Itching for fleas? How folks are finding them

by Mary Helen Sprecher
newsroom@baltimoreguide.com

It’s easy to spot them. They scan the classifieds and read Internet postings. And on Saturdays when the weather is good, you can find them in their cars, cruising slowly up and down the streets.

Their elusive quarry starts to come out this time of year, so the hunters’ senses are heightened as they move through the neighborhoods. And then they see it: The bright sign. The excited knot of passersby. The display of wares on the lawn or sidewalk.

The hallmarks of a yard sale.

Forget the robins, the daffodils and the displays of tank tops and flip-flops in store window. The real harbinger of the change of seasons is the sight of someone with excess possessions they’re willing sell for the change someone else is willing to part with.

In Baltimore, the yard sale often becomes a community event, doing double duty as a fund raiser and social occasion. Susan Allenback recognized that last year when she organized Blockenstein, the monster yard sale and block party of the Southeast.

“What is so much fun about yard sales and flea markets? It’s the bargaining, the thrill of the hunt, the social give and take – it’s all of those things,” says Allenback.

After a successful inception, Blockenstein is set to return to Highlandtown on Saturday, May 31 in the 3100 and 3200 blocks of Bank Street between S. East Avenue and S. Ellwood Avenue.

The North Point Flea Market was a popular stop for Eastsiders.

Church flea markets are also popular fund raisers. South Baltimore Little League has one coming up on Saturday, May 3. The Light Street Church holds its flea market, plant sale, bake sale and silent auction on Saturday, May 17. According to promotional materials, the 25-year-old event benefits a number of endeavors, including the church’s sister parish relationship in Cuba, South Baltimore Emergency Relief, lunches for the Freedom School at Digital Harbor High, peacemaking commitments and ecologically sustainable development of the church property.

“Before Federal Hill became so highly gentrified, in the 1980s and early 1990s, this particular flea market was known throughout South Baltimore as the time and place for many lower-income families to get much-appreciated essentials, such as plates, appliances, housewares, etc., at extremely low prices — pennies on the dollar,” says John Ginovsky, a member of the congregation. “In the early years, then-Mayor William Donald Schaefer dropped in more often than not, to show his support for this part of town and the people who were working and living to make it a great neighborhood. He never failed to buy something when he visited.”
Generally, flea markets and yard sales encourage people to rid themselves of excess items from attics, basements and everywhere in between.

“Oh, we’re all hoarders,” says Bob Adams. “It’s just compulsive buying. You see people come to a flea market, and they have money with them, and the next thing, they’re saying, ‘Where’s an ATM? Where’s an ATM?’”

Adams, who grew up in Dundalk and now makes his home in Bowleys Quarters, has had a lifetime of flea market experience.

“I started off having yard sales for fun. I can remember when I was a kid in the 50s. We would go to Shockett’s for the George Washington’s Birthday Sale. I would buy all these things from the two-cents bin. Then I would come home and sell all of it for 10 cents each. I would be selling piles of comics and baseball cards, and I would get everyone’s allowance.”

Adams grew into an inveterate shopper of secondhand goods, and eventually, would hold tables at quite a few flea markets.

“I’ve done it on and off over the years. It was really sad when North Point closed. It was like when the Titanic went down —all of a sudden, you didn’t see your friends and the people you had gotten used to seeing every week. They were just gone.”

“It’s the funniest thing,” says Vicki McComas, owner of Saratoga Trunk in Fells Point. “Yard sales, flea markets, estate sales, thrift stores — they’re like this little underground economy. You get used to seeing people year after year. If you don’t see them, you start asking questions — did they move? Get sick? Did they croak? There’s really this sense of community out there.”

McComas stocks her store with the second-hand purchases she makes during her weekly forays with her friend Susan Milukas.

“It’s a bonding experience for us. We’re always out there looking for stuff together.”
Once, McComas said, she and Milukas became involved in a friendly but heated dispute over an item they both wanted.

“It was — I don’t know, a painted screen or a reverse on glass, a painted window of some kind. I asked the girl who was selling it how much she wanted for it and she said ten dollars. I only had a $20 bill, so I told her I would break it and come back for the window. When I found Susan and we came back, I said, ‘Can you give me ten dollars?’ She said, ‘No, because I want that window too, and I asked about it but they told me it was already sold.’ Then we started bickering in front of this poor girl. It was obvious we were friends, but we just stood there arguing about it. Finally, Susan said, ‘If I give you the $10 and you buy the window, how are you going to get it home?’ I said, ‘You’re going to drive me.’ She said, ‘Not in my car, I’m not.’”

Eventually, McComas says, she and Milukas realized that each had something the other wanted — one had the window and the other had an antique bottle of Arpege in the original box. They traded items and went home happy, and they’re still shopping together today.

Flea markets and yard sales are a natural for drawing people out of their houses on a weekend, says Tori Simms, one of the volunteers in charge of the annual Butchers Hill Flea Market and Craft Show.

“It’s a chance to be outside and mingle, and gives you a chance to meet, talk to, get to know other people and it is always about the hunt. The whole concept reminds me of medieval market days — those times when you got to buy what was not available on the farm. It was considered a treat, a festival, a change from the every day. And you never knew what you might find, so there is the element of excitement and surprise.”

The next Butchers Hill Flea Market is on Saturday, May 10, in the upper area of the park, near the White House and the Marble Fountain.

The whole aspect of yard sale or flea market shopping has been compared to treasure hunting, mining, fishing, gambling and any other quest where luck and strategy play equal roles. And when fate smiles on the shopper with the right item at the right price, it’s a natural high.

“The excitement of finding that one thing you’ve been looking all over for to finish decorating your family room is great and then to get it for only a quarter?” says Allenback. “Well, that’s like having a car pull out of the parking space closest to the front door just as you drive into the parking lot. You feel huge — lucky — like fate brought you to that sale on this day. Or how about finding that little Southern Belle perfume decanter that is exactly like the one your grandmother gave your sister and that you accidentally broke and you’ve never seen another one and now here it is and it’s $2 and her birthday is in three weeks? It doesn’t get any better than that.”

The seller wins, too, according to Jean Sommers, who helped organize the yard sale fund raiser for the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARSC) in South Baltimore.

“Last year was our first yard sale and I was secretly hoping to make $1,000 and we made $2,000. Some people love to think that if you are selling a mug for $2 and they offer you a dollar, they have really accomplished something. When people asked me last year can I have this for $4 instead of $5, I usually said ‘Yes, you can; however, remember it all goes for the animals,’ they still only gave me $4 — but then you had other people who gave you more because it was for the animals, so I guess in the long run, it all evened out.”

This year’s BARCS yard sale will be held on June 1 at the shelter on Stockholm Street.

“For the seller, I think the thrill is the same,” says Allenback. “You put out a bunch of stuff you’ve had cluttering your house that you don’t need, don’t want or can’t stand and people come up and pay you money for it. It’s just so satisfying. And it doesn’t matter what it is, there’s always someone who seems to need just what you have: a half case of cat food, a lavender scented candle that makes you sneeze, a kitchen gadget your husband thought you needed that you’ve never once used, twenty strands of white Christmas lights or an old clock radio. You set a price, you cajole, you laugh, you barter, you discount for multiple items, you agree on a price and the customer goes away happy and you’ve got money in your hand. I’ve always called it ‘The Exchanging of the Stuff.’ Everyone loves a good deal and when you shop at a flea market, swap meet or buy on eBay, you ride off into the sunset a little taller in the saddle.”

Attending a flea market, says Bob Adams, is a good way to spot a trend — or perhaps more accurately, the end of a trend. These days, he notes, it’s easy to pick up bargains on CDs because the trend is toward downloading music. And remember when Beanie Babies were sold in department stores for obscene amounts of money? Now they’re available by the bag at yard sales.

Those who don’t want to go through the hassle of holding their own sale — or who don’t like trekking to the flea markets and yard sales that others are holding — now have options like eBay and Craigslist, say the experts. And for those who just want to divest themselves of clutter without concern for income (or for those who don’t want to spend money but can’t say no to clutter), there’s always Freecycle.

Flea markets tend to make window shoppers into compulsive buyers. A person can plunge into the row of tables with no thought of actually plunking down money, but may leave toting a bird cage, a bag of home improvement tools and a box of clothing, all of which was just too good a deal to pass up.
“It’s like you just have to buy it,” says Adams.

“I am really not much of a yard sale person myself, but I have to admit I enjoyed shopping at ours last year, and probably spent about $30,” says Jean Sommers. “I would think it could be addicting.”

Every few years, a story makes the rounds about an amazing treasure unearthed at a flea market — the fifty-cent painting that turned out to be a work of one of the Old Masters, the junky-looking brooch that was actually an enormous diamond in a platinum setting, the ratty old wallet that contained $10,000 cash.
There’s been nothing that dramatic for according to the flea marketers around here. McComas has the story about a small silver bell that she bought for $5, then sold on eBay for $80. Bob Adams can talk about how he once bought a gold charm bracelet for $3, then sold it for $2,000.

It’s not his favorite story, though.

“Oh, one time, someone gave me these old rock ‘n roll T-shirts, and I decided to put them on eBay. One was this really old Joan Jett T-shirt — I mean, it was old, it had holes in it, you could tell that at one time, it must have been someone’s favorite shirt. Well, I put it on eBay and I had fun writing about it — I said things like ‘it has that distressed look.’”

The joke turned even funnier when the bidding started.

“People were bidding on it and bidding on it. I guess it was someone who must have really loved Joan Jett because I eventually sold this old shirt for $37. I was laughing all the way to the bank.”

But sometimes, it isn’t about the Hope Diamond or the Holy Grail (or about paying a pittance to purchase them). Sometimes, the treasure is all about the one who treasures it, according to Allenback.

“My best story relates to my Jack Russell terrier, Nutsy, who died a couple of years ago. When I lived in Los Angeles, I was at a yard sale and someone had a lot of kids’ stuffed toys for sale in a big box. I knew how much Nutsy loved stuffed toys so I said, ‘Nutsy, do you want to buy something at the yard sale?’ He looked at me and then looked at the box of toys and I said, ‘Well, go pick out something for yourself.’ He went over to that box and rooted around and around in it and finally came up with a little 6-inch ball that looked like a little soft soccer ball. I asked how much and was told ‘a quarter.’ I handed over the twenty-five cents and Nutsy carried and played with his purchase all that day. It continued to be one of his all-time favorite toys until he died almost 10 years later here in Baltimore.”

Shop on, bargain hunters.

What’s the best thing you ever bought at a yard sale? Post it at www.baltimoreguide.com. Reporter Mary Helen Sprecher once bought a dingy old ring for a dollar at the April flea market sponsored by Frisky’s Wildlife and Primate Sanctuary, and later found out that it was an amethyst in a gold setting.