Flea Market Steals and Regrets

I cajoled my family into a jaunt to the flea market today. It just happened to be on the way home from Bird’s soccer game, and coupled with a blue skied sunny day and the promise of bratwurst on a pretzel roll, no one could knock me down. Never mind that the NC State Homecoming game was making a mess of traffic, we were flea market bound. Mac Daddy complained about the paucity of parking, but he pretty much does that in any place other than our driveway. Deal was hellbent on heading to the army surplus store. He bought a canteen, but I’ve banned any attempts at drinking from it. I almost bought a very cool military belt that would look very tough girl chic around the waist of this shirt dress I just scored for $12 (my friend Dr. Baby Mama Drama has a thing for gingham so I bet she’s jealous). I ended up not buying the belt, and just like Mac Daddy predicted, I am kicking myself now. He knows me. And since he knows me so well, he should have just taken that belt back off the rack and bought it. Now I’m cursing him because life is way better when you have someone else to blame. I mean, that’s the American way, right?

While I missed out on my belt (Ah, but wait, the flea market is open tomorrow too so I just might pop into that army surplus store one more time!), we did score some deals. I got a couple glass votive holders for a buck that will add a lovely shimmer of candle light to my holiday table. I wrapped them in Deal’s fleece jacket he refused to wear so at least we didn’t tote that coat around for nothing. While the boys were ogling some Star Trek action figures and grenade cases, I spotted an old skool Battleship in pristine condition. I snatched it up and asked the lady working the table to open up the box so I could check its contents (flea market workers hate people like me). I swear, that game hadn’t been touched. The box is marked 1984. All the pieces are there, and the parts are made of sturdy plastic, not the flimsy stuff that has ruined all the new versions of old childhood toys we loved. The asking price for Battleship was $7, but I got it for $4. Mac Daddy gets so embarrassed when I haggle so he steps away from me whenever we start talking price. He mills around pretending not to know me. Twice when he did that today savvy shoppers like me mistook him for the man to be be haggled with. I guess something about his screams “guy who spends his weekend selling his grandma’s junk in a parking lot.” I also spotted the most perfect white elephant gift for Mac Daddy’s office holiday party. I can’t ruin the surprise, but one lucky colleague will surely thank me later.

In our three hours lollygagging about the flea market I also found a great coffee table and an old trunk that could stand in as a coffee table, but Mac Daddy doesn’t see anything wrong with the rickety scratched table we have right now. We bought that table new about 12 years ago, and it looked pretty good then. Now it’s so dilapidated it teeters when you cough, and every single cup of coffee you set on it is sure to spill. What we have is the anti-coffee table. If you’ve been to my house and seen that ramshackle excuse for a piece of furniture, please tell Mac Daddy we need a replacement. We also found a lovely headboard/footboard bed for Bird. His boxspring/mattress combo thing stuck on a metal frame lacks design and is scratching our floors. The spool bed we saw was a terribly great deal, but we had no way to bring it home. Suddenly I wish I drove a pick up truck. Plus, the bed didn’t have the wooden slats to hold the boxspring in place, and as soon as the worker guy mentioned something about 1 x 4s from Lowe’s our eyes glazed over. But then again, it was a steal so if I’m back tomorrow anyway for that military belt I might as well go check if Lady Lucky is on my side and see if the bed is still there. I mean, surely one of my readers is handy enough to help me, right? Ahem.

Now tell me, what are some of your best flea market scores?