Cute Finds from the Urbana Flea Market

I never mentioned this on my blog before, but my mother passed away back in March. She and my dad ran their own flea market booth for over a decade, she hit the World's Longest Sale with us last year, and helped my dad run a booth in Richmond. I've been spending a lot of time with him this summer, hitting flea markets and doing yard sales. It keeps us busy and distracted, which is always a good thing. We stopped by the Urbana Flea Market & Antique Show last month, and I never got around to posting my finds.

One of the first things I got were these Holly Hobbie glasses. My mom bought me the Holly Hobbie cradle when I was a kid, and I used the heck out of that thing! Two of these are Christmas glasses, one is a regular glass, and all three are Coca-Cola. The vendor had $1 each on them, let me have all three for two, and honestly seemed surprised anyone bought them!

A vendor had a ton (TON!!!) of vintage Tupperware in her booth, but her prices were a little cray-cray. I see so much of the brown/gold/green that I love so much at thrift stores and yard sales that there was no way I was paying $10+ for an individual piece. Another vendor had this one for 75 cents. I think I'll probably use it to keep water on hand when I'm working...

This little guy was so adorable that I couldn't leave him behind, especially not for $2. He'll probably become my new pen cup since I seem to have a black thumb this year. I saw the exact same one at another booth later in the day for $12, so I think I got a good deal LOL

I have no kids, but I do, however, have a vintage rocking duck for the kids I may one day have. We're thinking of putting a bag in the bottom and using it to store our dog's toys. She has so many toys, and I keep tripping over them all the time, so this might work out nicely.

This is my first ever large blow mold purchase. I only paid $2!!! Santa is missing a piece of the sled that fits on the bottom, and the reindeer is missing his/her horns. Once the snow falls, you can't tell that the sled is missing anything, and I'm planning on putting a Santa hat on the reindeer so the other reindeer in town won't pick on him.

 

This is me cheating a bit because this didn't come from the flea market. It actually came from this locally owned store called Game Swap. They buy and sell movies, games, music, and nine billion other things. While on a hunt for Pop Vinyl figures, I found this vintage Cabbage Patch Kids metal lunchbox. It doesn't have a thermos, but for $3.99, I'm not complaining!

We actually went back to the same flea market this month, but I haven't gotten around to taking pictures of our finds just quite yet. I also grabbed some stuff at a thrift store while heading home from a family reunion in Michigan AND still need to post pictures of all my blow mold finds from a few weeks ago, so look forward to some upcoming posts!

Flea Market Finds!

I posted the other day that I went to the flea market where my parents have a booth last weekend. They actually have two, and it's funny because I found some of my stuff there that I left at their house when I moved out the last time. Not sure anyone wants to buy my old Fear Street book, my NASCAR pint glass, or the textbook from grad school, but go for it.


I haven't been there in a few years, but it's a pretty nice flea market. There's a guy selling vintage posters and movie memorabilia, and if he still has it the next time I swing by, that Giant lobby card is coming home with me! What can I say? I'm a gal who loves her James Dean.


There were a number of dealers selling new stuff, especially food and pet stuff. I managed to get a few bags of in-date dog treats for my hound and some new toys for her too. She had a bad habit of ripping apart dog toys in a fast period of time, but these have lasted her nearly a week. I also got for me:

I know these noodles are so bad for me, but they're the perfect thing when I was something fast and yummy. Plus at 69 cents a box, it's cheaper than the store. The summer sausage was 2 for $5. I like to keep it sliced up in the fridge with a bag of sharp cheddar next to it for snacks.


One of the sellers had a bunch of toys, and I managed to find a few vintage goodies.

 
The top picture is one of the Rainbow Brite Sprites. She had all of the larger ones for $3 each. I couldn't even get shipping for that price online! I only bought one, but I'll have to get the rest if she still has them next time. The bottom is the Rainbow Brite Puppy. Puppy Brite was $4, but it was one I didn't have but desperately wanted as a kid.


The vendors at this flea market clearly got the memo about Pyrex. I picked up a medium size bowl in an ugly pattern, saw the $10 price tag, and quickly put it back down. The cheapest mixing bowl set I saw was $35, and that seemed to be the going rate. Most of what I saw was ugly and boring patterns from the 1980s. I did find a couple of gems though.

I believe the top one is Colonial Mist. It's the medium sized casserole dish, and it was $3. The seller marked it as "miscellaneous kitchenware" on the tag. The bottom one is the Desert Dawn pie plate. It's the first piece of Desert Dawn I've ever found! It was from the same booth and had "old pie plate" on the tag. She had it marked $3 too. I really need to find a list of all the Vision Ware pieces made because the seller had tons of it for $5 or less. I started out buying the brown pieces after seeing a set at a yard sale for $150. Yes, $150. Then I started buying the purple and cranberry pieces too, but I have no clue if I have a full set or not.


It's an interesting flea market, but I'm not sure I would visit very often even if I lived there. The new stuff is abundant, and the old stuff is priced on par with my local antique mall. I need to go over once a month to stock up on dog toys, cat treats, and noodles and to check out all the cheap food LOL.

Kentucky Flea Markets

We recently took a trip to Kentucky for a family reunion, which is good news in my eyes. It means that we pass at least four flea markets on the way home, and I can find some new goodies along the way. Unfortunately, this year's trip was something of a bust.

One of the flea markets that we usually stop at is almost always full. This year, it was down to just a handful of people. The parking lot was dead, and there were so few booths that we decided to skip it. The next flea market was full, but the prices were just insane! If you want to pay $10 for a jar of "homemade" apple butter or jelly that looks like it just came from the store, this is the place for you. We also counted at least six booths selling adult magazines and DVDs, eight booths devoted to guns and weapons, and more new items than we could count.

The new items were especially disappointing. We usually manage to find some great stuff at this flea market, but between three people, we spent less than $20, and that includes the $5 bracelet my boyfriend sneakily bought for me when I wasn't looking.

The third flea market ended up with us running into my great uncle on his way home from the reunion. The boyfriend picked up some random Pink Floyd wall hanging and a $10 video game to replace one of mine he let a friend borrow. Yes, he let his friend borrow one of my games, one of the few games that I actually played. She's now had it for over two years, so he finally decided to just replace it.

The last flea market had a nicer mixture of new and old things, but I couldn't get over the prices. I've been looking for a vintage Superman peanut butter jar for a few years now, and I finally saw one in person, but the seller wanted $20 for it. We also came across a DVD dealer that had hundreds of movies for $2. I picked up a few movies from another table, which he said were his "expensive" movies. Turns out that he cherry picks the best titles and sells those for $5 each.

I was a little hesitant, but I decided to bite the bullet and buy the one I wanted. My best friend and my boyfriend each picked up an "expensive" movie too. The best friend's turned out to be one you can pick up new for $7, the boyfriend's sells new for $10, and mine is out of print and actually sells for $20 used. Go me!

All in all, it was a disappointing trip. Most of the flea markets charged outrageous prices and had a lot of newer stuff versus the older stuff. That seems to be the way of the world though. My parents closed down their flea market booth after 15+ years due to poor sales a few months ago, and most of the flea market people I know either downsized or quit altogether. Here's hoping the future looks a little better.