5 ms·

Yeah all I'm getting is depleted assortment of cutlery, plates, and flowerpots from German and Dutch house clearances... or "flea market" is a codeword?

defrost 3y ago
At least you're stocking up on ammunition for when you do find a cannon.
- qup 3y ago
  Ammunition? What is this, a garbage gun? Sound like good targets, though.
  - defrost 3y ago
    It's traditional medieval cannon grapeshot - random bits of metal, hard rocks, etc. You fight with what you have which isn't always a stockpile of cannon balls.
    - Retric 3y ago
      Sometimes that happened, but in general grapeshot is anti personnel so people used it even when they had cannon balls. When cannonballs hit ships splinters often provided area of effect carnage. However, on an open field a cannonball would only harm a few people and could simply miss.
Cthulhu_ 3y ago
That's because the companies that do the house clearances get first dibs on the contents; any antiques or valuables will end up on e.g. ebay or auction to be sold to collectors. The rest goes to the tip or via charity shops to the tip. I'm confident the charity shop 'volunteers' make good scratch off of having first pickings on everything that comes in.
- expertentipp 3y ago
  It feels the only people benefiting charities are those close to the source in the distribution chain, and the millionaires who own these charities of course. The rest have an opportunity to observe and buy the most useless, outdated, and trivial assortment.
Xenoamorphous 3y ago
Where I live flea markets mostly consist of cheap stuff, mostly clothing, from Aliexpress/Alibaba.
- tourmalinetaco 3y ago
  When I was a kid it was my premier way to get bulk fake Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. What was crazy to me at the time is they were properly sealed in packs. Very obviously fake though. Thick, waxy, overly saturated with very low res and wrong fonts. Not to mention at least 4 years old. On the Pokémon cards the text and overall look was right though, so I still used them on the playground. The Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, however, were the extremely fun poorly translated ones. “Spell Slame”, “GGGG”, “Rock Corrosion Devil - Love Fake”. I think my favorite though was a “Storm King” I traded for a legit Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. I told the kid like 3 times it was fake, but he was bound and determined. Worked out for me, since I ran Blue-Eyes, but was just very weird.
- f1refly 3y ago
  Where I live, there are flea markets that banned all commercial reseller types. With time, those with the bans in place obsoleted all others without them. The people have spoken. If you'd like a proper flea market with lots of private sellers trying to get rid of miscellanious stuff from their basements, I recommend to suggest such a ban to the organizers in your area.
dcminter 3y ago
> or "flea market" is a codeword It kind of is. Not in that way though. Flea-markets aren't really a thing in England at least by name. So this was probably a jumble sale or a car boot sale. A jumble sale is a small indoor ad hoc second hand market probably not on any very regular schedule. They're usually run by small groups (church congregations, scouts, womens' institute) for fundraising and social purposes with the items donated and all the proceeds going to the group. A car boot sale is held in a parking lot or field, where the sellers pay for the pitch and the buyers sometimes pay to enter. As the name suggests, many of the pitches will just be sellers with a car full of junk. They may be run commercially or by groups with access to suitable grounds (e.g. a rugby club). They're more work and staff to organise so they're often on a regular schedule (e.g. first Saturday of the month). I love flea-markets of all types :)
- tourmalinetaco 3y ago
  So it’s not common to have a building or area dedicated to renting a small square, setting up shop, with dozens to maybe even hundreds of others to sell your things? In America we also have car boot sales, although “jumble sales” are called rummage sales here. And yeah, whatever ya call them it’s always fun exploring and buying other people’s stuff. I especially love crystal glass bowls and jars. That and other shiny things bring out the corvid in me.
  - dcminter 3y ago
    Not super common, but again that would be more an "antiques market" or similar (e.g. see Alfies Antiques Market in Marylebone, London) rather than a flea. It's not really that they don't exist, just that the catchall term isn't commonly applied. Incidentally I now live in Sweden where Loppis (literally "flea") markets are common and delightful. Some are all year around affairs while others just pop up at the weekends in the countryside summer months as the population sweeps out of the cities for their summer vacations. I love poking around through other peoples' crap! One last thought - my family used to swing by an antiques auction in Tring in Hertfordshire (the county this cannon was discovered in). Over the years a variety of bits and pieces were acquired there - some rather nice. After my parents died they did the house clearance for us. Dust to dust...

defrost 3y ago

At least you're stocking up on ammunition for when you do find a cannon.

qup 3y ago
Ammunition? What is this, a garbage gun? Sound like good targets, though.
- defrost 3y ago
  It's traditional medieval cannon grapeshot - random bits of metal, hard rocks, etc. You fight with what you have which isn't always a stockpile of cannon balls.
  - Retric 3y ago
    Sometimes that happened, but in general grapeshot is anti personnel so people used it even when they had cannon balls. When cannonballs hit ships splinters often provided area of effect carnage. However, on an open field a cannonball would only harm a few people and could simply miss.

Cthulhu_ 3y ago

That's because the companies that do the house clearances get first dibs on the contents; any antiques or valuables will end up on e.g. ebay or auction to be sold to collectors. The rest goes to the tip or via charity shops to the tip. I'm confident the charity shop 'volunteers' make good scratch off of having first pickings on everything that comes in.

expertentipp 3y ago
It feels the only people benefiting charities are those close to the source in the distribution chain, and the millionaires who own these charities of course. The rest have an opportunity to observe and buy the most useless, outdated, and trivial assortment.

Xenoamorphous 3y ago

Where I live flea markets mostly consist of cheap stuff, mostly clothing, from Aliexpress/Alibaba.

tourmalinetaco 3y ago
When I was a kid it was my premier way to get bulk fake Pokémon and Yu-Gi-Oh! cards. What was crazy to me at the time is they were properly sealed in packs. Very obviously fake though. Thick, waxy, overly saturated with very low res and wrong fonts. Not to mention at least 4 years old. On the Pokémon cards the text and overall look was right though, so I still used them on the playground. The Yu-Gi-Oh! cards, however, were the extremely fun poorly translated ones. “Spell Slame”, “GGGG”, “Rock Corrosion Devil - Love Fake”. I think my favorite though was a “Storm King” I traded for a legit Blue-Eyes Ultimate Dragon. I told the kid like 3 times it was fake, but he was bound and determined. Worked out for me, since I ran Blue-Eyes, but was just very weird.
f1refly 3y ago
Where I live, there are flea markets that banned all commercial reseller types. With time, those with the bans in place obsoleted all others without them. The people have spoken. If you'd like a proper flea market with lots of private sellers trying to get rid of miscellanious stuff from their basements, I recommend to suggest such a ban to the organizers in your area.

dcminter 3y ago

> or "flea market" is a codeword It kind of is. Not in that way though. Flea-markets aren't really a thing in England at least by name. So this was probably a jumble sale or a car boot sale. A jumble sale is a small indoor ad hoc second hand market probably not on any very regular schedule. They're usually run by small groups (church congregations, scouts, womens' institute) for fundraising and social purposes with the items donated and all the proceeds going to the group. A car boot sale is held in a parking lot or field, where the sellers pay for the pitch and the buyers sometimes pay to enter. As the name suggests, many of the pitches will just be sellers with a car full of junk. They may be run commercially or by groups with access to suitable grounds (e.g. a rugby club). They're more work and staff to organise so they're often on a regular schedule (e.g. first Saturday of the month). I love flea-markets of all types :)

tourmalinetaco 3y ago
So it’s not common to have a building or area dedicated to renting a small square, setting up shop, with dozens to maybe even hundreds of others to sell your things? In America we also have car boot sales, although “jumble sales” are called rummage sales here. And yeah, whatever ya call them it’s always fun exploring and buying other people’s stuff. I especially love crystal glass bowls and jars. That and other shiny things bring out the corvid in me.
- dcminter 3y ago
  Not super common, but again that would be more an "antiques market" or similar (e.g. see Alfies Antiques Market in Marylebone, London) rather than a flea. It's not really that they don't exist, just that the catchall term isn't commonly applied. Incidentally I now live in Sweden where Loppis (literally "flea") markets are common and delightful. Some are all year around affairs while others just pop up at the weekends in the countryside summer months as the population sweeps out of the cities for their summer vacations. I love poking around through other peoples' crap! One last thought - my family used to swing by an antiques auction in Tring in Hertfordshire (the county this cannon was discovered in). Over the years a variety of bits and pieces were acquired there - some rather nice. After my parents died they did the house clearance for us. Dust to dust...