Kings day. The one day in the year when haggling about prices turns into a national sport, and people leave their bed at 5am to find the best things they’re never going to need. Some people save up some cash for today, looking for that one specific record they want, maybe a new-to-them pair of shoes, you name it. Other use this day to get rid of all the things they found in their garage, get some cash to save up for the coming summer, or alternatively, spend it all on beers the same day. It’s a day that might look and sounds fun, but I can’t imagine arriving at 6am, spreading out your junk and then waiting the whole day for someone to buy your junk is a fun thing. Even if you make €80 in total, it’s a poor wage for a lot of work and time.
Instead, we made our own (fun) scenario and gave Thom van Liere €50 to spend at the flea market of Nijmegen. Why Thom? He’s not a sponsored skater and barely known further than a 5km radius outside of Nijmegen, but he’s a massive skate nerd. And that’s enough to be sponsored by Essay in our book.
Here’s a list of every skate-related thing we found and Thom bought, using his incredible haggling skills.
This one was done and dusted before it could be photographed in original shape. It’s also one of five mini skateboards we found in total, and cost €1. Even for kids, this thing is useless and should not be used as a gauge for what a real skateboard feels like. But, if you want your kids to never ride a real skateboard, get them one of these. They will hate it and buy a stunt scooter instead.
The only proper sized skateboard we could find. Hand painted by Luc, but sold by his sister for only €1, this one was sort of promising. Nice square shape, and thick risers to prevent wheel bite, although the trucks didn’t move anyway. It came with some delamination issues, probably because it had been laying in a garden for some time. Luc was definitely more of a painter than a skater in the end.
The board on the left was the first thing we bought. It’s branded by No Fear, which is a good trait to have. Again, a useless object that looks more fun than it is. Still, it survived longer than the other mini board, despite one of the trucks taking some weird bends. It cost €5, the seller offered it for €2, but Thom gave the kid a good example and paid €5. Hopefully it sparked something inside the kid, and he’s now saving up for a proper board of his own.
The puppet was free and that’s all I know about it, message Thom for more info and what he’s going to do with it.
Two hats for €0,50 each, a great deal. The left one is for Thom and the right one for me. After five years of wearing only one hat, this is the second one I bought this week. Weird. We bought this at the end of the market, when it was clear no skate stuff was left for us and we got a bit desperate.
A foldable finger board keychain thing, that Thom got for free within the first five meters of the market. Maybe we should have stopped after this one, I don’t think any other item topped the happiness we felt after getting this one.
Instead of standing in line to buy a fried fish, Thom found this replica shirt of the ‘88 European Championships campaign. For only €5, it doesn’t look bad, although Thom reported some itching later on.
Possibly the best skate related find of the day, this book has work of Templeton, Puleo, Pommier, Fos and many others, and is a real addition to Thom’s already quite good collection of skateboarding magazines and books. Somehow he doesn’t own Essay #10 or #11, a real shame.
This book was only €1, and the woman selling it was really happy when Thom slipped 50 cents extra into her hand. She said she would use the 50 cents for the toilet, a real good use for the Essay budget.
This multi-game box was free, and Thom got it off a desperate woman who was clearly mentally exhausted from being at the market for 12 hours, of which she heard a little girl playing a flute for probably 75% of the time. The girl couldn’t play the flute at all, maybe she would be better at mikado. We’ll never know because Thom now owns the mikado game. This is clearly not skateboarding related, but we’d still like to play a game of dice with the mates on the sideline, some day.
Energy stones from a candy dispenser, €2. Not exactly skate related, but maybe it helps if you carry them around in your pocket. Good energy means good tricks, right?
We have a video with proof of purchases and actual skateboarding tricks coming later this week. For now, count your blessings, and be happy we did the work for you. Next year, we’ll stick to buying beers with our budget, because €50 is a lot of money for so many terribly items.