arlier this summer I took a road trip to Oronoco, Minnesota for their annual Gold Rush Days. Oronoco is like the mother of all antique fair/flea markets around here. Other than Warrens, Wisconsin’s Cranfest coming up this weekend, but that’s more craft crap. I’m more into regular crap, er, junk, I mean thrifted treasure.
Oronoco boasts 400 vendors with over 1,200 booths packed with antique and collectibles. The market literally takes over the town. All the streets are closed to traffic, only open to the swarms of pedestrians pushing their bag-lady carts. Don’t laugh, I took one. They’re essential. Nothing ruins your day faster than carrying armloads of goodies clear across town, only to discover the one thing you’ve been looking for all your life and no room left to carry it. Damn! Of course there are handy people everywhere all too eager to haul your score – for a fee, but that would leave less money for me. Nope, bag-lady cart it is.
With my cart in tow I set off in search of treasure.
Okay, that’s cool… and kinda creepy, but not what I was looking for.
Ah… that’s the stuff! I thought the prices to were a tad high, but I did manage to find a few deals. I negotiated everything I was interested in and the dealers haggled willingly. Don’t be afraid to ask for a better price. Sometimes they will deal, sometimes they won’t. In a flea market situation more often than not they will. Just ask! My strategy was to go in at half of what they were asking and deal from there. {I think I’ve been watching too many episodes of Pawn Stars.} We usually met somewhere in the middle, but a few times I was surprised with half-price deal. Score! And sometimes I just had to walk away. This is another good negotiation strategy. Dealers are more willing to cut their prices at the end of the day. A sale sure beats packing everything back up and hauling it home! With this technique you must be willing to take the risk that the item may be gone when you return to ask for the lower price again. I lost out on one this way, but gained on another. I was able to negotiate another $10 off of an already reduced price at the end of the day. Bonus!
Oronoco offers a wide variety of items. There are the usual bits of flea market crap, but it’s minimal. Mostly it’s filled with fine antique furniture, vintage household goods, nostalgic advertising, and wonderfully recycled and repurposed art.
I thought the yard flowers were quite clever. I’m kicking myself for not looking how they were attached to the poles. This may be the only way any flowers end up in my yard! Since it’s presently dedicated to food. The freaky-bug-eyed-Samurai-woman would be an awesome salesman deterrent, don’t you think? And who doesn’t love a giant chicken?
In all it was a fun adventure. I picked up a few items on the cheap, got tons of exercise, and had a good time. If you’re within a couple hours drive, I recommend you go. It’s always the 3rd weekend in August from sunrise to sunset. Just don’t forget your bag-lady cart!
Thrifting is tiring, yo!
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