Sunday, December 21, 2008

Alameda Flea Market

I just discovered that there is a Flea Market in Alameda located at 1150 Ballena Bay Rd. Anybody have any information about it. Can't find an actual website for it, just a contact phone number. Fill me in.

I recall many years ago, we went to the Island Drive In Flea Market down on Webster in Alameda. The drive-in movie close down in the late 70's I believe, biting the dust the same as all the other drive-in's across the country. After it closed it left the Flea Market as the remaining tennant.

Chabot College Flea Market

We are 'officially' into winter as of today....even though winter did arrive a couple weeks ago with the cooler 35 degree tempertures, colder rain and snow on the hilltops around the Bay Area.

Fortunately, we had a nice break in the weather yesterday, allowing us to sell at the Chabot College Flea Market in Hayward. We arrived there a bit on the early side and it is now a good idea to do so as the parking spots are not as wide as they used to be. I have a small Windstar van and it fits within the two spaces with about 1 1/2 feet to spare. Pity me if the people on the left and right of me both arrived before I did.....then I would have problems squeezing my van in there AND pulling out the 5-foot high/long grids from the pack would be impossible,

In case nobody noticed, the spaces now run north-south instead of east-west. Maybe the weather gods will find this to be more favorable to them. Or maybe the money gods figured they could 'squeeze' in more spaces and improve their cash flow.

It appeared like they only used about half the parking lot for the booths as not that many vendors would brave the December weather and were fearful of rain. Sales started off very slowly as it was a late crowd that arrived. My hands were long-frozen, quite cold from the 35 degree temperatures we had during the early morning. Most of the vendors probably arrived later than usual preferring to stay under their warm blankets at home. I guess there was a decent crowd that stopped by the Flea Market and bought a lot of lower-priced items....$1, $2, etc. Since our items are new and many of them were created by us, we did not do so good. The vendors with the 'closeout bought' groceries appeared to do the best. At 2:45, we began packing and were gone by 3:30 as were a good number of other vendors. Fortunately, we did not do one of our 3-hour setups for this shortened selling day.

We'll probably be back in February or March. If you want to order one of our shell necklacesm, or cowrie chokers, etc., please visit our website www.DandLCREATIONS.com where we have secure, on-line ordering, If you wish to find out more information about Bay Area Flea Markets, click here. I have a listing on my other website. Check Events and Festivals for info on upcoming shows. Click here to see OUR 2009 event schedule.