Munich Kids

Flohmarkts and Kinder Basaars are the German equivalent of the American rummage sale or garage sale.  Have you experienced one of them yet?  If not, you should try it.  Don’t be intimidated if you have limited German skills.  Sign language is the international language for bartering! 

There is a definite rhythm and rime to the German flohmarkt.  They are seasonal, in the Spring and Fall.  They are communal, usually held in church parishes, kindergarten buildings, or other community spaces.  And they are procedural.  That is, once you’ve been to one, you pretty much know what to expect at all of the other ones.  The only thing that changes is the merchandise. 

Most flohmarkts are advertised by word of mouth or by posters taped to streetposts and playground gates.  You’ll start to notice a lot of these going up around the end of February, and appearing weekly until mid-April or so.  There will be another round in September to mid-October.  Flohmarkts are almost always held on a Friday or Saturday, and the hours are usually limited, 10-2 is typical.  Many flohmarkts have a theme, e.g, kids clothing and toys, antiques, handcrafts, etc.  If you are attending a flohmarkt for kids things (Kinder Basaar or Kinderbekleidung) plan to get there early.  There frequently is an army of mothers with strollers parked outside the entrance doors waiting to be let in precisely at 10:00 am.  The good stuff is usually gone within an hour.  If you get to the flohmarkt towards the final hour, you will find things to be very picked over. 

If you are used to American garage sale prices, you might suffer from a little sticker shock.  A shirt or pair of pants that will go for 50 cents in the U.S. will be priced at 2- 4 Euro here.  That being said, I have found some really good deals.  Perhaps the best score was a Puky tricycle for only 6 Euro. Between the three boys we will get lots of use out of it! 

If you have things to sell you can sign up to be a vendor.  Typically, you do not have to belong to the sponsoring organization to sell your items.  Most of the poster advertisements will list a contact name and number to sign up with.  You will either be assigned  a number or a space.  Flohmarkts that assign you a space will have you sell all of your items yourself.  You may have to bring your own table or pay a fee to rent a table from the host facility.  Flohmarkts that assign you a number sell all the of the items communally.  You mark the prices on your items and write down your number.  Volunteers take care of organizing all of the merchandise, grouping toys, books, clothing (by size), and strollers separately.  Other volunteers take care of selling the items.  Your total sales are determined by summing all of the sold items with your number on it.  These type of flohmarkts are usually run by kindergartens or community centers.  They usually take a 20-25% cut of your sales as reimbursement for their efforts.