The New Start-Up Market (TNSUM)

For those looking to sell off your old clothing at a flea, look no further than "The New Start Up Market" (TNSUM) @ *Scape. It's a section for selling preloved items and at a low rental booth price - only $40/day or $70 for 2 consecutive days ($10 off will be given in the form of cash or voucher at the end of the flea). Instocks can be sold as well, just not counterfeit items. I found it rather useless to sell instocks because other stalls are selling them, from caps to accessories, to IT accessories and many more. These stalls have been there for months, and with a strong foundation built up, it'd be hard to compete with them.

Photo credits to Duke's Bazaars

My previous flea experience with Fleawhere (formerly known as ForFleaSake) wasn't pleasant. Despite sharing the rental cost with 2 other friends, not only did I not breakeven, I had to topup my losses. Unlike Fleawhere, TNSUM's cheaper rental price allowed me to make a small profit without even having the need to share costs and without pricing your items unreasonably low.

Here's why I'd come back for a booth again:

MORE LOCALS AS CUSTOMERS

Other than 3 Filipinos that came to my booth, all other customers were locals. I even have some angmors coming to my booth. Here, you'll experience lesser bimbo customers *ehem*. There're more teenagers (secondary or even upper primary kids) who are looking to buy trendy clothes but cheaper, so that meant higher chance of getting your clothes sold!

LESSER COMPETITION

Again, in comparision to Fleawhere, there were way lesser booths selling preloved items. On that day, only 4 booths were present, including myself. It was pretty relaxing, not having to worry that you need to lower down your prices to compete with your neighbours.

MORE PROFITS

As mentioned earlier in the post, I don't have to worry about lowering the prices way too low (as low as 50cents?!) Surprisingly, customers are much more willing to pay, maybe because locals come with the belief that "cheap clothing means not good quality" so they're much more willing to pay. and that this is a much more modernised and hipster area of town, unlike a building filled with (one kind) of foreigners... Geddit?

However, you still have to be ready to be bargained, because some customers (both the local and foreigners) will still try their luck to get your items at an even lower prices, no matter how new your item is.

P.S: Fleawhere has implemented the rule of no less than $2 per item. This rule didn't exist at the point of time when I'd my flea.

BIGGER SPACE

With the flea market located outdoor, there's bigger space as compared to being confined to the indoor booth so it's just more chill overall. Don't have to worry about not having your personal space even with the presence of your neighbours!

Pssst, also because we could get Gongcha and other yummy food like Nene Chicken, instead of just Jollibee. 

LOCATION DON'T MATTER

My booth, with another just right beside me as well, was situated beside the *Scape entrance and facing the oncoming crowd. While that seems like the spot with the great fengshui, my neighbour did not get any customers at all - for the entire 8 hours. Despite being the booth that is sandwiched, the rest of us have customers instead. Customers know what they want, so they don't care where you're located as long as you have what they want.

I'll soon share with you some tips on setting up a flea at TNSUM, stay tuned!