Closing Bell: Round 2 of The Flea on Sunday
As we gear up for the second installment of the Brooklyn Flea this Sunday, here’s another look back at last week’s virgin voyage. The Flea will take place every Sunday—10 a.m. to 5 p.m. rain or shine—at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, on Lafayette Avenue between Clermont and Vanderbilt Avenues. Vendors…
As we gear up for the second installment of the Brooklyn Flea this Sunday, here’s another look back at last week’s virgin voyage. The Flea will take place every Sunday—10 a.m. to 5 p.m. rain or shine—at Bishop Loughlin Memorial High School in Fort Greene, Brooklyn, on Lafayette Avenue between Clermont and Vanderbilt Avenues. Vendors change from week to week, selling everything from vintage furniture, clothing and antiques to new designs by local makers of everything from jewelry to textiles. More information about the vendors and directions can be found here.
What a bummer. This isn’t a flea market. It’s an outdoor shopping mall….shades of St. Louis. No deals. Overpriced crap. No thanks.
I thought it sucked. Nothing in the least interesting, everying overpriced. Most people I saw were disappointed.
I went just now and was disappointed by the fact that there were almost no used men’s cloths, no book vendors, few CDs and DVDs, no comics or magazine vendors, and too many vendors selling new mediocre nicknacks and branded totes. Of course you could find a couple of people selling 5 books, but it’s really doesn’t add up. In reality a lot of overpriced furniture and baby clothes.
Maybe the PTA parents at the competition flea market at PS 321 is behind the complaining? This is a great thing for any neighborhood to have one of these market; it brings tons of people looking to spend money. It’s improves surrounding amenities.
That said, I know exactly what people are talking about when they complain about vintage furniture prices in NYC. Someone said you’ll spend more than $500 on an antique dresser in Vermont. But hey, it’s a real antique! Here in NYC you’ll see really generic vintage stuff that’s not very special or cool. I’d rather pay $600 for a special antique than $300 for a scratched up, mass-produced 1950’s dresser.
If people renew and update a piece, that’s another thing. That’s what should be done with the mediocre vintage furniture. Like I dig the chairs somebody recovered in cool modern fabric in one of the photos from the flea market. At least do something like that. But putting it out as-is in the same condition you paid $5 for it at Grandma’s estate sale in New Jersey is lame. People deserve to make money for being the person who did the work and went out to the yard sales. However, it’s also a drag that these pickers and antiquers hit every yard sale in the tri-state area at 7am and none of the regular folk get to find “finds” anymore. The resulting artificial inflation in the vintage furniture arena is just sad. It makes the whole world around us less cool. I furnished my whole place in cool vintage & antiques in college and now I’d never be able to afford that. It’s why we only see 20-somethings with matching ubiquitous Ikea furniture these days.
im going today.
also I think its in a good central location in “brownstone” brooklyn which seems to be the focus of this site and the efforts of the market as of now.
Why can’t people just appreciate that a couple of guys and their associates worked their butts off to put together a well run, well thought out operation, something no one else has had the connections, chutzpah or will to do, and the people came in droves?
WORD!
It’s like what doooo you people want.
If you want something to cost a dollar…go exploit some folks from another country….
Are any of those doorman positions still available I would love to take part.
re: dogs,
this is a school running track. we can’t have dogs doing their business their. that’s just the way it is.
Well said 2:32, looking forward to tomorrow, hope the weather is like today.