Suitcase Rummage Success

The Sunday last Jane and I tried our hands at small stall holding. It was the monthly Suitcase Rummage sale. Dozens of stalls took over Reddacliffe Place (opposite the casino) and it seemed that thousands of people drifted through the square over course of the afternoon in search of a new second-hand wardrobe and slightly off-kilter christmas gifts.

 

The organisers had sent Jane an email with instructions for the day. We were told to be set up by 12noon on the dot. We were at the square with our suitcases and camp chairs for registration at 11:30 and even then the place was swarming with stallholders and bargain-scouts. We were given a space at the far end of the square near the Victoria Bridge. Not prime real estate but we were fortunate to get one of the benches so people didn't have to bend down so far to look at all our amazing offerings.

Our stall in the sun. 

The market was packed with people through the whole afternoon. The intense heat in BCC's poorly designed dark grey square was truly awful but didn't seem to deter buyers from searching for a second hand bargain. Like most of the stall holders we hid beneath our umbrellas and drank copious amounts of iced tea.

Brisbane on a Sunday

Sundays fall under one of two categories;

1. Sundays when you do nothing but recover from the week/end, drink coffee then beer on the couch and watch television.
2. Sundays when you get out and have lazy social time with friends.

Neither is better, each is wonderful in its own way. Personally, I find when I spend Sunday afternoon out, it distracts me from thinking about the impending work week. Oddly though, I can feel guilty when I’m out enjoying myself on a Sunday rather than staying at home ‘resting up’. Find the logic in that.

Anyway, I’ve had a great couple of Brisbane Sundays recently.

Last Sunday I paid my first visit to the Eagle Farm markets. Now that I’m a north-sider these are my new local fresh food markets and being a lover of markets in all forms, I couldn't put off my first visit for long. So I dragged myself out of bed on a cloudy and windy Sunday to get to the markets and pick up weekly necessities like baby roma toms and smoked bacon. 

When I arrived, the cheap-skate in me grumbled a lot about entry into the markets costing Twice As Much for Eagle Farm than Rocklea ($2 rather than $1. $2!). So cheap sometimes.

Eagle Farm is significantly smaller than either the Rocklea or West End markets. However, many of the stall holders are the same and there is one of just about everything. 

 

I had lovely chats with Black Sheep Coffee Guy, Jus Oils Couple, the Bacon Ladies and Egg Man. I'm a chatty person. The two separate food stall sections were giving off the most wonderful aromas of baked and fried breakfasts, but I got seduced by a mars bar muffin, which I took home to enjoy with my freshly ground Black Sheep Coffee. Good espresso puts me in an expansive mood.

This Sunday I tripped into the CBD to check out Suitcase Rummage. This ingenious idea for a market has been happening in Brisbane for a few years now. Held on the first Sunday of every month, it is an opportunity for people to ‘sell like their Grandmas’. You take along suitcases full of stuff you no longer want, lay it out and wait for someone to decide your trash is their treasure.