Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

Uggg. Another day at the fleamarket. People are so damned cheap and/or destructive. First, we go to set up and are immediately inundated with "Do you have _____?"

I put out several chenille bedspreads, and they swoop in. I price them at $5 each...very reasonable, even for a cutter. The first woman does not question me, she buys 2 at asking price.

Later, a woman looks over a full sized heavier one, and ponders a minute before asking "Will you take $3?" I sigh and agree. This leaves me with 2 left. One is a pink "cutter"...I am dealing with a paying customer, and a woman loudly yells "Hey! How much is this?!" pointing at the cutter. I say $2, she asks if I will take $1. I am fed up. I just say no, and she walks away. Jesus, screw you, lady. There's $15 worth of fabric. I am just going to cut the bastard up into 12 inch sqaures, and sell it on ebay for that. Fuck it. Lazy cheap asses.

Each week we price things with large signs "Scarves: 50 cents", "Books: 50 cents", "Fabric: $1 a bag" and each week we get "How much do you want for_____?" and then the inevitable hiss of breath and walk away. I feel like yelling after them "It's 50 FUCKIN' CENTS! what more do you want?"

They paw over things, dropping them on the ground, and trampling them, and then just leaving them there. Today some woman broke one of Charley's perfume bottles and just left it there. A few weeks back I was asking $1 each for tablecloths, and a woman walked off with 3 of them.

Last week a guy saw my 1940's pin-up postcards sitting in a basket I set aside for them. I had them marked $1 each. There were 33 of them. he asks me "Would you take $5 for all of them?" I wanted to ask him where he got his drugs from. I flat out told him no, and counted them in front of him, and told him they were $1 each...he poked around the table, grabbed a few other things, and asked me if I would take $20 for them. That was reasonable. I agreed.

This week, a man asked me how much my 1 gallon ziplock bags were...I was actually bagging cloth in them in front of him and he asked this and he was serious. I gave him a WTF? look and told them they were mine.

A lady came by and rifled thru my scarves and then asked how much the entire basket was. I told her "I don't know, I haven't counted what's left" So I went and counted them...24. And told her $10 for all of them. She sniffed and then just bought 2 or 3. Later on I restocked the basket with like 20 more scarves and then me and Boss went and looked around, leaving the table to Charley's devices. Bad idea.

I look around and say "Where's my basket?" He's like I sold it? I start panicking "For how much?" He says "Ten bucks" I am like in my mind "YOU FUCKING MORON!!!"

I calmly tell him that I had restocked the goddamned basket and the $10 price I quoted for the earlier lady was for 24 scarves in the basket...not the basket itself! Fuckin' A! This, on top of him sticking me with the entire table fee, has left a bad taste in my mouth about doing this anymore.