Flea Party @ Lucky Plaza by For Flea Sake

Those who know me well enough probably know that I've got way too much clothes and a bursting wardrobe! It's time for me to clear them before I move to my new home. Some of the clothes have been there for 4-5 years, which are way out of season.

If you think that donating your pre-loved clothes away seems to be too much of a waste, the only way to earn back some $$ and clear as much unwanted clothes as possible are through fleas!

I've participated in fleas organised by forfleasake few years back, and it was held outside Queensway Shopping Centre. You can read more about it here, though I didn't write in-depth of what happened. But the sales that time was better than expected. I actually thought that it was quite an ulu place, but nevertheless, all those tents set up for the flea did a pretty good job attracting the shopper's attention.

After reading that the response for the flea at Lucky Plaze (Opposite Jollibee) was really good, I decided to ask Karen to share a booth with me. Since she's been reminding me to ask her along if I ever decided to join another flea. :) This time it was also organised by forfleasake.

Some preparation work we did for the flea / what to expect during the flea:

1) During my most recent BKK trip, I went to get plastic bags for the flea. I bought 1kg of transparent plastic bags just for the flea. It was really heavy to carry it all the way from BKK back to SG, but it was much cheaper there as compared to buying it from SKP locally. It's less than 5sgd for 1kg, the price of the plastic bags depends on the sizes you want too. 

You can find various types of plastics/paper bags in Platinum Mall Level 4, all the way left of the mall when you take the escalator up. There's one particular stall supplying all this plastic/paper bags. Do note that some patrons actually prefer to have opaque plastic bags rather than transparent ones!

2) I also bought some labels (Those with a big "SALE" word) from the same shop too, which costs around 50 cents per piece. 

3) Remember to bring a marker, A4 papers and masking tapes, so that you can write your price BIG BIG  to attract customers.

4) Most importantly, pack your clothes! I didn't bring the slightly more expensive dresses to the flea, so in the end, I simply sold all of them at the same price. Also because I had foreseen that the flea at Lucky Plaza would be kind of crowded and chaotic, hence to make things simpler, I decided to set all the clothes at the same price. 

5) Be prepared to cut down your prices as time goes by, unless you think you've earned enough from the flea. Stall vendors tend to cut down their price as the day progresses, so do be prepared for some friendly competition. 

6) Your target audience would be 95% maids. As I was selling my clothes at a really low price, I didn't really encounter customers bargaining for a lower price. Though most of them would find my price reasonable, there are still some that simply bargains for the sake of it. So be mentally prepared to face such customers!

7) Be there really early! 

Though it was stated that stall vendors can officially set up their stalls at 11:30am, the queue started to form as early as 10:30am. Karen and Kelvin were there early to have breakfast, but never did they know that there was already a queue. They decided to join the queue despite having left their flea bags in the car!  Derp and I went to take over them in the queue so that they can go grab their stuffs. 

As there were no official allocation of the stalls to you, you'll have to find your 'lucky' spot yourself. That explains why everyone was there early so as to get a better stall in terms of location.

The amount of people waiting to rush in to set up their stalls. And at 11:30am (the offical time to set up stall), the queue started to move really fast and you know it's time to grab a crate at a good location. We can't really see what's going on at the front, hence we're just blindly following the crowd. 

As I was preparing to unpack my flea bags, I've spotted quite a few potential customers camping around and waiting. And the moment I unzipped one of the bags, one of them actually reached in and pulled out a few pieces, and even started going through the bag on her own. For a moment there I was taken aback by their "kiasu-ness", but then I thought: "What the heck, let the 76th hunger games begin!", and I went on to tip the bag over and poured all of them out onto the crate. Lol! 

The stall on our left was probably the most happening one at the whole flea. They were selling clothes to raise funds for the Philippines Typhoon Haiyan survivors. Their clothes were going at the lowest price at the flea, hence they drew the most crowd. But since they were doing it for a good cause, we didn't blame them for attracting all the customers and spoiling the market (@ 6 pieces for $5). 

Kelvin + Karen started shouting to attract attention, gradually customers started coming over. In short, our area basically became the center of attention. Soon, more shouting were heard all over the flea market, there were moments when everyone got so high that it became more like a celebration. Lol. It was a new eye-opening experience for all of us.  

That's the crowd on the left of the photo flipping through the clothes from the stall on our left. 

You can probably spot some of them on a higher ground, those were the stall owners who were standing on chairs shouting in an attempt to attract customers. 

Karen and Kelvin were also standing on the chairs shouting, and waving our labels to attract customers. Whereas Derp and I were below juggling with the $$ and wrapping the items for them. 

At around 2-3pm, Derp and Kelvin went to get our lunch! 

8) There's KOI and Mcdonalds at the lower levels of Lucky Plaza, these 2 would probably be your saviors if you get thirsty or hungry. You wouldn't have time to sit down and enjoy some noodles or rice because of the busy crowd! Burgers and nuggets would be a more practical choice. The air-con was down that day, and hence we were all sweating like mad. A cold drink from Koi really saved our day :)

9) Another important thing, if you happen to have a sensitive nose, do remember to bring a mask along. When everyone starts flipping their old and dusty clothes around, you'll see more and more stall owners sneezing their noses off.

And if you're wondering how much clothes I brought to the flea.. Here it is..

                               

I've actually intended to bring another bag of clothes, but considering the fact that Derp and I am going to take a train down, and we have to walk all the way to Lucky Plaza, It's better for us to leave a hand free. There can always be a next flea. :)

The amount of clothes left from the flea, probably less than 10 pieces 

I still have another few bags of clothes left to clear. For the next flea, I'm still deciding to join the flea at Lucky Plaza again or go back to Queensway Shopping Centre.

The crowd at Lucky Plaza is definitely the best but don't expect to get much profit, unless you join the Saturday's flea instead of Sunday's. The fee of joining a flea at Lucky Plaza is also much higher as compared to Queensway Shopping Centre. I shall see what are the rates again and decide then!

Can't wait to clear all my remaining clothes! There seems to be an endless pieces of clothes to clear from my wardrobe!

You can find out more on the various flea markets around Singapore at For Flea Sake.