Flea Market Flipping Finale
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Sell Day on Flea Market Flip
Welcome to the last day of my 23 minutes of fame…. Flea Market Flip’s finale! (You can read about the first two days here and here.) On the last day of filming, the teams attempt to sell their refurbished flea market items at an actual NYC flea market. Who ever makes the most profit wins!
It felt like an ETERNITY for our sell date to come around. We were desperate to see our refinished pieces again, we were curious about the logistics of selling, and we basically just wanted to hang out with our new FMF besties.
Shop my favorites!
Both Jill and I lived in New York City for years, but neither of us had ever been to Antiques Garage. It’s literally a parking garage with two floors of vendors. We were curious how many people would actually show up to a parking garage on a sunny summer day and how big the market was. (Answer: it’s moderately crowded, and a moderate size as far as NYC flea markets go.)
Our flips were under wraps when we got there… but we tried to play it cool by not ripping the packing blankets off the minute we arrived. Antiques Garage is eclectic with lots of tchotchkes and artwork… our furniture items were a little bit of fish out of water amongst the Hawaiian shirts and African headpieces.
Filming the Flea Market Flip Finale
After some recap filming and the usual “what do you think about your competition” line of questions from Demetrius, we were ready to start our engines and get to selling.
The cameras aren’t front and center during selling, but it’s VERY clear that we are not just regular ol’ flea market venders. We were surprised by how many tourists were wandering around, and a settee is not exactly what they’re hoping to go home with. Thankfully, there were definitely folks interested and we had plenty of nibbles from locals. (Our first buyer was local and it turned out his mom was a fan of the show; he was the one who bought our locker bench for a bargain.)
It was discouraging how much we had to cut the price of our items, but ultimately it’s about selling everything within the given time period so we didn’t want to be too particular or rigid with our pricing.
The Result of Our Flea Market Flip Episode
If you’d checked in with us around lunch, we were in a slight state of panic having watched the guys sell 2 of their wacky items while we were still sitting on 2 of ours… Jill and I are both on the more Type A side of things and during the course of the day, we tried to keep track of how much money Ryan and Dave were making. We didn’t know what they’d SPENT for their things, but we had educated guesses… This meant that towards the end of our sell day, we had an idea of how much we could adjust the sale price of our items! Math for the win. Stay in school, kids.
All in all, the entire freakin’ experience was the best. We met a number of people during the course of our filming and WITHOUT exception, everyone was amazing: our producers, the poor sound guys who had to deal with my rattling necklaces and listen to us yabbering on all day, the PAs in charge of keeping this pregnant lady hydrated and anyone who had to hear us claim “world flea market domination” every hour on the hour. Jill and I might differ in our taste (she’s all for leopard and bedazzling, I’m all for a hodge podge of vintage ephemera) but we were the bestest of teammates and had the BESTEST of times! We both obsess a little bit over the details, we both love a bargain, and we both like to, ahem, WIN.
I’ve said it once, and I’ll say it again… whenever you’re ready to stage a Flea Market Flip All Star Season, we’re IN, HGTV… call us! (That’s a “W”. Because why? Oh yeah… because weeeee wooooonnnn!!)
Well that was a terrific experience! Thanks for sharing. I would likely have drawn that out to five posts, so excited I would have been lol. I thought you showed remarkable restraint with only three! I enjoy your blog, keep up the great work!
I’m so glad you liked it!! I’ll spare everyone else the 2 more posts, but I could go on and on!!! Clearly… 🙂
Congratulations! It was such a fun show to watch.
And a well deserved spot on the show and a well deserved win.
Thanks, Michelle! We certainly had fun MAKING the show… 🙂
Charlotte
These follow up blogs have been so much fun to read! I predict you and Jill are headed for many more moments of fame.
Love and congrats again, Katharine
Here’s hoping, Katharine! 🙂
what a FUN experience. It’s neat that they have a flea market in a parking garage too. it’s probably cool in the hot summer NY days too!
So fun, Trina! It wasn’t ‘cool’ exactly, but it was MUCH cooler than the outside temps which were in the 90s! And less sunblock required. 😉
I so enjoyed reading about your Flea Market Flip. I loved the locker bench. I’ve been reading your blog since the beginning!
Thanks, Pat!! I would have taken that locker bench home in a hot second… I agree! 🙂
Missed the original air date, but I’m sure I can catch it later. Congrats! Looks like so much fun! Actually glad to know that the show is what it claims to be. It will make it even more enjoyable to watch in the future.
You can watch it on Youtube or itunes if you’re desperate. 😉 Google “Rocker Dudes vs. Designing Moms.” And we were definitely pleased with how accurate the whole thing is! 🙂
Charlotte! Just watched the show and loved it. You killed it!
Thanks!!! I could do it every weekend… SO much fun!!! xo
I haven’t seen your episode yet, but I read your entire recap! I’m a fan of the show, and am pretty excited to “know” someone who’s been on it!! And I think you were totally justified to milk it for an entire week because it’s AWESOME that you were on an HGTV show! I had one of my “flea market flips” featured in the reader submission section of their magazine last summer and I pretty much lost. it. for. days. So, I can’t even imagine the rush of being on one of their shows! Congrats Charlotte! Your pieces look amazing!
Emily, we have to TALK!! How did you get in the magazine?!?!? THAT would be my dream! Published!!! Congrats to you! (Is it on your blog I hope?!) And thanks! 🙂
My fiancee and I just got picked to be on the show! We’re suuuuper nervous but this helped SO much to see what we’ll be going through! I’d love to pick your brain some more!
Congrats and YAY!!! It’s seriously the BEST time! (And I begged to reapply, but was gently told no. 🙂 )
Ask away!!
It’s hard to tell when watching but how long do you have to sell on selling day?
CONGRATS!!!! That’s super awesome. I found your blog from Pinterest where I’ve been browsing for inspiration because……….wait for it……..we leave THIS WEEK for our shot on FMF!!!!! I was thrilled to find your blog and these posts on what to expect because I really had no freakin’ idea. I talked to one of the producers already and he was super-nice. I can’t wait to get to Brimfield but I think the hardest thing for me will be not being able to buy stuff for myself! It’s on my bucket list to go to Brimfield so it won’t be easy for me. Thanks again for a great series of posts on your experience. You totally rocked your challenges and I’m not at all surprised that you won. Have a great week!!!
Congrats, Kim! You will have THE BEST time! Who’s your producer? I brought my own cart to Brimfield hoping to do some shopping and of course was too distracted to get ANYthing done for myself. I could have stayed or gone early, but we had a pretty tight turn around. It’s expensive at Brimfield. 🙂 I’ll go one day when I have to get more than just knick knacks as it’s a seriously enormous place. Good luck!!! Say hi to Cija for me and keep me posted!
Just a behind the scenes question.. What happens with the items that DON’T sell?
Great question, Patti! Probably donated? We sold all our items and the guys we were competing against had one CRAZY thing leftover… maybe they got to keep it? Now I’m curious too! 🙂
What do you do with the flea market blips that don’t sell?
Hi Julie! I had to do a little asking around. 🙂 There aren’t many unsold items, but technically they’re property of the show so I suspect the network does anything they want with them! Donate, give away… who knows.
I still don’t know what happens to none sold items??????
I suspect they’re donated! There aren’t usually that many that go unsold, thankfully! 🙂
Hi, I Know This Is An Older Post And YOU Guys Won (Congrats!), But Does The Losing Team Get To Keep Their Profit, Do You Know?
Hi Nikki! Thanks! No… they don’t. And we didn’t get to keep our profit either. Just $5K for winning! (Before taxes… LOL.)
Hi there
I have always wondered exactly how many hours you have to sell your items. lara always says ‘1 day’ but what does that mean?
Thanks
Hi! If I recall… we started selling around 9 or 10 a.m. until maybe 2/2:30? There is some TV stuff that needs to happen before we can start selling… just interviews, etc. but it’s a good long chunk of time! 🙂
What happens to unsold items?
Great question and I’m not sure! Everything sold our episode!