101) Vintage or Junk

This past Saturday morning, I went to the Mercat del Encants, a bustling flea market maze confined to the area of what looks like a large parking lot. It was sensory overload. Just the pure amount of stuff that was laid out was mind boggling. It reminded me of the flea markets back in LA. While the Mercat del Encants is open most days of the week, the big LA flea markets only occur once a month. I consider myself a moderately enthusiastic treasure hunter - I especially enjoy looking for vintage jewelry, bags and shoes, or anything that would look cool mounted on my wall. But most of the time when I’m browsing, I find myself thinking, who actually buys this junk?

After visiting the Mercat del Encants, I know at least a partial answer: tourists. Even though most of the wares were clearly old junk, in the light of a foreign, bustling market they seemed like rare treasures. How neat, I thought, to bring home some vintage souvenir medals from the ‘92 Olympics. Or, how special to bring back some old (and used) Barcelona postcards. Etc., etc. Things that I would never consider buying at the Pasadena City College or Melrose flea.

That’s the funny thing about vintage. In one light, it’s an amazing find. But look at it from a different angle, and it’s just old junk. When building a business based on vintage, so much of it is about finding the right lens for consumers to look through.