The Sunnyvale Sun

Cover Story

Photograph courtesy of The King's Academy

Browsing: Trisha Nair, 9, of Foster City, looks over an illustrated version of 'Pocahontas.' Trisha's dad, Manoj, says the entire family stocks up on books every time they visit the De Anza Flea Market.

Treasure Hunt

Shoppers flock to De Anza Flea Market.

By Joanne Griffith Domingue

Shoppers line up to buy Steve Hagopian's wine-crate trays and trivets at the De Anza Flea Market. The Sunnyvale resident has been selling at the flea market in Cupertino off and on for 20 years. But this is the first time for the trays, he says.

Hagopian, 55, a retired grocery clerk and carpenter, takes unfinished wooden wine crates, pries them apart, stains, seals and polishes them. Voila! Lovely, eye-catching cheese boards, wall decorations, hostess gifts or whatever--costing $15 for a trivet made from the end-board of a wine crate to $50 or $75 for a large tray from the top or bottom of the crate.

"This is a hobby," Hagopian says.

He credits his wife for the engaging displays. He sells wholesale to stores in Napa Valley. Sur La Table, the upscale kitchen store, also carries some of his items.

The flea market, held the first Saturday of every month on the De Anza College campus, doesn't open officially until 8 a.m. But the 820 vendors have to set up and be ready to go by 7:30 a.m. Regular flea market aficionados know this and come early. By 8 a.m. shoppers are already returning to their cars, arms and carts loaded with treasure. Especially popular with early shoppers are plants: potted plants, cut flowers, big shrubs and little containers of cactus or jade.

Early shoppers not only have the best choice of the freshest plants, but they can still find parking in the shade--nice on a hot day--and the pedestrian lanes are not yet jammed with people.

Usually, by 8:20 a.m., there are 10,000 to 15,000 shoppers, says John Cognetta, faculty adviser to the De Anza College student government, who is staffing the white information trailer. But at 8:20 a.m. on May 5, the crowd is smaller. "It gets body to body when it is full," he says.

Maybe Cinco de Mayo kept the crowds smaller, he says, with people doing other things.

The flea market is a student project, and its official name is the De Anza Associated Student Body Flea Market. Thirty years ago the student body president of De Anza College was working at a Payless Drugstore. "They were throwing out a bunch of stuff," Cognetta says. "He brought it to the school and had a flea market." And it has grown into the event it is today.

"I think it's fabulous," says Cognetta. "It is an excellent source of income for the student body."

The market grosses about $370,000 annually and nets about $250,000. The expenses include paying Casey Dick, the full-time hands-on manager of the market, and Kathryn Fields, who staffs the information booth on market days from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Market hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Expenses also include supplying blue portable toilets, paying janitors and having the flea market site swept at the end of market day. The flea market is on the campus in parking lots A and B, at the corner of Stelling Road and Stevens Creek Boulevard.

"Except for Casey and Kathryn, the rest are all student workers," Cognetta says.

Student clubs run the drink stands. Furendo Suppondo sells ice-cold bottled water. All the members of the club, which does community service work, are De Anza College students, says Eden Su, 19, president of the group. At the February market the club's booth made $500.

Other food and drink stands sell items such as Caesar salads, fresh lemonade, garlic fries and Peking chicken wraps.

Dick says the market sells out every month. A single space, which is two parking stalls, costs $30; a double space is $60. A premium space is an additional $10. Most of those spaces are reserved by the six-month contract holders. He limits the number of six-month contracts because they usually have "all new stuff. We want to encourage mom and pop used-household things."

Registration is mail-in only, one month at a time, and processed in the order of the postmark on the envelope. "If the postmark is prior to the first of the month, we reject it," Dick says. He uses enclosed, self-addressed, stamped return envelopes to notify vendors if they get a stall and where it is located.

"It is first-come, first-served,'' says Dick, adding that a person doesn't need to be a resident of the Foothill-De Anza Community College District to rent a space. "We usually sell out within a few days of the first of the month. We could raise prices and still sell out.''

There are always some cancellations, so Dick actually keeps 10 to 20 more registrations than the 820 stalls available. It takes him three weeks to process the mail. The market used to take walk-in registrations but people started coming a day early and camping out on campus. That created liability issues. So now the registration is mail only.

The flea market is a blend of the old and the new--the mom and pop stalls and the new merchandise vendors who take credit cards.

When Melissa Vong began as a vendor in 2000, she was the first to sell orchids. Now "there is so much competition," she says. For her, the flea market is an extension of her business, Serene Orchids, on De Anza Boulevard in San Jose. She comes every month and her prices range from $5 to $38.

Rosanne Wilson, who also sells plants, rents a space only three or four times a year. She retired from teaching in San Jose and now comes from her home in Modesto. Wilson roots the plants herself and pots them in unusual containers. "I love my plants," she says.

So do her customers. She sold out by
9 a.m.

Wilson also sells used children's books and has a large selection at bargain prices. She buys her books at garage sales in Modesto, often by the lot. She cleans them up with alcohol and erasers. She said many of her customers are teachers.

Wilson has been selling at flea markets for five years and takes home about $300 from each. She also has a colorful array of handmade Afghans that she buys at garage sales. Her main item at the May 5 flea market was a moss green quilt that was hand-pieced and hand-quilted.

Nearby stalls feature wooden Russian nesting dolls, hand-woven scarves and a heaping pile of beaded necklaces, tangled like strands of spaghetti.

Jeff Bell, 48, of Santa Clara ,was tending his tables while his wife was out "garage sale-ing," he says. She has a route that she follows on Saturdays to buy for their flea market stall. Their favorite source is the Sunnyvale citywide pickup day. "That produces lots of freebies on the sidewalk," Bell says.

His wife's best find, he says, was a silver chest full of sterling silver. The owner was carrying it out just as Tracy Bell pulled up in her car. The owner was willing to take $20 for the chest and the silver.

"She's made $300-$400 off the box so far," Bell says. "It's like the lottery, the luck of being there at that moment."

He expects their set of pink glass goblets will be a good seller. "All the girlie stuff" goes, Bell says.

Most of the flea market is cash and carry, but not at the stall called Wrapped All Up. The unusually large space is filled with racks and racks of ribbons, tissue paper and net bags. Customers were lined up to pay with both cash and credit cards.

Pamela McCracken, 28, of San Jose, loves the booth. She and her mom, Nancy Durrett of Los Gatos, came specifically for this stall. McCracken was buying pink silk-like drawstring bags, 10 for $4, for a bridal shower she is hosting. Her mother was buying 100-yard reels of red satin ribbon, at $5 per reel, to tie around the diplomas at Dartmouth Middle School in San Jose where she works.

Seeing all 820 stalls in one visit might seem daunting, but not to Janet Phinney, 54, from Saratoga. She does the whole market in three to four hours every month. She buys a lot of gifts, "unique stuff," she says.

For her, the most successful row of stalls is the one along Stelling Road near the corner of Stevens Creek Boulevard. At least that's where she spends the most time and money. She begins pulling purchases out of her pushcart. She has a hat for $2, a dress for her trip to Hawaii for $12; a purse for mom and a $2 moisturizer. Her "find of the day'' is one of Hagopian's wine-crate cheese boards for $15.

There has been talk of closing or moving the Berryessa Flea Market in San Jose, leaving some to wonder how it might affect the De Anza Flea Market. The Berryessa Flea Market is a five-day a week operation with 6,000 sellers weekly, a staff of 150 and a mile-long row of produce.

Dick doesn't think there'd be much impact. "We sell out every month anyway. We may have more applications and have to turn more people away."

The Berryessa Flea Market isn't moving or closing any time soon, according to Rich Alvari, direct of sales and marketing. He says closing the Berryessa Flea Market, located on 120 acres, is at least five to 10 years out.

Meanwhile, treasure seeking continues once a month in Cupertino. For most of the folks at the De Anza Flea Market, the thrill is in the hunt.

For more information, visit the De Anza Flea Market Web site at www.deanza.fhda.edu/fleamarket .