sparks flea market; sparks ks

twice a year, scores of people from the quad state area travel to the little unincorporated town of sparks just north of atchison in northeastern kansas. for what? a super flea market. nearly 500 vendors pack this small dirt lot of a town to attract upwards of 100k people in spring and fall. you can find everything from tools to hand made fire pits. and to top that, it’s a great place to people watch!

personally, i did not find anything i could not live without in this trip. what i found was that the vendors have now realized that the majority of patrons travel from the larger cities and suburbs to find their next great treasure. with this in mind, the quality of crap and prices put me out. not to say i didn’t see a few items of note. there was one vendor that hand made fire pits large and small. the smaller ones were enough to burn off a few logs in a sitting and were fashioned in stainless steel with a wild west motif; $350. the larger ones were very impressive. they looked to be large tanks that the vendor had cut sporting mascots and logos into; kansas university, kansas state university and nebraska university. these things were massive and probably weighed a ton… not easy to grab and go. but none the less, these log burners were super cool. $700. another item of note was an orange, first version apple imac. it even had the original box with it? i knew i could repurpose it or pawn off to a collector, but did not want to part with $125.

the other reason to travel to this super flea was the food. pork tenderloins the size of your face, hand dipped corn dogs and funnel cakes galore just to name a few. county fair, state fair, super flea… crap fried foods will always be a draw.

the next iteration of this super flea will occur labor day weekend august 30 – september 2. it is worth the drive for multiple reasons if you are looking for something a bit left of center to get into.

http://windingriver.com/spark_antiques_and_flea