September 2016
I went to Sparks this weekend. For those that don’t know, Sparks and White Cloud, KS have large flea markets twice a year. This year was the biggest I’ve seen, the most vendors and the most shoppers. But, the items were crappy.
Just for example, I used to see lots of eye glasses but they are gone. I’ve always worn wire frame glasses because I could buy them for $10-15 in near new condition as opposed to $300-500 for Chinese plastic with some famous designer’s name/logo on them. 14 carat gold, though, became the end of that. Now, they are melted down and sold for the gold.
Tools used to be common. But the vendors have found out that they can make a lot more money on e-bay and the few tools there were crap.
But the saddest part was the work bench. It was the coolest thing there and very depressing. It was a wood-working bench that was kind of small, about half the size of mine. It was very well built and laid out well. It was dead solid and had cuts and stains and showed signs of many years of use. They had $595 on the price and it was worth every bit of it. You can buy a new wood working bench that is lighter weight and more poorly built than this bench for $1200-2000. I’m not sure what wood was used other than it was a hard wood and some idiot coated the whole thing down with lacquer. Even the vise. Yuck!
So what is so sad about all that?
Somebody’s great-Granddad or Granddad built that bench and then worked on it for many, many years so that their progeny could sell it at the flea market.
I’ve had my say about kids, this just reaffirms it.
Sadly from your grumpy Uncle/Brother Dave.
Weary