Market Day!

For some time I had seen a flea market every Thursday in my home city on a square next to the library. I thought that maybe I could sell something too since I've accumulated quite a lot of stuff now unnecessarily lying at the closet. But the only way to get a sale spot was from a lottery – except for today.

Helsinki and many other cities have adopted a practice called "Cleaning Day" which is usually twice a year, at spring and autumn/late summer. During the day anyone is allowed to make a flea market either at home or come to the street to sell. Well, having too much things lying around and the will for some extra money, I had no excuse but to do this!

This place is pretty much ideal for a sale spot; open walking square, next to library, in the center of the city.

I think this practice is great because it allows anyone to get rid of their useless stuff, but it also encourages circular economy and eliminates part of our unnecessary consumerism of always buying things as new. It has been a rising theme recently and I think it's quite necessary – along recycling – in order for us to not drown in our own shit. And why should a product have only a single owner if it can bring value to multiple? And both parties benefit: buyer gets a better price than from the store, and the seller gets something instead of nothing when throwing it into the trash. Win-win.

I didn't have any expectations how much I'd sell, and in the end I didn't sell even half but to my surprise the profit was 53€, a lot of small things accumulate quickly – and that was excluding the part from my mum's stuff that she gave me to sell. I proposed I'd have a 10% middle-man cut for my efforts – I didn't even sell the kettle when it was being haggled on and later got a full price – but my mom didn't agree... perhaps I should've proposed this before to blackmail her. Though maybe blackmailing your own mom is a bit too cruel. I guess my mom has done enough for me anyway to compensate for the losses.

Right! We also had this performance from an organ grinder who was playing songs with his hurdy-gurdy (or barrel organ, but I like the first one better) and sang, dressed like in the 1800s(?). I've actually seen a performance from him earlier, but didn't mind him again because it gave a nice atmosphere – a real market feeling. He was a cool guy – even bought a pair of sneakers from me! Watch the video of him playing if you didn't yet.

My video is at DLive