Flohmarkt

Toward my departure from Germany, I have to sort my stuffs. Which stuffs that I will bring home and which stuffs that I should leave. I will leave all my household stuffs like the plates, glasses, cooking utensils, clothes hangers, bed sheets, etc. These stuffs will go to a new Indonesian guy who will study at the same program like me starting this year.

But there are stuffs that I can’t give him or bring back home: my winter outfits! For sure I won’t need it in Indonesia so I have to leave them. The options are: throw them to garbage bin, give them for charity, or sell it in the flea market or flohmarkt. Of course I could just give them for charity, but I would like to experience in selling something at the flohmarkt. So I decide to sell them to flohmarkt first; if things couldn’t go well then I’ll just give it for charity.

Flohmarkt in Bremen exists on every weekend. There are many places of flohmarkt but probably the most famous are: alongside the river bank on Saturday and on the backyard of the main station on Sunday. Me and my other 2 friends, who’ll also leave Germany, decide to try at the river bank.

On Saturday, we go to the flohmarkt place. We have to start very early to get strategic place in placing our stall. And being strategic also means to find a well-sheltered place, because Bremen and raining are related each other. We arrived around 8.30 AM and find that all strategic spots are occupied! We have no other option than open our stall at an open air area.

And then comes the unpleasant time, the rain falls! We have no place to cover ourself; only one umbrella under a narrow road roof for 4 persons. Our stuffs are covered partially so most of the clothes become wet. To make it worst, the wind is pretty cold. Or maybe not so, but since we’re all fasting, we don’t have enough calories to burn. One of my friends even starts imagining having warm drink if we were not fasting… That’s really not helping!

After being freeze for around 2 hours, finally the sun decides to cooperate with us. The sun is shining and we can start to arrange our stall nicely.

In regard with the selling, well how to say, apparently it’s not as well as we planned it. For example, I have 4 pairs of shoes to sell. Well actually these are my aunt’s shoes. She gave me when I visit her in Holland. But for sure I couldn’t bring them all to Indonesia. It’ll be too heavy and I don’t think I need them. Anyway, in the beginning I plan to sell it for € 5/ pair. But apparently this price is too much for flohmarkt. There’s one guy who asks for € 2 for one pair. Since the weather is cold, and I though I couldn’t stay longer, I decide to agree without any struggling. Funnily, when I say ‘OK’; even the guy is surprised. And at the same time, my friends scream in surprised! Yes, I am weak in selling.

But apparently that guy isn’t my worst customer. There’s an old lady who ask for € 1 for one pair. Again, I don’t argue. But when she wants to pay, apparently she only has 98 cents!!! OK, how could I say ‘No’ to an old lady? So I just let it… Oh well, at least I never buy those shoes…

And then there’s a time when I know how it feel to sell a thing that I bought. It happens to my rucksack. I have a red ‘Roxy’ rucksack that I bought in Indonesia. It was very cheap, around € 3, because it was a clearance sale. I decide to sell it because the straps are too wide for my shoulders. Whenever I use it, one of the straps will fall off from my shoulder. However the rucksack still look nice, I only use it for 6 months. So, there’s a lady who interested to my rucksack. I told her that the price is € 3. She asks for € 1.50. I try to get € 2. But well, of course in the end I end up as the loosing party. And again, my friend couldn’t believe it. She says, she is also interested to the rucksack and willing to pay € 2 if in the end I couldn’t sell it. Well, what can I say, it has happened. I feel a bit annoyed that my rucksack is only worth for € 1.50. Maybe I shouldn’t sell it and just keep using it instead. Ah well…

We stay until around 2 PM. Many people come but mostly are old people so they are not so interested to our stuffs. And if there any people who interested, the sizes are unfit. Maybe we should look for student flohmarkt to sell our stuffs. (Well there’s no student flohmarkt). And although we make a sign “We’ll fly back home. Everything must go!”; not everybody interested with our stuffs. Instead, they’re just smiling in reading our sign!

One surprising thing: my first supervisor is visiting the flohmarkt at that time. So we feel surprised to meet in different setting. Hmmm if I knew she’ll passing by, I’ll make a sign “Need money for PhD”!

In the end, one of my friends earns the biggest with more than € 10 because she manages to sell an external hard disk. I got less than € 5 and my other friend got € 4 selling 2 thermoses. We are extremely tired after it which makes us couldn’t open our stall for the Sunday flohmarkt. But surely we have a lot of fun J