Wild Wonderful Elkhorn Antique Flea Market

By Friday night we were packed to the gills in the Old Green Bomb and by Saturday early am we were on the road on the way to Elkhorn Antique Flea Market.  Forecasters said the weather both Saturday and Sunday would be awful and they proved right.

We set up in a new space for us--in the North Hall.  We loaded a variety of great quirky garden and home things--and actually bought well on our way up to Elkhorn (I love it when we can do that!) 

It was windy and rainy and windy and rainy again for all of set up.  Hearty outside dealers were setting up tents and canopies with extra guy wires.  We did our usual inventory "drop" and I left Dear Husbola to set up the booth and I headed out shopping.  Outside dealers were reporting strong sales and I found some treasures.  Husbola called  to ask me to come back to the booth as he was having many sales and needed help.  Now THAT is what I like to hear. And the only reason I would stop shopping!

I am no judge of numbers--but maybe 10 percent of outside dealers had set up by the time we left for dinner at 5pm-ish.  It is MIGHTY rough for those folks to have collected good stuff all winter and be eager as all get out to sell--and then not want it to be ruined in cold wet or blown over and broken.  Heck--there were WHITECAPS on the retention pond outside our motel window!!

Sunday weather was no better.  Sideways rain and wind. The grounds had filled in with more and more outside stands.   The usual story is that outside dealers sell better than inside dealers at a flea market.  There is frequently a perception that all the deals are outside rather than inside.  Not so.  The dreadful weather and lower number of outside dealers drove the people in the buildings by the droves.  We sold like gangbusters.  By 9am our booth was struggling to be attractive anymore--but we did not care.  The shoppers have been chomping at the bit to get to the first Elkhorn--and by the looks of the exit lines and stuffed wagons--treasures were found all over the fairgrounds.

Oh--what all we antiquing crazy people put up with.  We LOVE this stuff--and realize that you can put on extra clothes and have wet feet and numb hands--and still keep selling or hunting for a treasure.  The Elkhorn dealers and shopping crowds are a friendly, interested  and eager group. They smile, shop and EAT.  I saw people in parkas scarfing down roasted corn on the cob and pulled pork sandwiches.  (I had a bad hot dog--but that is another story!) 

May, 2011 Elkhorn is in the books.  It is going to be a great selling spring and summer!!!