Second Hand Finds
If you've been following my content for a while, heck, even for the past months only, you probably know that I love flea market and thrift store hunting. The excitement of the possibility to find a hidden gem for a bargain is something that I love a lot. This dates back from our survival period in Holland where we'd do this to make a buck and well, just survive.
Years without any thrift shopping
Until we had a car in Budapest and were finally able to visit the famous flea market which was a pretty long drive for us. Sadly Covid hit the world and you know, it took a while for the market to re-open but when it did, we didn't get the full experience anymore. So in the end, we only saw it once in it's full glory and scored a really nice pair of silver cuff links but after that, no more flea markets for us until the end of last year.
Hard to find
With the lack of proper communication or lack of knowledge of the names of the markets, it's really hard to find something here in Spain if you don't know someone who knows the info or knows someone who knows where to find the info. They are seriously lacking of proper online information updating here and it's making it difficult for someone who doesn't master the language fluently yet to find the right info.
Better late than never!
When I asked a friend who lived here for more than 20 years, I instantly had answers and we found out that there is a monthly flea market just around the corner from her home (my gosh, all these missed opportunities for us!) and that there is a weekly one at 1,5 hours drive from here plus a bit further a car trunk sale on the same day most weeks of the year. That was the moment our flea market days started again and I have to say, they already brought tons of joy and we brought home quite a few bargains so far.
I didn't know this community
Until a day ago, I never bumped on this community but thanks to checking 
A family who loves boxes
It may be clear by now that we all love boxes, I think I could always appreciate a pretty box already but my love for pretty boxes grew when my boyfriend started to share his appreciation and we landed on remarkably little artworks on flea markets or in thrift stores, often from Japanese or Chinese origin. Thrift stores and flea market hunts are the ideal place to find these boxes for a bargain. My latest silver plated box from Jose Luis, apparently a famous brand here in Spain, is a great example of a gem for 3 euros! This is a design I really love and appreciate.
Imperfect can be nice too!
But we don't only seek those hidden beauties, sometimes we find something that's clearly damaged, not perfect at all but still nice to take home for a variety of reasons. Let's have a look at this Limoges mother of pearl filigree box which I saw, and my daughter liked it so we bought it as the kind man only asked a few euros for it.
Earning flea market pocket money
We always let our daughter play hair dresser and then pay her a euro so she can collect some euros to take with her to the flea markets in case she wants to buy something. We figured this was a better way to teach her the value of money rather than always (only) pulling money out of our pockets. In the end, we still paid for it but she likes the transaction moment where she can count her coins as well.
I either tell her I'd buy it for that money whenever she asks the price, or I try to lower it and then she can decide if she still wants it. We haven't had a moment where I'd say no that's too much yet while she wants to buy something. But I'm sure there will be such a moment one day and we'll see how that goes, lol.
Why I was drawn to it
Because of the Limoges part on top and mother of pearl, I can see it's possibly fake or at least restored and then damaged again but I know she can use this for some storage and it's fine to not always have perfect things. This also contributes to spending less on plastic garbage of shit quality which seems to be the norm nowadays. Anyway, the box at first sight looks nice:
Here you can see it's not closing properly but usually that would be possible to fix.
The mother of pearl and famous image of Limoges on top. I didn't know if this was the original one or a rip off fake one, I didn't care either because the purpose wasn't buying it to make a buck but for the joy of my daughter being able to find a gem of her own.
Back in the days we used to be impressed whenever we found something from this region but I'm not that impressed anymore nowadays lol but I understand how she gets excited from such a box due to the mother of pearl mostly.
This made me think that it's fake or restored at least because I don't think it's supposed to look like this when it's original.
Still a pretty little treasure chest for an 8 year old, if you ask me.
The inside looks dirty and still needs some TLC at the time of taking this picture.
The hunt for info
When we return home from a flea market, the research for more information starts. Even if something is in bad condition or damaged, I still want to find out more about the origin and original price for the fun of possibly paying a good price. I found almost a similar boxes and later one close to identical from 60 to 125 euros. Of course in much better condition. And then I also realised the fact that this one was missing the base which I didn't notice until then.
Good for storage
Even if it was a fake or not, or damaged, it's now used to keep the elastics from the cats to play with. I like how our daughter is so grateful and happy with small things, I know I mentioned it more often but this makes me really proud. She's like me when I grew up, I didn't have the materialistic mindset either, and I'm happy that she's the same. Both her father and I came from poor families growing up, we know how it is to have close to nothing from childhood and later we lost everything ourselves besides a few suitcases with clothes.
Family tradition
She knows value is not in items, they are replaceable and it's a good thing that she also doesn't demand new store bought items only, I like to contribute to giving items a second, third or heck, even fourth chance. If they are still worthy and if they make us happy, there's no need to buy it for full price. I love that we have this family weekend trip every few weeks to the flea markets where all of us look forward to. Hoping to find the next gem for ourselves or maybe even better: to sell for profit. It became a family tradition real fast and I hope it will continue for many years to come.
Do you like flea market / thrift store hunting? I'm going to come back to share a new item very soon.. :)
All pictures are my own...