Well, I did it ...

... I just paid a chunk from my rapidly diminishing savings for inventory.

Am getting:

1) An assortment of hair accessories

2) An assortment of Peruvian jewelry

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=110313748164

(I love the artistry in this stuff and the price is certainly right.)

3) An assortment of friendship bracelets

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWNX:IT&item=120344117250

And I'll order balloons just as soon as I verify the cost on a tank of helium.

We (my boyfriend and I) went and looked at two different flea markets. One is very "down scale" *ahem* -- in other words, it's in an inner city slum! -- and almost all the shoppers we saw were families with multiple children. Most were Hispanic. I'll need to brush up on my Spanish -- it's been a year or two since I've done any significant selling and my "Spanish for haggling" is a bit rusty.

It's got 2200 stalls, supposedly, though only half were full. It was still vast and varied with everything from permanent vendors to people who'd hauled their yard sales there.

Ironically, my very first job EVER as a teenager was two blocks from this place. (Yeah, it's a bad neighborhood, but I grew up in a similar neighborhood and worked there for a couple of years as a teenager. I'm not overly worried -- and I'll have my boyfriend with me, which is something I can't say I had the comfort of when I was a seventeen year old kid!)

The other flea market was very upscale, with mostly permanent, established vendors (just a few spaces for newbies) and customers who were mostly gray-haired retirees. I saw TWO children in strollers and one teenager in a couple of hours. The rest was 100% adults.

Also, most of the adults were not wearing hair accessories. Little old ladies? Don't do scrunchies.

We're going to start at the downscale market. *grin* I think what we want to sell will do better there. We can always try the other one later, and modify our inventory for it. (I suspect the Peruvian jewelry would do well in Mesa but the balloons? Not so much.)