewelry, trinkets, furniture, and home made crafts. Each vendor has a chalked outline determining
their exact space in this concrete courtyard. There isn’t much space to move,
so getting around means bumping into people left and right. As I make my way in
the market at around 3 o’clock, (which I heard is supposedly the most popular
and crowded part of the day) the people are out and about and ready to shop.
Not only
did the content of what people were selling interest me, the people at this
event were far more entertaining than I presumed. I learned very quickly I
might be too soft for New York. I walked up to the first tent that I saw and it
was a woman selling different kinds of jewelry. The table displayed jewels,
gems, shells, pearls, and pretty much anything that glimmered in the sunshine.
I asked to see inside her showcase that featured some beautiful earrings,
rings, and vintage necklaces from around the world. But the second she found
out I wasn’t going to purchase something right off the bat, and that my
curiosity wasn’t worth her time telling me about her collection, I was no
longer an interest. I received the cold shoulder.
Contrarily, many vendors love to
talk. Some vendors want to tell you every detail about an object. Where it’s
from, where they got it, who made it, what’s it made out of, how much they’ll
sell it to you verse how much it’s actually worth, pretty much anything about
something to convince you to buy it. Sometimes the information is enlightening.
Sometimes the amount of information is off-putting. But mostly it’s very
overwhelming.
One of the
vendors in particular was an older Russian man wearing a gold chain and a
flirtatious smile. I had found interest in a certain silver bangle he had and
was curious to know how much money he wanted for it. This encounter went south
quickly when he offered to make a “deal”. Unfortunately for him, I wasn’t going
to budge for the deal of giving him my phone number and a call later tonight to
receive the $80 sterling silver bangle, and unfortunately for me, I didn’t end
up getting this hand crafted bracelet.
Throughout
my search, the sun was shining down on bare shoulders making it a hot day out for
a few hours. Most of the vendors are outside, but a few of the elderly vendors
are featured inside an elementary school cafeteria. Their collections consisted
of a collaboration of rare baseball cards, old hats, diamonds, black and white
studio photographs, and vintage Playboy magazines. All the vendors inside seem
to be very good friends, since this event happens every week, whereas the
vendors outside, are younger, more energized and competitive with each other.
When the
clock starts getting close to 6pm vendors start to clean up and sometimes reduce their prices by almost half
just so they wont have as much to clean up. I would advise to go later in the
day to the Greenflea to get better deals, but if money isn’t an option arrive
early to get the bigger selection.
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