The weekend in tweets - Flea Market edition

This is a list of the Twitter updates I sent out as Suzy and I embarked on our adventures in flea marketing this weekend. I have a long and storied history of selling shit at flea markets that dates back to high school and college (there was one weekend when I paid my rent for the month selling $5 posters of Billy Ray Cyrus and the original Dream Team), but Suzy had never done this before. We rented two spots at the Webb Rd. Flea Market in Salisbury, NC, and loaded up the pickup and Element with as much shit as we could cram in there. We bought a pop-up canopy at the Mart of Wal for $95, and paid $32 for the weekend rent on two spots (each spot consisted of a 10' x 10' area outside with two tables), so our overhead for the weekend was $127.

So here's the tale of the Tweets -

Ugh. Up at 5 to write and sell stuff at flea market all day after poker til 1.

6:50 am - honda element and pickup truck loaded to the gills. 20 min behind schedule leaving. Time 2 make the donuts.

Been standing outside 15 min waiting to have my space assigned. Novelty is wearing off and I still smell like cigars from last night.

8:15 am - ez-up canoppy definitely misrepresented itself.

8:45 am - two booths with 4 tables full o crap set up. Sales so far - $4. Expenses so far - $131

9:50 am - total sales so far - $20. Another few bucks and the rent is paid.

10:24 am - Guy in the booth next to me decided to leave early. Gave me everything he didn't want to pack up. Too stupid to say no, I have a new $1 rack

11:30 am - gross sales $92. Potential for profit now looks reasonable. Especially if I sell this truck.

12:18 PM - In case you were wondering, the mullet is alive and well in Salisbury,NC.

12:43 PM - Just used flea market pisser. Flushed with foot and sneaker melted.

12:59 pm - we have achieved profit! Since we prepaid for both days, tomorrow is a total freeroll.

1:40 pm - packing up

1:57 pm - loaded up and headed home. Could likely condense to one vehicle tomorrow, but getting good leads on selling truck.

5:37 PM - Operation naptime a success. Today I got up at 5:15. Then 12 hrs later I got up at 5:30.

6:08 am - time to head to day 2 of project flea market

6:29 am - time to head out again. This time with everything I forgot the first time. Working on 2 hrs sleep today.

8:10 am - my setup is done, suzy still working on jewelry display. Already up $125 on the morning. Happy sunday, indeed

Final day 1 tally - $191 gross for $56 net profit. Freerolling today and looking for $200 profit on the weekend

9:15 am - have already sold the heaviest two items in the car. That's a jackpot right there. $220 so far.

10:12 am - Big items moving better on sunday, but def need to improve mi espanol if we do this regularly. Pretty sure I'm leaving $ on the table.

10:35 am - Latinos with chihuahuas and rednecks with harley tats. Welcome to sterotype day at the flea market.

11:10 am - have passed yesterday's total by $100 already. Meat is back on the menu!

12:33 pm - the flea market experiment is over for this week. Net profit about $ 450. Can't bitch about that one.

We actually had a great time selling at the flea market this weekend, cleaned at least a carload of shit out of our house, and made enough to cover Suzy's car payment and the power bill, all on extra cash. I got home yesterday and crashed amazingly hard, sleeping until 9:30 PM. Which was kinda the plan, since I covered the Sunday Million last night, and knew I'd be up until at least 2 with that, so the afternoon nap (sleep?) was vital. And the tourney didn't end til closer to 3:30, so the only way I'm at work today is by sleeping all yesterday afternoon.

So we're gonna hit the flea market again next weekend, this time going for three or maybe four booths. We're gonna add another pop-up canopy, but we were able to buy that out of profit from this weekend, so our only expenses will be rent on the booths, food and gas. I think our nut for next weekend will be around $50, since we're only doing Saturday. But it was fun spending the couple of days with Suzy, out in the world and not stuck in the house or a theatre. And we got rid of some clutter.