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New Glasgow Flea Market ends as building sells

ADAM MACINNIS THE NEWS adam.macinnis@ngnews.ca @ngnews

Wes Shields was just 17 when he got swept up in the magic of flea markets – the Sunday search for hockey cards and coins, the bartering and the conversations with regulars.

In 1987 he became a seller for the first time, and he has chased the passion throughout the province for three and a half decades.

Most recently, Shields, who lives in Tatamagouche and runs an autobody and collision centre in Enfield, has been buying and selling at the New Glasgow Flea Market - where the regular crowd each week before COVID was between 800 to 1,000. He did it for enjoyment, but took it seriously with high-end display cases and professionallooking signs.

“My philosophy was, if I’m going to go, I’m going to do it the best I can,” he said.

But earlier this month, Shields closed his table in New Glasgow for the last time. What odds and ends he had left, he quickly sold on Facebook and Kijiji.

The New Glasgow Flea Market has closed. The building was sold to the Town of New Glasgow, which is renovating it for its own use.

There had been talk of the sale for months, so in a way, it didn’t surprise Shields. COVID closures had also prepared them for the end.

“It’s not like they pulled the rug out from under our feet,” he said. “The closing wasn’t a shock.”

But still, he can’t help but feel disappointed.

“I’ve been doing it forever. I’ll miss the people and the social event that it turned into,” he said. “And, of course, the extra money.”

New Glasgow is purchasing the building from Crombie REIT. They entered into an agreement last year that is expected to close later this month.

New Glasgow CAO Lisa MacDonald said the town has been leasing a portion of the building since around 2013 for their Public Works Department. Once they take ownership of the building, it plans to retrofit it to consolidate the Public Works operations in the space. In the future, the Environmental Services, Engineering and Planning departments will join the mechanical and transportation wings of the Public Works department in the building.

MacDonald said the plan is to renovate the building. They will be including plans to make it accessible at that time to ensure it meets the provincial accessibility guidelines set to be in place by 2030.

The last day for the market was Sunday, Nov. 14. In a Facebook post, the flea market wrote that they had been unsuccessful in finding a new location.

“We sincerely thank each and every one of you for your patronage and loyalty these many years,” the post reads.

Shields said the current owner of the flea market, George Peters, lives in Sydney, Cape Breton, where he operates another market.

He said it’s been difficult for organizers to find another suitable building, but it’s not surprising.

In the past, many flea markets were held on Sundays in malls when retail stores were forced to close because of Nova Scotia’s laws at the time. In more recent years, they’ve had to rely on buildings such as the former Central one - large and vacant.

“Trying to find a building to house something like that is pretty difficult because you’re only using it four to five days a month,” Shields said.

What was great about the old Central location was that they could leave products and displays there from week to week without worrying about dismantling them every time.

Shields has had a few people approach him to ask if he will start something on his own. But, unfortunately, with his regular job, he’s not in the position to be able to put that kind of time into it– not yet anyway.

He’ll take some good memories from New Glasgow with him, though, like the time a guy brought in a 1966 Bobby Orr rookie card to sell him. Another time he bought a tin gun made in Japan in the 1950s from another vendor.

“It was just a good experience,” he said. “It was well run. It was clean and it was just a good environment. I’m sad to see it go.”

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2021-11-25T08:00:00.0000000Z

2021-11-25T08:00:00.0000000Z

https://saltwire.pressreader.com/article/281560884060483

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