The Emporia Gazette

May 27, 2012

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On the yard near the Lucky U antiques store, the art of the deal was alive and well Saturday.

“That’s normally $22 but I’ll take 20,” a woman told a customer who had stopped to look at a tin-can Tin Man.

“I can knock $4 off that for you,” drifted over from a dealer at another booth nearby, offering glassware, china figurines and more.

“That’s 25 cents, hon,” a third dealer told a young girl who was studying a small stuffed animal.

Saddles and sterling silver jewelry shared the area with Cabbage Patch figures and Popeye books — and a number of customers besides. By any standard, the Lucky U’s first-ever Flint Hills Flea Market was going well.

“We’ve had three calls already from people that want to set up the next time I do it,” said Mary Ann Sanford, who owns the Lucky U with her husband Steve. “That’s something I’ve got to think about. It’s a lot of work, but it is a great success.”

The Sanfords have had requests for a flea market ever since they opened the store east of Emporia four and a half years ago. This year, the timing seemed right. Even the date of 7/7/7 seemed like a good omen, Mary Ann Sanford joked. And so, she put out the word on the Internet and in The Shopper to see what interest was there.

Thirty-seven vendors responded, including one who was prepared to sleep in a van outside the store the night before.

“After midnight I knocked and said ‘You’re sleeping in my bed,’” Mary Ann Sanford said.

The customers proved as hardy as the vendors. Some arrived from Texas, from Oklahoma, even from California. Most were flea market veterans, though there were a good mixture of first-timers as well.

“I’m pretty new at it,” said Carol Heiner, who just moved to Emporia from Colorado a few months ago. “I just discovered a lot of things when I moved to Kansas.”

“It’s a great place,” she added, setting down a bone dish she had been studying. “It’s a fun way to spend a beautiful Saturday morning in the Flint Hills.”

Preston Pierce of Madison, one of the dealers, was enjoying himself just as much. Pierce is a former teacher and high-school principal who retired in 1985. His mother had been into antiques and collectibles for years and he soon found he had inherited the passion.

It’s challenging, he said, because the antiques market is a very volatile one, particularly on items such as glassware.

“Prices have fluctuated so much and not really for the better,” he said. “I give some presentations and invariably I’m asked by someone ‘Can you tell me what this is worth?’ All I can say is ‘This is what it should be worth.’ But I’m not good enough to be on the “Antiques Roadshow” yet.”

But Pierce loves it. Every day he meets a new person and hears a new story. This time, the lesson of the day came from a woman who once collected Cabbage Patch porcelain figures and saw a few sitting on his table.

“She educated me,” he said with a grin.

“This is what America’s all about,” Pierce said, looking at the activity around him. “These are the people that make America tick, not the political bigwigs on the East Coast.”