Folsom Boulevard Flea Market Review - Sacramento, CA

One of my favorite places on Earth are flea markets! Ever since I was little boy, I would roam around our local flea market in search of treasures with one thing in mind, one man's trash is another man's treasure! So when ever I happen upon a flea market, I’m attracted to it like a moth to flames, and this one was no different

The Folsom Boulevard Flea Market is located at 8521 Folsom Blvd, Sacramento, CA 95826. If you stay at one of the motels near Hwy 50 & Howe Ave, then you’re within walking distance, roughly 1.3 miles each way. The parking lot is adequate but if you come at a particularly busy time you may have a hard time finding parking. That being said, I arrived at 9am and the lot wasn’t even half full.

As I made my way around, I noticed immediately what I’ve noticed at all flea markets and swap meets in the past 20 years, stalls and booths of new items. Often times these items are just as easily purchased on eBay or a 99 cents store, and much cheaper than what you’re going to pay at these flea markets. So before you buy anything that looks new, pull out your phone and search it on eBay, you’re going to find it cheaper.

I passed the new items as I always do, and made my way down the first aisle. The aisles are lined with old worn weathered wood tables on both sides. The aisles are wide enough to accommodate those in wheelchairs should they wish to visit this flea market.

As I roamed down aisle after aisle, there’s only about 5 or 6, I was sadly disappointed in what I was finding. From the way tables were set up, you could easily surmise who was a regular seller, yet from the items I saw I continually wondered who would buy the garbage they were peddling. Sound harsh?? Well more than one ‘seasoned’ seller was selling toys that were so obviously broken or disgustingly dirty… I wouldn’t let a child look at them much less touch or play with them. One seller had clothes hanging up all over their makeshift stall, and you could catch a musty mothball aroma when the breeze whisked past the clothes

It seemed as if there were 3 kinds of sellers there:

Those sellers that perhaps bought auctioned storage units and sold the items to heavy or junky to be sold on eBay or similar auction sites

Then there was the sellers who had cubbys in the large barn shops that lined one side of the property. These indoor shops were ‘hit and miss’ but did have a few nice things, for inflated prices and if you wanted to wade through the piles of garbage that was strewn everywhere. Oh did I mention the stench of mildew or rotting wood, something… yuck! These sellers are likely the ones who buy from unsuspecting new sellers at super low prices.

A common practice at larger flea markets, the frequent sellers swoop in like vultures on newbie sellers as they are laying out there items and bombard them with ‘lowball’ offers. The newbie is impressed that their items are going so fast and let the items go at lower prices, partially due to inexperience and hoping to be able to leave earlier than anticipated. The thing is those buyers take those purchases back to there tables and jack up the price, often selling the newbies ware for 2 or 3x what they paid.

Then there were the occasional sellers, people who maybe sold a couple times a year just to clean out some household items. These are the people I usually really stop and look at what they have, you never know what you may find and at a great deal. Cause likely if they brought it out here, they don’t want to take it home. The unfortunate thing is, these occasional sellers had very little of interest to offer, at least not things I would enjoy.

To give you an idea of what was selling at this flea market, here is a list of the largest quantity items I saw:

CDs and DVDs everywhere! And fairly cheap between .25 cent - $4

Baby and childrens clothes, most had prices on boxes between $1 - $5

Household items: kitchen utensils, pots, pans around $5 was the average

Need power tools? Every aisle had at least 2 sellers with power tools. I heard a hand router go for $10 and a cordless drill for $12

Toys and games: Children's toys $1 - $3 Video games were in abundance. I saw games for several different systems, PSP, gameboy, Xbox One $3 - $20 Also saw a working Nintendo switch being sold for $100

Shoes, shoes, and more shoes…. Didn’t even bother to check the prices since I’m a Walmart kinda guy.

Novelty purses, emblazoned with faces of Marilyn Monroe, Tinkerbell, and other cutesy characters.

Food! Like any flea market there were several food stands. Hot dogs, tacos, burritos, coffee, drinks etc. Nothing there seemed to scream out, ‘Try Me!!’, just the standard flea market fare.

Jewelry was being sold by a few people, some with glass cases. The prices weren't to bad, and what I’d expect to pay. An example is sterling silver bracelet charms for $5 - $10.

Let me just say, be careful when someone is selling you sterling or gold, just because something is marked ‘sterling’ or ‘14k’ doesn’t mean it is. Some unscrupulous people will buy ‘marked’ jewelry from eBay for literally pennies and then resell it at these flea markets. Those ‘marked’ items bought from china are silver and gold…. but only ‘silver plated or 1k-5k gold plated’.

I did make 2 purchases here, a vintage 10k gold plated watch for a few dollars that I can resell for $8 - $15 on eBay and a costume jewelry pendant I plan on giving to my brother for Christmas.

Yet all in all this flea market was a bust, the majority of the stalls are new items at high prices. The tables are jammed with frequent sellers of mostly junk that I don’t need, and am hard pressed to believe anyone needs. The small amount of sellers that had reasonable prices were also not selling anything I couldn’t get online cheaper, the sad truth about most swap meets and flea markets in this age of online buying/selling

But if you’re passing through town or are a local that has never been here, take the hour and drop by. Who knows what you’ll find, maybe that one thing you've always needed but never knew you wanted….

The best thing about flea markets is the stuff changes daily! Happy Bargain Hunting!!!