Some Kind of Madness: A Day at The Rose Bowl Flea Market

This past Sunday was the first time Ça Va has not officially sold since June....or July?  Either way, I joined up with my stall mates for their Halloween season and I definitely learned a few new things.  For this entry, I thought it would be fun to take my readers along side with me as I kept a log of nearly all events that occurred throughout the day from the minute I woke up to the minute we left The Rose Bowl after packing up.  So.........here we go:

• 1:29am: Instantly sat up in bed thinking I had completely overslept.  Too bad it's too early to get out of bed yet too late to really go back to sleep.  Seriously.....
• 1:50am: Time to get up!  Good lord my feet and back are still aching from all of the heavy lifting from the day before....where's the Aspirin? First thing's first, gotta get the laundry out from the dryer so I have my clothes ready for the day.  Second, Rhassoul mud mask......trust me, it really really helps wake my face up and make me feel like my skin is refreshed which is absolutely essential when you have to work with customers for nearly 12 hrs out in the open air. Third, shower time!
• 2:30am: After getting dressed, the next thing to do is press my cold brew French Press coffee that I set up the afternoon before.  Hot coffee just doesn't sit well when it's warm outside.  Grab some cereal for breakfast and then finish packing up the cooler for the day.Finish all last minute packing.
• 3:15am: Out the door and on the road to Pasadena!
• 4:20am: Arrive at the most perfect time as the line is moving and is not back up at all so there really is no wait.  If only this would work out the same at Long Beach haha
• 4:45am: Maneuver the truck into our space and start unloading.
• 5:15am: Start organizing the chaos of items after pulling the truck out of the stall in order to utilize every square inch in our tiny stall.
• 5:30am:  Now that everything is divided up, we start properly setting up and re-arranging items if necessary.  From there, we start decorating and give the stall a more polished look because piles of junk are not always appealing to the eye but I know that works for some people, just not us.
• 6:45am: Finish decorating and sit back and wait.  The 'buyers' are out and about but because we did not bring any collectables or other antiques, they skip over our space.  
• 7:15am: We are accosted by a rather unfriendly worker on a motorized scooter about being "past the damn line".  His attitude is so poor and unwarranted that my stall mate points out that nearly the entire aisle (mind you, we are on the main aisle in the Antiques section a.k.a the biggest aisle!) has placed their items beyond the limits (which is totally normal too btw).  "Never mind what everyone else is doing.  If you don't push your stuff back, we'll pull your damn ticket and send you packing....." he yells as he scoots away on his motorized scooter.  Hmmm......so many reasons why our stall was picked on that day but I'll save that for another entry.
• 7:40am: First sale!  I sold one of my ghost mirrors!
• 7:45am: Take a bathroom break and my usual walk to visit friends before the big rush at 9am when general admission starts.
• 8:35am: Back from my walk and make my second sale of the day.  Sold 3 large solid wood picture frames with spooky late 19th century photo portraits.
• 8:45am: One of my neighbors needs help with her Square transaction and I gladly oblige.  It's all about helping one another out.
• 9:00am: Gates open for general admission!  This is where our aisle becomes flooded and impossible to navigate at times.
• 9:45am:  Where.......is.......everyone??.......oh boy, this isn't a good sign.
• 10:20am:  Help neighbor again with another Square transaction. She is so sweetly apologetic even after I tell her that I don't mind helping at all.
• 10:30am: Second mini walk up and down my aisle to scope out who is selling and what is selling........what I find is rather depressing and exactly what I suspected earlier on......Today is not going to be a good day.  In fact, today is going to be excruciatingly rough with the heat and lack of buying customers.
• 10:50am:  Seriously, where is everyone?!?
• 11:30am: Help my neighbor.....again......at least she is doing somewhat ok.  At this point, I'm rather depressed and slightly regretting not bringing Ça Va  however I know that there would still be no guarantee that things would have been any different if I had done so.  
• 11:45am:  My waxed table is melting!  I don't know what I was thinking putting it out front and center in the sun whit this heat.........oh wait........I remember, I thought it was going to be one of my first items to sell......that's why I put it front and center...........depression is turning into frustration.
• 12:15pm: At this point, I could cry from frustration.  It's not that prices were too high in our stall, it's that there is no one to sell to!  I seriously have not made a sale since those picture frames.
• 12:35pm: Help my neighbor with another sale and am promised a bottle of wine next month in return.....karma, please come back sooner rather than later.....
• 12:43pm:  3rd sale of the day!  sold a large ghost mirror.
• 12:45pm: 4th sale! sold two small ghost mirrors!  
• 1:05pm:  The crowd is really thinning out and several of my neighbors are almost done packing up.  Actually, many started packing at noon which is a sure sign that it was a bad day all around.
• 1:59pm:  5th sale!  sold my solid oak waxed table!  Finally, a large sale!  What's funny is that my customer intends to strip the table of the wax finish and completely re-paint!   Kind of depressing to hear as I spent a lot of time giving the table the finish it had and believe me, Annie Sloan Dark Wax is as beautiful on furniture as it is difficult to work with. Whatever...........I need the sale and my customer really wanted to make the purchase and I didn't hesitate to make it happen.
• 2:44pm: The Rose Bowl Flea Market is dead.......you could roll a bowling ball down the aisle and not hit a single person.  Even the hot dog stand across from us was hit hard with lack of sales and they typically sell tons considering that they sell beer at 7am......
• 3:30pm:  No more sales...........time to pack up with our tails between our legs........
• 4:30pm:  Finish strapping down all of the big ticket items that we were hoping were going to sell first thing in the morning. You can't help but feel defeated but the important thing is to remember that bad days happen, that's just the way it is.    We just happen to have had 2 in a row but what can you do.....We're only hoping that this coming Sunday at The Long beach Antique Market will not repeat last years sale in September because that day was actually much worse.....
• 4:40: Everything is loaded up and secure and we are all back in the truck pulling out of the lot ending our day at The Rose Bowl Flea Market.
• 6:00pm: Home.  Dinner. Sleep.

There you have it.  I really would have loved to be able to share a better day in its entirety but that's just not how it played out.  I suppose this entry sheds more light and realism on what selling at a flea market is like because I can tell you that is nothing like Flea Market Flip lol

Here are some photos of our stall:

I finished that Duck Egg Blue Curio and the table in the center with Annie Sloan Dark Wax.  I'll post better pictures of the curio as it now is a part of my room.

BTW, we reported that rude worker and were told to forget what he said as he has absolutely no power or authority to pull someone's ticket.  Madness....