Crazy trash talking’ JOE the flea market vendor–look out!
I sold more great JUNK at the flea market 2 weeks ago. I made about 200$ in sales this time—I usually make around 300$ for the weekend but it was kind of slow. This is the same inside flea market I sell at once a month only this time it was a little different. You’ll see why in a minute. I get the same spot every time and I usually have this great lady next to me who is very nice. We take turns watching each other’s stuff and catch up on business while we are there. Last time she couldn’t come because she had another show to do. So I was wondering who would be set up next to me.
It was ……………CRAZY TRASH TALKIN “JOE!” That is what I am going to call him. I hope he never comes back and he probably doesn’t want to from the sound of all the complaining he did.
Did you ever meet a non-stop talker? Yea, the kind that just keeps talking whether anyone is listening or not. I mean, no one even has to be NEAR the talker and they just keep talking. OK, now you have part of the picture. Add to the non-stop talking the way the guy looks. Straggly hair cut straight across in the front, dirty baggy clothes, big ole workin’ boots, and each eye is a different color—for real! Age looks about 70 but is probably younger (maybe even 40 but who could tell?). And then there are the items he sells and how he sets them up.
OK, he had 2 8-foot banquet tables to use but apparently they weren’t long enough so he put plywood boards over top of the tables that stuck out about a foot on each side to make the tables bigger. Oh, he sounds really clever you say—NOT! His items were a big old mess. He had dusty old adapters for cars or something, about 100 videos all stacked upright instead of sideways where you could actually read the titles, a few new umbrellas hidden under the adapters, some old single use cameras and a BIG pile of sports jerseys. These seemed to be his pride and joy. Nothing was marked with a price but when a customer would come near the table, he would start his spiel—“the jerseys are only 20.00 each. Best buy in all of Pennsylvania. You can go upstairs and get them for 50.00 or you can go to the mall and pay 100.00 but I got the best deal anywhere. Only 20 bucks. You can’t beat that anywhere. Only 20 bucks people and I got all kinds just look!” Rinse and repeat the entire time that the customer MIGHT still be standing there.
Then, when the customer starts walking away (he only sold 2 all weekend) he starts the trash talk. “Best price in PA. Oh, I guess nobody wants to spend any money anymore. You can’t get ‘em cheaper anywhere else. Just try! These people don’t wanna spend any money here. I don’t know why I came. I could go to XXXXX or XXXXX and they wouldn’t be afraid to spend their money there. You people are really cheap here! I don’t know why I bother!”
AND THEN he has this big sign with crooked letters on a huge piece of cardboard set up behind his table. It says “MENS DVDS JUST ASK.” It took me a little while to figure that one out but after he explained it to me about 10 times the first day, there was no more explaining needed. “Some places won’t let me sell this stuff but I don’t see what the problem is. I don’t let no kids see it and I keep it hidden behind the table or inside my truck when I’m outside. This is a free country. They don’t give me no problems in Jersey but when I go to Quakertown, they won’t even let me have it there. No one sees it unless they ask. This is a free country. I can sell whatever I want. No kids ever see it.I keepit hidden” He did have about 4 customers for the dvds he had in 3 cardboard boxes behind his table. He made the customers come behind his table (after stepping over trashbags and coffee cups) to open the boxes and pick through the dvds. I guess they got a good deal. I really don’t want to know!
Round about lunchtime, Joe got tired. He had told me earlier about how he beat cancer and what the treatments were like and how they don’t have any good doctors around here, and the only good ones are in New York that know what they are doing. So I felt a little sorry for him…but not much…I mostly just pitied the doctors who had to work on him. But then the day got better. He flat out fell asleep! There he was sitting in his beat up beach chair with his scraggly head hung back and snoring loudly through his big open mouth. No more talking! Customers would just pass him by and I wasn’t about to wake him up. One lady came up to him and asked him a question about a camera and he woke up for a minute but then went right back to snoring.
I tried to stay on the other end of my table for the rest of the day. He woke up after about an hour and started in on the talking again. He talked while I waited on customers. He talked while I went 4 tables away from him to fix my merchandise. He talked while I walked to the other side of the room…and it’s a big room. Mostly it was trash talk about how cheap the customers are and how much money he’s not making at “a place like this where I thought it would be better since we are inside. I can’t wait to go out in the 40 degrees again. At least people spend money there.”
Well, there were some good things. There were no bad smells emanating from his area. He didn’t eat much. He liked kids because he entertained them with a scruffy frog puppet whenever they got close to him. He did beat the cancer. So did I so we had that in common. I’m pretty sure he won’t read this. And I’m pretty sure he won’t be back!
Selling on Ebay is not quite as stressful!!
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