Flea markets in NYC: Brooklyn Flea, Chelsea Flea and 5 more
Two open by 8 am, one stays open until 8 pm on a Wednesday, and one gives all its profits to four public schools.
NYC has 7 weekly flea markets, 5 in Manhattan and 2 in Brooklyn, and 2 of them open before 9 am.
On Sundays in the 1980s, Andy Warhol arrived at the flea lots near West 25th Street and Sixth Avenue in an old Dodge convertible. Alan Boss, who opened the first lot in 1976 with 11 vendors, watched him buy cookie jars, he told The New York Times in 2019. "Nobody cared about cookie jars until he started collecting them," Boss said.
In April 1988 Sotheby's sold Warhol's 175 cookie jars for $247,000, against an estimate of $5,000 to $7,000, the Deseret News reported. Boss's last lot, 29 West 25th Street, is the Chelsea Flea now. Go there first for old things, and save the afternoon for clothes.
Quick facts
- Markets: 7 that run every week, 5 in Manhattan and 2 in Brooklyn
- Earliest: 7:30 am at a church on East 14th Street, 8 am at the Chelsea Flea
- Latest: 8 pm at Ludlow Flea, Wednesday to Sunday
- All year: 3 by their own sites, the Chelsea Flea, the Grand Bazaar and the church
- Read: 29 September 2026 on each market's own site; shop hours on Google, 20 September 2026
For old things, go early
Boss lost that lease in 2019, and in 2020 the Brooklyn Flea's founders reopened the lot, the Flatiron NoMad Partnership says. The Chelsea Flea runs Saturday and Sunday, 8 am to 5 pm, year round and rain or shine, with 50 to 60 vintage and antiques vendors, free to enter.
At 7:30 am, the Church of the Immaculate Conception, 414 East 14th Street, opens a flea market in its courtyard and parish hall. It runs Saturday and Sunday until 6 pm, all winter on the parish calendar, and the sales help its school.
For a day out
Jonathan Butler quit Merrill Lynch in February 2007 with nine months of money to live on and an idea for a flea market, Bklynr reported in 2013. The first Brooklyn Flea, which he started with Eric Demby, opened on 6 April 2008 in a Catholic high school's blacktop yard in Fort Greene. About 20,000 people came.
Smorgasburg, the food market, began in 2011 as its offshoot, Smorgasburg's site says. The flea now sets up under the Manhattan Bridge at 80 Pearl Street in DUMBO, Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm. It is seasonal: the home page says "through December 21st" and names no year.
Come for vintage, handmade things and lunch. For antiques, an art dealer told the Times in 2019 it had too few old things "for me to make the trip."
Its Sunday pop up, BQ Flea, 202 Meeker Avenue in Williamsburg, ran April to mid September and lists nothing after 13 September.
Parents started the Grand Bazaar around 1979 as a yard sale for their children's schools, its site says, and all its profits still go to four public schools. It opens Sundays all year, 10 am to 5 pm, indoors and outdoors at 100 West 77th Street by Columbus Avenue, except 27 December and 3 January. Its FAQ lists vintage Rolex watches; for clothes, go on 18 October, its Art and Fashion Bazaar.
For vintage clothes, go after noon
For clothes we pick Ludlow Flea over the Brooklyn Flea. It has been an outdoor lot of vintage and secondhand sellers at 159 Ludlow Street since the summer of 2021. It opens Wednesday to Sunday, noon to 8 pm, and its site gives no winter dates.
Artists & Fleas opened in 2003 in a former dry goods and provisions warehouse at 70 North 7th Street, Williamsburg. Its 50 or more sellers of fashion, vintage, art and design work indoors, Saturday and Sunday, 11 am to 7 pm.
The second, in Chelsea Market at 88 10th Avenue and West 15th Street, opens daily, 11 am to 7 pm, and new sellers arrive every week. Most prices run $10 to $500, it says, and returns are between you and each seller.
From the company behind Artists & Fleas, Manhattan Vintage brings more than 100 vintage fashion dealers to 125 West 18th Street from 16 to 18 October. A day ticket is $25.
How to shop a flea
Carry cash. Time Out found many Brooklyn Flea vendors dealing in cash in 2017, and the Grand Bazaar says two banks with ATMs are next door.
Ask for a price, then for a better one on two pieces. A 10 by 10 foot booth on the old Chelsea lot typically cost $225 a day in 2019, the Times reported, so leave room for that. Early is for old things: that lot charged $5 to enter from 6:30 to 9 am, and $1 after.
Somebody has to buy the cookie jar before anyone cares about cookie jars.
Read the label first. A red, white and blue ILGWU union label dates a piece to between 1974, when the colors changed, and 1995, when the union merged, Cornell's label timeline says.
An RN number on an American label stands in for the company's name, and the Federal Trade Commission's online database says whose it is. Check the underarms, seams and zip in daylight.
One weekend, one route
Saturday is Manhattan. Start at the Chelsea Flea at 8, then walk ten streets south and four avenues west to Artists & Fleas, under the High Line, for 11. Finish at Ludlow Flea, open until 8 pm.
Sunday starts at the Grand Bazaar at 10 (no public restrooms, its FAQ warns). Then ride to the Brooklyn Flea. Front General Store, 143 Front Street, began in 2012 as a small space off the Brooklyn Flea, its site says, and is open until 6:30 pm on Sundays.
A friend had told Warhol he needed the flea market "to get new and great ideas," Boss said.
Common questions
What day is the Brooklyn Flea market?
Saturday and Sunday, 10 am to 5 pm, at 80 Pearl Street in DUMBO, under the Manhattan Bridge. Its home page runs it "through December 21st" without a year.
Is there a flea market in Manhattan?
Yes, five: the Chelsea Flea and the church flea on East 14th Street on weekends, the Grand Bazaar on Sundays, Ludlow Flea Wednesday to Sunday and Artists & Fleas daily. Our vintage stores guide adds 25 shops in Manhattan.
Are there flea markets in NYC during the week?
Two. Artists & Fleas in Chelsea Market opens every day, 11 am to 7 pm, and Ludlow Flea opens from Wednesday, noon to 8 pm.