Cmosfm
03-13-2004, 12:44 PM
Nothing Beats Growing Up At A Flea Market!
The year was 1991, I was 8, and all I knew was that I loved playing my NES every day after school. I didn’t know about other systems, or new ones coming out, I was too young then to care…Mario was all I cared about! That was when my Mother told me she got a job as the manager of our local Flea Market.
“Flea Market?” I questioned, “what’s that? I don’t like fleas!”
She told me it was a place where people come with there old junk that they don’t want anymore and sell it, of course this sounds kind of neat to an 8 year old so I was pretty excited! What made it even more exciting was the fact that the office she worked in there had a back section with a couch, television and all the essentials for living, and that me and my little brother would be able to come up there with her every weekend. Though I didn’t actually get to walk around on my own until I was 10, I still enjoyed being there.
1993, age 10, all the next-gen predecessors to the NES have been released and I didn’t know a thing about it! Never heard of it….until I was able to walk the Flea Market lot alone. I seen stuff I’ve never seen before, games I’ve never heard of, cheap too! I started picking up magazines and reading them, learning about all these new systems and new games, old systems also…they were new to me! Sega Genesis? Super NES? Atari? All these games, I wanted them all, but I had no money! I was too young to have money of my own, so of course, to Mother I go! She would give me a little here and there but it wasn’t enough to buy all that I wanted, so she suggested I got a job helping out one of the vendors up there. The pay was small but it was a start. As time went by I began helping more and more people, buying more and more games, and loving the Flea Market more and more every weekend.
As the years go by, and more and more systems get released I noticed something. The regular vendors are still selling old games. While I’m buying Game Boy games, Turbografx-16 and Sega CD the regulars are still selling NES, Atari, Super NES, etc. So my little mind gets working! I begin asking them how much they would buy them for, normal answer is 2.00, 3.00 sometimes 4.00...sounds good to me! So while I’m out on the prowl for my own games I’m also picking up all the cheap games I can find for 1.00 each or less…of course this requires some haggling sometimes but it’s worth it. I’ve found my calling! Working, buying and reselling games, and then buying more games for myself! It was the best. In the meantime I discovered Pawn Shops and Thrift Stores also…and also realized while Thrift Stores often sell cheap games, Pawn Shops often give good prices for games. I was a young entrepreneur.
As time went on, new systems came to be and old system dropped off the radar, but my buying and selling habits never ended. All the way up through the Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn & Playstation. By the time I was 16, Mother gave up her job at the Flea Market, I shortly gave up gaming for a while too and sold everything I had on eBay. I made some good money too and blew it on junk I never even use, DVD’s and such. I eventually got back into gaming when the Xbox was released and I bought into the next generation.
Now, year 2004, age 21 (almost!) I’m an avid gamer, a hardcore collector of old and new, and a true lover of every Flea Market, Pawn Shop and Thrift Store I can find. Nothing beats gaming in the midst of growing up at a Flea Market.
~Chris O'Sullivan
The year was 1991, I was 8, and all I knew was that I loved playing my NES every day after school. I didn’t know about other systems, or new ones coming out, I was too young then to care…Mario was all I cared about! That was when my Mother told me she got a job as the manager of our local Flea Market.
“Flea Market?” I questioned, “what’s that? I don’t like fleas!”
She told me it was a place where people come with there old junk that they don’t want anymore and sell it, of course this sounds kind of neat to an 8 year old so I was pretty excited! What made it even more exciting was the fact that the office she worked in there had a back section with a couch, television and all the essentials for living, and that me and my little brother would be able to come up there with her every weekend. Though I didn’t actually get to walk around on my own until I was 10, I still enjoyed being there.
1993, age 10, all the next-gen predecessors to the NES have been released and I didn’t know a thing about it! Never heard of it….until I was able to walk the Flea Market lot alone. I seen stuff I’ve never seen before, games I’ve never heard of, cheap too! I started picking up magazines and reading them, learning about all these new systems and new games, old systems also…they were new to me! Sega Genesis? Super NES? Atari? All these games, I wanted them all, but I had no money! I was too young to have money of my own, so of course, to Mother I go! She would give me a little here and there but it wasn’t enough to buy all that I wanted, so she suggested I got a job helping out one of the vendors up there. The pay was small but it was a start. As time went by I began helping more and more people, buying more and more games, and loving the Flea Market more and more every weekend.
As the years go by, and more and more systems get released I noticed something. The regular vendors are still selling old games. While I’m buying Game Boy games, Turbografx-16 and Sega CD the regulars are still selling NES, Atari, Super NES, etc. So my little mind gets working! I begin asking them how much they would buy them for, normal answer is 2.00, 3.00 sometimes 4.00...sounds good to me! So while I’m out on the prowl for my own games I’m also picking up all the cheap games I can find for 1.00 each or less…of course this requires some haggling sometimes but it’s worth it. I’ve found my calling! Working, buying and reselling games, and then buying more games for myself! It was the best. In the meantime I discovered Pawn Shops and Thrift Stores also…and also realized while Thrift Stores often sell cheap games, Pawn Shops often give good prices for games. I was a young entrepreneur.
As time went on, new systems came to be and old system dropped off the radar, but my buying and selling habits never ended. All the way up through the Nintendo 64, Sega Saturn & Playstation. By the time I was 16, Mother gave up her job at the Flea Market, I shortly gave up gaming for a while too and sold everything I had on eBay. I made some good money too and blew it on junk I never even use, DVD’s and such. I eventually got back into gaming when the Xbox was released and I bought into the next generation.
Now, year 2004, age 21 (almost!) I’m an avid gamer, a hardcore collector of old and new, and a true lover of every Flea Market, Pawn Shop and Thrift Store I can find. Nothing beats gaming in the midst of growing up at a Flea Market.
~Chris O'Sullivan