NJ Punk Rock Flea Market recap

This past week I was a vendor at the New Jersey Punk Rock Flea Market, their Christmassy “Wreck The Halls” event. This was just my second event I’ve tabled at, so I’m still feeling out how things work. The event had a couple of surprises in store for me, some of which is just me still getting my bearings and some of which was just the weirdness of the event!

So some quick background, a year ago I started an Etsy shop to sell some of my 3D prints and stickers. I decided to take the plunge and try to be a vendor at some local events. The first one I did was really just to see if anyone would actually want to buy my stuff, and also kind of get a feel for the logistics. I got a table at a fan con being put on by a local library, which seemed like a good place to start. My 3D prints are mostly retro game related, and my stickers are a mixture of retro games and retro pop culture. So a fan con seemed like a good place to try it out. I made my table fee back fairly easily, and though there wasn’t a ton of sales, there also wasn’t a ton of traffic, so I wasn’t too deterred.

Fast forward a couple months and I decided to try another table, this one more costly, but also in a much larger space that would have more people going through it. Formerly the Trenton Punk Rock Flea Market, the NJPRFM was happening in a place I’ve never heard of, the Adventure Dome near Six Flags Great Adventure. This thing is...weird? It’s a really big dome, AstroTurfed. It looks like on a normal day it might be used as a driving range, with a bar and arcade attached. For some reason it’s pressurized, which I’m not quite sure why that’s needed, but it made for a weird experience getting all our stuff into the dome. Everyone would load up their carts with what they were selling, then wait outside a large bay door. They would open the bay door, and we’d all shuffle into a small hanger-like area. Then they’d close the outer door and then open the inner one. It was an honest to god air lock for this weird dome! When the inner door opened, the air would rush into the hanger, and you could feel the pressure in your ears. So already this place was weird, but whatever, I was still just excited to be tabling anywhere.

As I was getting my table set up, it occurred to me to go on their website and check what entry was like, as in was there a fee to get it. It might seem like an odd thing to have not looked at before, but it just didn’t occur to me, and I’d earlier that week watched a YouTube video that was about red flags when you are vending at an event, and one of them was if there are charging people to enter. That’s one that I can agree with because I stopped going to places like NY Comic Con and Philly Comic Con because I didn’t go to any panels, so it came down to I was paying just to go in and spend money. So it turns out that this place did have an entrance fee, tickets were $20 to get in for one day. That seemed a bit steep to me, but whatever.

So the event technically opened at 9 to VIP ticket holders, then at 10 for regular ticket holders. I looked up what VIP was and how much it cost, and good god, it was $75, and it got you in an hour earlier to shop, plus some swag that was not worth $75. I didn’t see any sales for that first hour. And when the doors opened to the general public, well it wasn’t a mad dash down the aisles then either.

There was a lot of various stuff being sold from different vendors. On my right was someone selling vintage clothing and Funko Pops. On my left was someone who had a business selling used video games, which I thought was perfect since most of my stuff was retro game themed. People did start coming in after some time, and I started making sales, but it still felt pretty slow going. Early on I was worried I wouldn’t make back the table fee. The guys on my left said they’d done the NJPRFM before, and it was usually much busier.

Business did pick up after a little while, but overall the day was fairly slow. One thing that did annoy me about the event was I thought there was going to be food trucks, because an older post of theirs said there’d be food trucks! But then a later post said there wouldn’t be. My wife and I are vegan, and between the bar and the little burger/pizza place by the arcade, there was nothing we could eat there. I brought a few snacks to tide me over, but didn’t expect that that would be the only source of food for the whole day. There was a good coffee place inside, so we were running on coffee and fig bars all day. Halfway through I think we started getting a little giddy from exhaustion.

Overall my second experience vending was a bit of an up and down experience. I didn’t make quite what I was hoping, but I still had a good time, and a lot of the other vendors had cool stuff to show. I ended up getting some cool pennants, a Pee-Wee one, a Kermit one and a Ghostbusters one. The other vendors I talked to were very friendly. I don’t know if I would do another New Jersey Punk Rock Flea Market, but I’m definitely encouraged to continue vending. Not sure when my next one will be yet, but I’ll be sure to take some pictures and do a write up when I’m out there again.