El Mercat del Trasto

Did you ever go to your room and see something that you are not using anymore but it still works, something that other person can take some profit of… Everyone has had this sensation before isn’t it?

This sensation, this lack of usage, this kind of asymmetric information (someone needs something that you don’t use but you don’t know it) is what “El Mercat del Trasto” tries to solve.

“El Mercat del Trasto”, an organization association  that I preside, is a street market in the historical center of my born town Torelló where everyone can sell new or second hand objects and stuff that he actually don’t use anymore to someone that is going to use it. With the exception of food and animals that are forbidden.

This street market has more than 35 years of history but it maintains the same essence trying to leave the people free to negotiate prices of the objects by themselves.

The market starts at 6 am at the morning by selling the places to the sellers to put their stands and closes at 14 pm. During these hours the streets of my town fill with more than 700 stands and plenty of people buying stuff that they probably need or they think that can be useful for them.

It’s so interesting to see the people negotiating free prices in the street market, it is a bargaining duel, the one that wants more the object probably is going to get it at any price since for another with less interest in the object maybe the price will go down for him and he will buy it despite the fact that is less valuable for him than is for the first guy. This give a lot of bargaining power to the sellers, since they can negotiate the price with freedom between all the possible buyers and almost for sure, end up selling a good that they don’t need anymore and it’s only taking space at home.

So maybe we can consider the market a win-win situation. The seller gets some money for objects that probably have spend lots of time in the storage room or somewhere else in the house without being used. And the buyer gets objects that he is pretty sure that they can be useful for him at a negotiated price, so normally less than their object value for them.

What do you think about these kind of street markets, are they useful? Did you consider that they solve the asymmetric information between the buyer and the seller?

Please write your opinions on the comments.

See you soon!

Sergi Susín Calle