Outside at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds, antique furniture rests on the paved parking lot. Instead of cars, there is an assortment of chairs and tables, mirrors and bookshelves, old doorknobs and keys and locks.
A little ways down are tables piled with records, tapes and old, dusty books. There are booths of jewelry and beads, tents filled with tools and army gear and pet supplies, and trucks laden with what appear to be the contents of many an attic jumbled together. In spring and summer, fresh fruit stands line the rows of vendors, and even in the coldest months, merchants serve hot pizza and sausage from behind the counters of mobile kiosks.
Tradesmen attempt to woo customers as they bargain for goods — up a dollar here, down a dollar there. The Raleigh flea market is a bargain hunter’s paradise, and it’s only five minutes from campus.
According to Kevin Comerford, a junior in zoology, he’s found a lot of great deals at the flea market.
“The best deal I found was a $5 vintage Titanic board game for my brother. When I got home, I looked online and found the same board game on eBay for an initial bid of $60,” Comerford said.
Maddie Langley, a sophomore in art and design, said she’s found good deals at the flea market as well.
She said she found “a really nice locket for $3 and an amazing picture frame for $20.”
As a tip for bargain hunting, Langley said to go about an hour or so before the flea market closes. This way, bargainers gets better deals because the vendors want to get rid of whatever they can.
Comerford said he goes to the flea market about once a month, and when he goes, there is so much to look at, it is hard to tell if it is organized or not.
He said most of the vendors seem to camp out at their sites, so if patrons are scoping a certain stand, the chances that stand will be there the next day are pretty high.
However, he said the vendors’ camping out pose a problem. Their RVs in the parking lot take up a lot of space in the limited parking areas. He said there is an additional parking lot being put in, though, which should help.
Mike Schribner, a vendor selling birdhouses from Boone, said he’s been coming to the flea market for about six months now. He said he hasn’t been every weekend because he does more street markets, which are similar to flea markets, but with a slightly different setup.
Schribner said this flea market in particular has really good business — even better than the street markets — especially in the summer when it’s packed.
Langley said she’s been to the flea market about five times, and the only thing she would change would be to have more food stands available outside.
Comerford would like to see more foreign booths. He said he never sees anything foreign, and that most of the vendors are from somewhere local — not that he considers that a bad thing. He said he just thinks it would be neat to have a little more culture involved.
