Historically, garage sales have been few and far between in Grand Forks over three day Holiday weekends. Last week, between Thursday and Friday, I went to about a dozen garage sales. Knowing Saturday would provide even fewer sales, I decided make a trip to Shady Hollow Flea Market in Detroit Lakes, Minnesota.
Shady Hollow is a weekly flea market held every Sunday between Memorial Day weekend and the weekend after Labor Day. Over the three long weekends during the summer - Memorial Day, 4th of July, and Labor Day, they expand to a three-day sale - Saturday, Sunday, and Monday.
The Shady Hollow Flea Market began sometime in 1969. When I first started selling antiques and collectibles, this was one of the first two flea markets I set up at on a regular basis. It was never a large market, but always attracted quality dealers and, as a result, a large number of serious buyers who readily spent money. During the years I was setting up there it wasn’t uncommon to make $1000 to $2000 in sales by 8 o’clock in the morning.
Saturday morning my alarm went off at 4:15 and, fortified with a cup of coffee (and more along for the drive), I was on the road at 4:45 and arrived at Shady Hollow a few minutes before 6:00. Years ago, at this time of the morning, all the dealers would have been open and there would have been more than a hundred shoppers running from dealer to dealer. Yesterday, there were only a few dealers ready for business and less then ten shoppers milling about.
Sadly, Shady Hollow has changed over the years. Today more than half the dealers are t-shirt/sunglasses guys and the few antique guys reside at the low end of the totem pole. I spent four hours walking around and spent $5 for five old flower gardening magazines from the 1890s. Pretty sad!
At 10:00 I left and spent the rest of the day nosing around antique shops and malls in the area around Detroit Lakes and Fergus Falls. The shops were more productive than the flea market had been. As a result, several of the items I’ll have on eBay this week won’t be part of the Garage Sale Challenge, but will have come from shops and malls.
I did see several collectors that used to buy from me when I set up at Shady Hollow. Talking with them, the conversations all contained one common element - how much Shady Hollow had deteriorated over the last five years and what the future held for it. The consensus was that it won’t be around in another four or five years.
It will be sad to see the grand old lady disappear.
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September 3rd, 2007 at 9:34 am
Gary,
I also did booming business at flea markets, how I miss those days and all the fun we had!!
Shady Hollow isn’t the only “old lady” to change over the years!! Maybe it’s the advent of eBay, but more and more flea markets have become little more than “junk dumps”
How sad!
September 3rd, 2007 at 5:52 pm
Gary,
It’s as sad as you say. Here in NJ I used to sell and buy at the Englishtown Market which was one of the best markets on the east coast..today it’s nothing more than a small shadow of what it once was..in fact, it’s my understanding that it’s been sold or soon will be, most likely to a developer..I’ll miss the old place.
It used to be that when we got there in the early morning..when day was just dawning..that people were going around with flashlights looking for their treasures..damn it was fun..and profitable..What a shame..
all the best,
Doc
September 4th, 2007 at 12:38 am
In North Dakota and Minnesota (particularly Minnesota) the decline began at the same time that Native American casinos began to proliferate in the states. They have also had a huge effect on antique shops.
There is a lot of money that once was spent on antiques and collectibles that now goes into slot machines and blackjack. It’s not so much a loss of interest in collecting, but rather a growing addiction to ‘the slots’ that has greatly reduced the money collectors have to spend on acquiring new things.
Nor is it just buyers. I know several dealers whose inventory is dramatically reduced because much of the money that used to go to inventory acquisition now gets left behind in the casinos. Others, more addicted, have gone out of business because there was NO money for inventory purchases.
Obviously, eBay is also partially to blame for the demise of many flea markets, but in this area, it began with the casinos. eBay was just the final nails in the coffin of many markets.
Gary