Holiday finds can be had at flea markets

With a little effort, great gifts can be found for a bargain.

Last month, the holiday shopping focus was on big-box retailers. With all the competition out there, it would seem you could buy every gift you need at a retail store. But Marsha Bemko, executive producer of PBS’s “Antiques Roadshow,” says there has never been a better time to shop for one-of-a-kind, pre-loved items.

“It’s low-hanging fruit,” Bemko said. “You pay less than full retail at flea markets, and you’ll look like you spent a lot more. There are bargains out there to be had.”

We’re not talking about shopping at Goodwill for silk ties or secondhand furniture (although we fully support that kind of thrift shopping). For the holidays, vases, colored glassware and handmade items are the obvious gifts for picky loved ones, and they’re easy to find at secondhand markets.

Bemko gives us some tips for haggling on price and finding memorable gems that you won’t see in stores.

Know your limits: Most of the time you’ll be paying cash, so have a finite amount of bills in purse or pocket to keep you from overspending. “Say, ‘I’m going to find fillin-the-blank,’ and then set forth a reasonable budget before you go,” Bemko advised. Otherwise, you’ll tend to overspend. But she also reminds us that part of the fun of antiques is taking little risks.

“First-timers who are going out there without a huge budget can really learn from taking risks,” she said. “But if you’re spending $10,000, you need to worry about authenticity and you need to be cautious.”

Half of antiquing is showing up: Although you can get great antiques on eBay, there’s no substitute for in-person shopping. “When you really want to comparison shop, you’ll need to go to more than one place on foot,” Bemko said.

Take your time: You don’t order the first item on a menu, so why would you stop at the first stall and buy everything you see? It’s a common rule: Prices are higher in the front of the market. Take the smartphone: The smartphone is your weapon. It’s not that people will lie about products, but often, people just don’t know how old or rare something is.

Use the Internet as a resource. It’s especially important if you’re about to buy something that is marked up because it’s “one of a kind.” “With certain one-of-akind objects, you’ll go online and see hundreds of them,” Bemko said, indicating that they’re not unique gifts. “Just because it’s old doesn’t mean it’s rare.”

Don’t be afraid to ask: As with all great deals or breaks in life, you’ll never get what you want if you don’t ask. Ask for a discount. At antique or flea markets, you are expected to haggle. “Assume it’s overpriced from the start,” Bemko said. Bemko recommends starting with, “Can I make you an offer?” before naming a price.

Too good to be true?: There are cases of people finding “flea market Renoirs,” but those stories rarely have happy endings.

This year, a woman found a painting by Pierre-Auguste Renoir in a West Virginia flea market. A Washington Post reporter discovered that the painting had been stolen from the Baltimore Museum of Art more than half a century ago.

Moral of the story: Beware of deals that seem too good to be true.