Automobile flea markets: Much more than just informal economic activity

The purpose of this study is to examine factors which motivate vendors to attend automobile flea markets (AFMs). In order to evaluate the importance of each factor, a select number of vendors who attended the 1994 Barrie Automotive Flea Market were surveyed. This study concludes that cultural motivations serve as a greater impetus for vendors to attend AFMs than do economic motivations. AFMs unquestionably have an economic component. Vendors meet periodically to offer their commodities to anyone who wishes to purchase them. Most vendors exchange their commodities for cash. These sales, in most cases, go unreported to the state, and hence are not properly taxed. Rather than looking for an opportunity to earn tax-free income, vendors for the most part are involved in AFMs because they view it as a source of leisure. AFMs give them the opportunity to engage in an activity, under their own terms, in order to receive some sort of intrinsic reward. The surge in popularity in AFMs in the last 25 years reinforces the conclusion that cultural motivations supersede economic ones. In the postmodern age, which is generally agreed to have begun 25 years ago, AFMs have assumed four overlapping meanings. First, different "players" attach different meanings to what is simultaneously occurring at one place. Second, there is a new focus on collective identities. Third, through flexible accumulation they facilitate the production of many different commodities. And fourth, vendors continue to attach new meanings to nostalgic automotive paraphernalia.