Anyone find any rare transformers at flea markets? Just last i went to the huge flea market in our next town with my brother. I only had $10 on me but went to get out of the house anyway. We were a ways in it when i came across this guy selling a bunch of unopened gobots and robotech toys. Then i saw it. A unopened Ginrai in japanese box complete. The original not a knock-off or reprint! Of course it was way out of my price range but i never thought i would find one at a flea market. I went home sad that day.
there used to be loads of ko aerialbots at the indoor market in durham, sadly i was more into gamesworkshop than transformers at the time (roughly 6 years ago)thankfully im back on the straight and narrow now, and not a geek come to think of it, some of my fondest memories are of drudging through a rainy car boot sale on a sunday morning, digging around to find hidden transformers!
I go to goodwill all the time digging through bins for transformers. I found some g1's last year that I'm quite proud of: broken silverstreak, primes trailer, powermaster primes grey rifle, cliffjumper, eject, and shrapnel.
i was on holidays and i found a box of g1s here was thrust 2x kup and a couple of others from later on it was the find that re sparked my hunting instincts i picked up the whole lot for five bucks
Well, if you didn't put "Location: why do you care?" in your profile, maybe we could help you out, ay? I've posted about my flea market/thrift store finds here on a number of occasions. And while none of the ones I've found have exactly been "rare", some of these finds are rare considering where they were found: G2 Slag G1 Galvatron Japanese Go-Bots Tigertron G1 Optimus Prime Armada Unicron Powerlinx Optimus Prime I believe my most valuable haul to date was the bag of loose G1 toys and parts that were all in superb condition. The bag included: Cosmos Bumblebee Warpath Drag Strip Dead End Ramjet Hoist Blitzwing ...as well as assorted parts for Metroplex, seekers, combiners, etc. Cost of the bag: $5.
Back when I was really little, I used to get most of my Transformers from fleamarkets. That's where all of my G1 Transformers came from. Every summer I look for G1 TFs at flea markets, but they have all but disappeared; last summer I was at about 5 major flea markets and the only Transformers I saw were sealed Star Wars Transformers and a McDonald's Armada Optimus Prime...
You might try posting a query about flea markets in the Pennsylvania Sightings Thread here at TFW2005. Otherwise, just do a simple Google search for "Philadelphia flea market". I see a few listed just in the first 10 search results, such as this one: http://www.philadelphia-fleamarket.com/
Haven't been to a flea market in a while. Lots of garage sales around here though. Try to go once a week. Haven't found much in a while, but sometimes it pays to look.
I went to his flea market one time back around 2001...there was this one booth filled with filthy old half-broken, incomplete 80's toys on cheap metal shelves... y'know, a bunch of bedraggled Cabbage Patch kids, scratched up Teddy Ruxpins, and My Little Ponies that looked like the dog had been chewing on them.... this place was where ebay auction fodder goes to die. I asked the little old lady manning the booth, smoking a cig and rocking in her chair, if she had any robot toys...I thought I might be able to pick up a few junkers. She sat up and wheeled over a rubbermaid cart, opened the drawers, and inside were incredibly mint g1 figures, all neatly arranged in zip-lock bags with their accessories. I remember seeing Sideswipe, Soundwave, Bluestreak, a complete set of Constructicons... I should have been suspicious at this point, but I figured she might be clueless about what she had... A clueless, obsessive-compulsive organization freak. I asked her, "How much for the green ones?" And I swear to god, this little old lady goes, "The Constructicons? Those are 75, but only because Scrapper's missing his gun, and Bonecrusher's got some sticker wear. I have a better set, but those are a hundred." My jaw missed the floor by inches. This lady actually knew her shit. I didn't bother asking about anything else, just nodded sagely and walked off calmly, pretending I wasn't seriously considering grabbing the whole rubbermaid cart and making a mad dash for the door.
I do not know any in San Diego. But the Pasadena Rose Bowl Flea Market and the Long Beach Flea Market are great.
we got a roadside flea market called Sadies on the highway running straight to Florida. it is a mudhole, and there are vendors that sprout up every few months or odd year with a toy extravaganza. Best friend (impatient kid at the time) saw the guy selling his lot of SW. the guy kept his figs in those plastic storage bins for nuts and bolts and things that you find at Lowe's, and when he moved it over to the counter, he revealed a MIB Trypticon. the box was about C-8 @ best, but had every damn thing. He offered to throw in a pack of batteries with it for 110 bucks at the time (2001). i hated to walk away from it. I had about 65 bucks and a week more till payday...sigh.
Around me Flea Market dealers usually either charge too much for too little (on TFs, and they know what they have) or it's the grab bag of crap. Great if you like seeker jet bodies with no wings/hands/parts though.
The Long Beach Flea Market has some vendors with some G1 stuff last year when I visited. I did buy the limited edition Art Asylum Optimus Prime and Megatron wall statues from Goodwill last year for $15 each. Sold them off for 2x-3x on eBay.
Did you donate the profits back to Goodwill? BECAUSE YOU SHOULD HAVE. Not really many flea markets in this area. I believe the G1/G2 well has pretty much dried up beyond eBay and professional dealers.
