Hobby Horse Flea Market

Stopped at this dusty flea market off of Route 1 around 5:30 in the afternoon on a weekday. There was a huge «OPEN» sign hanging from one of the tents. Our large group of teenagers and their Middle Aged parents walked around outside for quite a while before a woman yelled at us from across the parking lot that the flea market was closed. We put back what little we had picked up and found a store in the middle of the collection of buildings with an «open» sign still lit. The woman welcomed us in but soon after we started to look around the lady who had yelled that the market was closed sauntered in and began to talk with the shop owner about finding us in the parking lot as if we were school children found misbehaving. Undeterred we continued to look around through the blue mason jars and rust license plates but found nothing but overpriced junk. One member of our party began to bargain with the shop owner over a coca cola bottle opener. At the suggestion of loosing one of her many coke bottle openers at half price the shop owner said she had stayed after hours just for us, that «half price is NOT okay» and told us it was «time for us to go». In short, don’t stop here if you’re even thinking about bargaining and don’t expect friendly service. My suggestion is to try one of the many other flea markets in the area.

I love the Hobby Horse slogan posted on their website: «Always a great selection of moose antlers» and with that you know for sure, Toto, you’re not in Kansas anymore but firmly grounded in a Maine experience.
One of the gazillion things we love about Maine is the sheer number of flea markets that you run into while driving about during the spring, summer and early fall months. Hobby Horse was not the best we’ve been to nor the largest but we still enjoyed stopping by.
There was a mixture of some antiques and interesting Maine arcana, a bit of sad junk and unfortunately some reproductions. Flea markets, like antique shops are often windows into the past of a particular community. I find this kind of «treasure» hunting irresistible.
Prices were generally fair but remember, if you’re polite you can always respectfully ask: «What’s your best price?». You never want to insult the seller but sadly I’ve seen it done.
You still have a little time to check this place out before it closes for the season in mid-​October. It will re-​open after that at the end of April.
I find the sellers at most flea markets to be an interesting group of people and Hobby Horse was no exception to this. The sellers love to talk about collecting and about their wares and how they may have come by them. It makes for
a fun time with an opportunity to learn a thing or two. Be a little wary though because sometimes the provenance stories of the items for sale are a little too good to be true.
Nothing special jumped out at us during our visit so we didn’t buy anything. We still had fun rummaging about. It’s certainly worth a stop if you’re driving up Route 1. You never know what creative decorating ideas you might come up with for a rack of moose antlers.