Punk Rock Flea Market - Day 1

Good morning everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. It was a long and busy one for me, but also very satisfying. We spent our weekend at the Punk Rock Flea Market in Trenton, NJ, USA running our art stand at the largest show we've ever done.

Before I get into the first day (Saturday), let's get a little backstory, because this wasn't supposed to be the first large show we've done. That honor was supposed to belong to the Greater Philadelphia Comic Con 2.5 years ago. I was still working my fulltime job. I had worked at a grocery store for nearly 20 years at that point but had been doing art on the side for some time.

After meeting @jae5086 the year prior, he really encouraged me to think bigger so that someday, I could make a living off my art instead of just supplementing my income as a hobby. Early in 2020 we invested in a branded table covering, display racks, and signed up for the con. Then Covid-19 happened and while everyone else was getting locked down, and events cancelled, I was suddenly an essential worker working many hours every week with little to no time for art. The event we paid so much money to be apart of was rescheduled twice over the next year until those running the event refused to refund anyone's money, cut and run.

It took time before events really came back, and longer yet for us to feel comfortable trying again. Our fear wasn't having our money once again stolen but that there would be too few customers. All this time later, here we are, finally done with our first two day show.

We were fortunate that I was able to go and set up the day prior (Friday). It really helped not be in a rush to set everything up the morning of the event. Instead, we only had some small arrangement and pricing to accomplish, which was done with plenty of time to spare before the doors opened to customers.

For the hour prior to the doors opening, VIP ticket holders were the only ones allowed in other than vendors so there were still some people around checking things out. They mostly were not buying anything yet though and it was all very leisurely. Once 10am hit, people began flooding in, as there was a nice sized line to enter the arena.

Right out of the gates, things were looking great. We had a steady stream of people visiting our stand and plenty of complements for the quality of the art. We also had a steady number of buyers over the first few hours. By the end of the third hour, we had already sold $850 worth of art and were well on our way to meeting our goal of $2,000 for the weekend.

We started to get a little nervous, however, as sales of Calvin and Hobbes pieces picked up. At one point, we sold 9 straight with 12 of 13 in a row being Calvin and Hobbes. This was worrying because there are only so many I had to sell and we were afraid what would happen, especially by day two, if these sales were to dry up.

As we got into the later hours, we started selling mostly original pieces, which was comforting. However, the last 2 hours started to feel like a crawl as the number of people at the market began to diminish and sales became few and far between. Luckily, right at the end of the day, someone bought an expensive stash box that really helped bolster the end of day numbers.

We were starving by the end of the show, having been too busy until late to have gotten lunch. By then, we elected to wait and grab something on the way home.

Our totals for the day came in at 31 sales for $1460, leaving us well on our way to our original goal. The show cost $400 for our 2-day stand, so the secondary goal was to reach $2400 to cover the table and gross $2000. As good as the day went, we knew the second day would likely be a little slower because of sporting events and it was to be a rainy day. Plus, we had a lot less Calvin and Hobbes to sell, which accounted to roughly half of Saturday's sales.

How did we fair on day 2? Will we reach our goals? Stay tuned for the next episode!