Why wonder what to sell at a flea market when you can sell just about anything at a flea market?

Well, it’s not that easy to sell just anything at a flea market, or even make a profit at all, when you don’t have much money to start with, no matter how busy that flea market may get.

You’ve finally convinced a friend or two to share the cost of hiring a flea market stand for a day, but none of you have yet decided on what to sell at a flea market.

When keeping costs down is extremely important to you, there are some things to consider before you embark on a 3 month stint of making beautiful handmade jewellery, or something else that takes a long time to make or needs materials that are expensive to buy.

When you’re desperate to earn a little money, you cannot spend weeks or months making something that you’re going to try to sell for quite a lot of money. Who is going to pay your bills, or provide you with your daily needs while you work at making your excellent and expensive products? And what if hardly anybody buys your excellent and expensive products?

If you have a wonderful idea for a really good, but expensive product you could sell at a flea market, hang onto that idea, hang onto that dream, but work your way towards it by first making and selling something that is quicker to make, and that you can sell for less.

Something else to consider when wondering what to sell at a flea market is if the items are the kind of items that will last the buyer a long time, or if the items are the kind of items that the buyer will need again and again. Perhaps you will not make too much money on each cheaper product you sell, than if you sold a more expensive product, but imagine this:

A product that costs the buyer R300 that the buyer does not need to buy again, or at least not for a very long time, (R300 x 1 in one year = R300 per customer)

Or,

A product that costs the buyer R30 that the buyer needs to replace every few days or every few weeks (R30 x 26 in one year = R780 per customer)

So, when just starting out, and needing money quite urgently, what to sell at a flea market?

Two things that people need to replace more than just once or twice a week, and certainly more often than only once a year, is food and drink! Everybody eats and everybody drinks. They have to, to stay alive. Beyond that, people at flea markets like to buy edible treats for themselves and their families, whether they’re really feeling hungry or not.

Walk around at a flea market and see what other food and drink people are selling. Can you make something similar, but better? Can you make something completely different that is not yet offered at that flea market, that people will not be able to resist? Can you make or offer something to eat and drink that doesn’t cost you much to make or provide?

What if you had fresh herbs growing in your garden or in containers in your apartment? What if you had fresh vegetables growing in your garden or in containers in your apartment?

So what if you cannot afford to buy a skottel, potjie pot, or other cooking utensil that could be used to offer the flea market visitors hot food? That can come later.

Make and sell foods that do not need to be hot or that do not need to be heated up.

Interesting salad rolls, with your own fresh herbs of course!
Muffins.
Homemade breads.
Cupcakes, cakes, tarts and puddings.
Salads, with fresh herbs of course!
Thread cheap soft or homemade sweets onto sosatie sticks.
Homemade sweets.
Homemade vegetable juices and fruit juices.
Pickled onions.
Jams.
Toffee apples.
Homemade potato chips.
Sauces.

Try not to spend all the money you make. Save a little bit of it after each day spent at a flea market, towards the things you need for your bigger, more profitable plan.

© Copyright Teresa Schultz 2014