How to Make Money as a Flea Market Vendor

Though I have never heard of any person becoming a millionaire by becoming a flea market vendor I have definitely read about people making full-time income from it. I read for example from a Quora subject titled How do people make a living from selling in flea markets? where people explained the hard work of flea market sales.

The Disadvantages

Before one decides to become one to possibly escape a full time company job to become one’s own boss remember that becoming a flea market vendor has its advantages and disadvantages. The carefree image of a flea market vendor lazily watching by as passersby peruse their products is just half the picture.

You also have to get up early in the morning to go to a flea market to sell your products. This is not unlike your garage sales where you stay in close proximity to your home. You have to regularly lug around many boxes which can sometimes be heavy and tiring. You also have to drive sometimes very far away for long distances just to be able to sell.

Depending on your setup you may find your market stall inconvenient and hard to work on. If you are in an indoor flea market you are relatively sheltered from unfavourable nature elements such as rain, heat and wind. You have to contend with this if you are in an outdoor flea market. You are also in close proximity with other sellers with whom you may not get along.

The Advantages

The advantage of flea market sales is that the rent is much cheaper than a regular commercial retail space. You also pay less registration fees. You also do not have to spend much on the maintenance and decoration of the stall. These are important factors especially when business is slow and you are hardly breaking even in your business.

What is Common Knowledge Already

As many articles about making money on flea market sales have already told you new and old and even broken jewelries are a reliable seller in flea markets. So are one dollar items that can be given as giveaways. I saw a flea market vendor who sells exclusively toilet paper and is making brisk sales. Everyday household items like these sell well especially if they undercut the price of regular retailers in brick and mortar shops.

A lot also has been written about where to source your flea market products from. These include your excess household possessions, thrift shops and charity shops. You can also source them free from items being disposed on the curbside during garbage and recycling days. You can also source them for free in charity shops who give away some items for free.

You can also source them from the many online markets and from the predominantly Chinese owned direct to manufacturer sales platforms. One more source I can add is to buy products from the other sellers in the flea markets. Since you’re already in there why not make time to see if the other sellers have something that you can earn money from yourself...

Lesser Known Income Opportunities

While you are looking at the other sellers observe also which ones are doing good business and take note of the products they are selling. You can sell complementary products that this seller is not able to supply to buyers and sell them yourself. This way you complement each other and both of you can endorse each other.

If ever you get the chance try getting feedback from passersby as to what they are looking for. Maybe you can pinpoint several popular products people are willing to buy at flea markets that are currently not being supplied. Then in your free time you can search where to buy it and arrange a situation where you can supply it to these same people.

If you have the resources you can setup a simple e-commerce website where you present pictures of your products together with their selling price and a simple but enticing writeup to drive sales. You can then offer pickup orders where the pickup location is your flea market stall. This will also give your online buyers a physical feel for your business and you.

Advertise as much as you possibly can especially online in social media. The more people you reach the better. You can display regular headlines such as discounts and special sales to entice people to come to your stall.

If you have a disproportionate variety of certain products look for online collectors group who may be interested in them. If you are successful enough you can make your flea market stall a regular destination of these collectors.

You can further expand your reach by being a middleman for the other sellers in the flea market and their buyers who may be found online. You can even give their products an online presence in your online store. In return for assisting these other flea market sellers you can ask them to pay you a commission based on the sales of their product.

Conclusion

As already discussed there are people making full-time income from flea market sales. However one can still expand their business by assisting other flea market sellers, by treating the products of the other flea market sellers as something they can make money on and by establishing an online buyer base.