Make Money at Your Local Flea Market

Flea markets have been a good place to start a home based business for years. There are several reasons why a flea market makes a good starting point.

First of all, the start-up cost is very minimal. Depending on what products you sell, you may not even need to buy any inventory, but I will get to that in a moment. The only other major cost will be the actual space to set up. That will depend on the actual flea market, some are as low as $5 a day for a table.

Second, even with all the eBay and online sites around, you will still have a source of customers without spending money on advertising yourself. Many people enjoy spending the day outside, gathering together to barter and trade. For ages and ages, people have been gathering at events like flea markets and socializing. Some people would simply rather be able to hold an item in their hand than viewing an online image of it, all the while haggling over the last 25 cents of the price.

Choosing where to set up is fairly easy with all of the information online. Just do an online search for "flea market directory" and find some of the flea markets that are listed in your area. Make a list of the closest ones. Remember, the closer the flea market is to your house, the less it will cost you in both time and gas getting to and from your point of sales.

The easiest way is to put away a day to visit some of the flea markets on your list. While there look for :

• The price and size of a stand
• What type of items other vendors are selling
• How many vendors are there
• How many people are there to sell to
• Overall cleanliness and atmosphere of the market

Once you have an idea of which ones you are most interested in, use some of these criteria to make your final decision:

• How unique is what you are selling? If it is a common item, you may want to go for a flea market with less vendors. There will be less competition for you. If it is fairly unique, no need to worry about competition, go more toward the one with the higher amount of foot traffic.
• The cost of travel and the actual space. If you choose a flea market that has high priced tables that is a fair distance from your house, you will make a lot less in profits. Not to mention the extra time it will take to get there and get set up by a reasonable time. I'd hate to be waking up at 3 am to be set up by 7.

When first starting out, you might notice some items laying around your house that might be worth selling. Check in the attic, basement, and closets for those items that are no longer used. You know what they say, 'One man's trash is another man's treasure.'

Another source of free items to sell would be to ask friends or family members if they have anything they would want to get rid of. Even if you offer them a small percent of what you get from it, it is still worth the effort.

Check out the local paper for yard sales, or even estate sales. Just make sure you have an idea of what types of items you are looking to sell. Don't spend all of your money buying useless trash that will not sell well at a flea market.

Once you have spent a few weeks doing this, you should have some money to reinvest in your business. Go to a website like Cheaper by Far and pick up some merchandise in bulk for you to sell. They are a good source, because there are no fees for anything, and anyone can get good wholesale pricing on light bulk items. And by buying in a smaller volume, you make sure that you can test out how a product will sell at the flea market before investing a lot of your money in a larger amount of a product that you cannot get to sell.

Many places will require you to have a sales tax ID. These are not very expensive and allow you to sell items in your area. They can be easily obtained from your local government, just do a search for Sales Tax ID +(your state).

Some things to remember :

• A table if none is provided
• A tablecloth
• Coins and small bills to make change
• Your best smile

So as you can see, flea market stands can be profitable. And it is something that almost anyone can do in their spare time.