Take Five

On Sunday I attended one of Take Five‘s flea, antiques & collectors markets. These are held roughly once a month at the Woking Leisure Centre, although some events are 20th Century & Art Deco events. You can find a calendar on their website if you are interested.

I got there just after midday, which probably wasn’t ideal as it had been open since 9am but there was still plenty to buy.

You enter the main hall of the Leisure Centre via the balcony (hence the angle of the photo of the hall) so whilst I was up there it was kind of obligatory to take a selfie too. 😀

I’d no sooner got down into the main hall and looking at the stalls when I spied my first bargain – a retro metal sign in the Art Nouveau style which was only £3 and is ideal for my Retro Wall. The sign is a little beat up, unlike my others which were all bought new, but I think it adds to the charm.

It took me a lot longer to find my next purchase. I was quite tempted by some dragonfly earrings, but the seller had £20 on the smaller pair and £30 on a larger pair. When I asked him how much he’d come down from the £20 for the smaller pair, he sucked his teeth and suggested £19. They weren’t worth that to me so I politely said I would leave them, and moved on.

As I wandered around the hall and chatted to the sellers, at least 3 complemented me on my jumper with one lady saying it was “just so cute”, which was really nice.

I also got chatting to a toy seller who, amongst other things, had a Captain Scarlett car for sale and as I was looking at it said that he had the rocket for it and that it was kept safely in a small box to be included on sale. I don’t blame him – having owned several rocket-firing toys when young (including a Buck Rogers Star-Fighter and a James Bond Lotus Esprit). I know how incredibly easy it is to lose those! I told him about how my ex’s step-son had begged to be allowed to fire the rockets on my Esprit just once, and I refused and said he’d lose them. My ex browbeat me into letting him, and sure enough he immediately lost one on just one firing.

My next purchase was a lovely necklace which I got for £10. It’s not hallmarked (that I can see anywhere) and provenance is unknown although the lady selling it thought it might be 1950’s. I didn’t mind because I was just buying on looks and form. I’m not a collector or a reseller – I just buy things that appeal to me and that I would wear.
I probably could have beat her down on price, but I thought that £10 was fair.

There were a few other things that I sort of liked but not enough to buy. It was quite interesting to see the range of things on sale though – after all, being a flea, antiques and collectors market you can well imagine that it was an eclectic mix. Certainly at the “flea” end of things there was some absolute tat that wouldn’t have looked out of place at a car boot sale yet at the other end of the scale there were some genuine antiques (with prices to match). But on the whole, many things were ‘reasonably priced’.
I think I will go back for the 20th Century & Art Deco fair in a few weeks although I know from experience that often these ones have a lot of stuff that is way outside of my budget.

After about an hour I felt I had seen everything on sale, so made my exit. Since I was not far from the centre of Woking I decided to try out their shopping centre as I haven’t been before. This probably wasn’t a great move. The multi-storey car park was very full, and I had to drive right up to the 9th level (out to 10) to park, then descend to the shopping area. Once there it turned out to be a vertigo-inducing multi-level mall that was absolutely heaving with people. I stuck it out for a little while but realised I really wasn’t really in the mood. Then I had to queue for ages for both the parking station and the lift back up to the car.

When I got home, I decided to take some photos for my Flickr, but I’ll leave that for another post.