Set Up a Flea Market Table for Maximum Profits

Choose the best location for your flea market table that you can find. Look for busy pathways closer to the end of the natural flea market flow rather than the beginning. People are less likely to grab an item from the first tables because they know they have so much more to go through.

Place your table close to the path, if a portable table is what you're using, or make sure the path to a built-in table in unobstructed. No matter what type of table in use, put a table cloth on it. This table cloth should be a solid color that is not too bright or distracting. One twin sheet makes an excellent table cloth for most types of folding and flea market tables. This creates a clean backdrop for your merchandise.

Using Display Racks and Risers

Retail display shelves, platforms and hanging racks can be purchased from supply companies. Their quality and materials determine their costs. Some - plastic and wire - are inexpensive. Others - wood, glass and lucite - can be very expensive and not worth the cost. They're also harder to transport along with all your merchandise.

Display racks are very useful on the flea market table, however, and will increase sales by increasing visibility of all the items you wish to sell. Use risers near the back of your table to put your best merchandise on display. Anything that can easily be hung up, such as keychains, costume jewelry, packs of screws or batteries, can be displayed on a wire rack. This also gets them out of the way of other merchandise.

Most clothing will sell better if it is hanging on a rail or rack next to the table. Make sure customers can easily look through the items and that they are not packed too tightly together.

Cardboard boxes make up the bulk of homemade display racks and risers, but you shouldn't just plunk a box on your table and call it good. They're not very attractive and the bottoms can be too flimsy for holding larger pieces of merchandise.

One option is to tape the bottom carefully, perhaps reinforcing it with another piece of flat cardboard, and then draping a cloth over top. To add permanent style and sturdiness, consider covering the box with contact paper. This sticky-sided vinyl "paper" comes in a variety of patterns and colors -- even wood grain and marble prints for instant class.

A picture frame with a Styrofoam sheet tacked to it easily turns into a display for earrings and other jewelry, or small items you can hang from it. Cover the foam with a piece of plain-colored felt. For a sturdier rack, bang some nails into a board at an angle in neat rows. This creates plenty of place to hang packs of small items.