On the subject of opening the flea market early...
I work at one of the busier tables, and it drives me crazy that people get there so early and start rifling through boxes before we even have a chance to get all our stuff out. We begin bringing our boxes to the tables between 8 and 8:30. That's a full hour and a half at least before we should be starting to sell. As soon as the first boxes arrive at the table, people start hovering around, peeking inside, and taking things out if there's nobody right there to stop them. By this point, half the people we have on hand to carry and unload the stuff can no longer do their jobs because we need multiple people just guarding the stuff at the table and trying to set it up in some sort of coherent presentation, while the early birds start grabbing up the things they want to purchase.
This happens every year, and this year didn't seem to be particularly earlier than any other time. I finally asked for permission to start selling shortly before 9, because the people waiting had already grabbed armloads of stuff, and I felt it was safer to just let them buy it than try to keep track of it while fending off everyone by saying we weren't open. We can't start credit card sales until 10 because the bank isn't open, which then leads to people standing around with hundreds of dollars worth of stuff for an hour.
I truly believe it's unfair to allow people to purchase things before 10, but I have come to accept that unless people are physically shut out of the 44th St. / Shubert Alley area until 10, it is impossible to ask them nicely to go away and be done with it. They're incredibly pushy and grabby, and the easiest way to deal with it is to take their money (for a good cause) and hope they leave for a while before circling around again. I'm sure the amount of security required to actually shut the area of the flea market except to those with proper passes would be ridiculous, and for all I know might require a different kind of permit from the NYPD. Also, it could lead to hundreds of people piling up at barricades just before 10, which would impede traffic on the streets just outside of the flea market.
Maybe enough people writing to BC/EFA might get them to do something about it, or at least get them to make a firmer rule for the tables that we are not to sell until 10. Right now, the people who show up early just call you rude and start harrassing you if you won't sell to them. They know the flea market doesn't open until 10, but for some reason they believe it's their right to be allowed to purchase anyway, and that we're being "mean" when we say we can't. I wouldn't mind a BC/EFA rep with a bullhorn to chase them away.
That being said, it was a very successful Flea Market this year, despite the torrential rain that made me feel like I was in A Perfect Storm for a few minutes. There were also some very nice passers-by who helped us batten down the hatches on our table during the downpour. Thankfully it didn't disrupt the day too much. I quickly ducked out to buy the Playbill yearbook at the beginning of the day, but unfortunately never left my table again, so I didn't get to see what everybody else had. Probably best for my checkbook that way