By Woodrow Polston
The flea market, which is being hosted at the Vandalia Area Fairgrounds, kicked off its second season last Friday. Good weather brought out plenty of shoppers looking for bargains on both Friday and Saturday. Raymond Kirtlink, who was browsing through a vendor’s tables, said that there was a good variety of products for sale.
“There are a lot of different tools and hardware here to look at,” said Kirtlink. “I have been shooting the breeze with vendors and looking around at the tools and such. There isn’t anything that I necessarily need to buy but I enjoy coming out to have a look around,” he added.
Matt Cooper, who is a returning vendor from last year, said that he had a profitable opening weekend at the flea market.
“I was already profitable within a few hours of opening up on Friday,” said Cooper. “I was able to sell a few of my higher-end products and secure a good profit before the end of the first day. I have a variety of different items available, such as books, games and DVDS, but I have mostly been selling a lot of clothing items this weekend. Next month, I will be bringing out a lot of tie dye items that I have made,” he added.
With a total of about 12 vendors present, the flea market began its first weekend this year with double the amount it started with the previous year. Patricia Kraft, who organized the event, said that the funds that are being generated from the vendor spaces are going to be put to good use this year.
“The fairgrounds will be building new restrooms with proceeds from the flea market this season,” said Kraft. We have had some of our vendors reserve space in advance and others have just shown up and requested spaces. We are looking forward to having a lot more traffic in the coming months as we will be set up during some of the popular events that the fairgrounds will be hosting. The first one will be next month on Friday May 5, for the demolition derby. On Saturday, May 6, we will be open at the same time as the all town yard sale,” she added.
The flea market is scheduled to be open the first weekend of every month with the last one occurring in October. Pricing for vendor spaces is $25 for one day, $40 for two days, or $200 for a season-long reservations. For more information you may visit the Vandalia Flea Market page on Facebook.