Just courious on trends from around the country.
This swap I go to has a long history. Was sold to current owner due to being confiscated by authorities.
Last owner was involved in organized crime (allegedly) and new owner has been investigated but not charged.
Swap has been frequently raided and focas of sting operations by local and state police. As well as ATF and FBI for individual vendors, not the swap as a whole.
There is a great deal of vendors selling "shop lifted goods" like allergy meds, high end shampoo....
Lots of car stereo's and lawn equipment.
Easily stolen, easily sold goods.

Even some stalls I assume were "fell off a truck" stuff.  Tho possible they buy wholesale...?

Police frequently go by stalls and run serial numbers and anything that is missing number or number is altered/scratched out...it will be confiscated and you have to go to court to claim it.


To the question....
Obviously swaps are a great place to sell stolen goods. Been going on for decades.
Just wondering how open it is in your neck of the woods?
And do your authorities take action?



Just started attending this swap and was amazed at how obvious and open

Another site I ran across today.
Never used but gonna try.....
Any one beats me to it, or have used, let me know how it works.

cash4books.net

First time to this swap. Just went to check it out, not sell. Though did my usual trunk full of stuff to try and sell to vendors.
First off, as talked about it another thread, I always feel awkward trying to sell to sellers. Has been profitable for me but just have s hard time approaching them.

Not here! Everyone was SO approachable! Totally a "swap" meet, not flea market.
More on that later, here is the review...

Held in old drive-in. Year around indoor, sesonal outdoor.
Very high Latino demographic. Lots of festival clothing, cowboy boots, tack goods and amazing home cooked food.  Extremly high volume of stolen goods. (not the Latino stalls, just in general)
Many stalls selling only things you would expect people to leave in their car. (like one stall was only CD's in car cases and cell phone car chargers ...100's of them!$
Lots of car stereo's, lawn and garden tools....
Also s lot of personal hygien (expensive hair products and teeth whitening stuff)....anything that can be shoplifter.

Then there is 150ish stalls of normal yard sale types. 

Seemed to be the focas. Few furniture makers. One antique guy. Several jewelry, both cheap and/or handmade to nice stuff. Lots of tools.

Not a single stall looked to be a storage auction outlet. But I'd say a good 75% were professional flea marketers.

Would defiantly use this one to move goods. Seemed every stall had the same style of wares so gee stalls that were different got some heavy traffic and were selling.

As far as myself....
Picked up some coin sets at a decent price for my nephew. Paid $3 for all three mints of the 1943 steel penny. Not so good but he would NOT come down.

Traded some some rocks for some rock hammers and hand picks. Two useful and two old rusted, worn handles things that look good on display next to rocks.

Sunglass lady had $5 bin and in it I found a pair of 'like new' Jimmy Choo's which sell for $279.99 new. And a pair of Nike in case with four diff lenses that sells for $200.

Sold baggy full of misc jewely pieces (low end pearls off string, costume stuff, broken stuff) to a jewelry maker for $10 and a ring to give to the girl that drove my ass that far, little token thank you.

Few other things like that.

Everyone was so cool with swapping, bartering and buying.....
I'll be going to this one a lot.

I rent a room to a friend since he's only in town maybe a week a month.
He works gold mines all over.  This latest job they set allowed to take quarry for souvenirs.
Brought back big chunks of quarts with bueatiful lines of gold and silver thru them.

Unfourtunatly the company will prosecute if they find you are selling it. We did the math from what this mine is rated at and each rock has about $50-100 in gold, plus the silver

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink....


At least I'll have some nice book ends when I cut and polish .....and my nephew thinks he's rich now. lol

Hit an auction before work. One of those units that are only like 4' high was up.
Contained a tote marked "hazmat clean up supplies" and a dirty dirty dirty tool bag. That's it.
Guy started at $100 and never went lower. A good five minutes of trying to convince us to bid.

Finally I said "I'll give ya $20 for it if we can just move on!"
Figured if it was a hazmat kit it would have a respirator and those are $30 so I'd be even.

So pull out bag and it's full of tools. Nothing expensive but tools I'd never buy but have borrowed so figure my $20 was well spent. Got some tools.

Then went to pull out tote and its a million pounds!
This ain't no hazmat kit! Open to find 52 brand new, in box, grinding wheels, polishers, wire wheels....
Priced  them and retail the cheapest goes for $50. Put on CL for $25. Figuring these aren't hot items. No real home use. Get someone here and offer 2-for-$40, 3-for-$50....

Even at $15/ea I'll clear $750!

Any coin people here?
Got a bag, weighs about 50lbs, of mixed coins. Since I'm not in need of fast cash I decided to just slowly sort thru as time permits. First sort to pennies, nickles.....then by year.

Anyone know a website that is reliable on price? Or price guide book coin people favor as scripture?
Searching around I've found such wide opinions on value. One site says this 1909 penny, top price,  is 0.3, the other $1, another $7.50.....
Every site says they are the best, their book is most accurate....,

Anyway, already have found a few okay ones. Two silver quarters and a nickel. Bunch of pennies in the 25-50cent range. Figure condition and the hit by selling to dealer isn't gonna make me rich but if I can get even a penny more than face value.....not like the game needs my full attention, might as well be sorting.

Love going to fleas and swaps. I pick, don't sell.
But I do sell a lot to the vendors. I usually go a few times, talk to the sellers, see what they always have then if I come across something I'll go to them. But it's always a bit uneasy.

Question to all you that sell at markets. Is it bad form to just walk up and say I got this, you interested?

Cause when ever I do it that way they kinda blow me off or offer just nothing.
Like this weekend I had an end table. Guy had like pieces so I offered it to him for $15. He didn't look and just said no. Stall next to him offers $5.

I sold it on CL for $60.

For certain items I'd rather take less. Move it fast and not have the hassle of ad, calls, meeting....

Am I breaking some unwritten rule of flea marketers? I've done it fir years, works well but always catch attitude.....

Wasn't planning on attending today but was a few blocks away, had a couple hours and $200 in my pocket. Figured it was an auction or go wonder the book store.....might get lucky.
Anyway....

10x20. Looked like a painter or constuction guy used as warehouse.
Saw 7-8 ladders, well used and not all that safe looking. Few air compressors, again well used, one looked taken apart and all sell new for about $200.  A bin like thing that you could see various power tools but clear that some had been taken apart (assumed this bin was for broken tools).  The rest was piles of paint  tubs, drop cloth, odd-an-ends of boards, roofing.....

So....starts at $100. Guy shouts "HERE!!!"  while everyone else is checking their email or what ever. Another guy walks up, stares, sighs and takes the $150.
The first guy screams "FIVE HUNDRED!!!!"

Now everyone, including myself, come forward. Like, what the he'll did we miss?!

I saw nothing! Everyone was looking at each other.

NO idea what this guy was thinking. There had to be 5-6 truck loads of trash. Lots of heavy, dirty, lifting and cleaning.  It was open, viewable, nothing really hidden and searching the net you could get all the stuff used in GOOD condition for under $1000 and most looked broken....

Not to mention that no one wanted it! Why did he jump from $150 to $500?! 

I'm not sitting here thinking he is a moron. I'm trying to go over it and figure out what I missed! LOL