Pasadena City College Flea Market- One of the Biggest & Best with FREE Admission! (Pasadena, CA)

I love finding treasures from the junk in flea markets and thrift stores. Lately, I indulged in watching HGTV programs again and had a strong urge to decorate and organize my home again. So naturally, I started to search for flea market information around the L.A. area.
 
Oddly, I found that there were not as many good flea markets and swap meets in the area as I expected. Well…at least good ones with free admission. Of course, I’ve known about the famous Rose Bowl flea market. But being a frugal person, $9 per person for admission to go there was a huge emotional barrier to me to overcome. ;)

 

So after searching flea markets with free admission, I visited the flea market in Silver Lake first, which turned out to be a total disappointment. (I will write about it in a later post some other time.)
 
After I expressed my utter frustration in finding a good flea market in L.A., my gym friend told me about the Pasadena City College flea market. I waited patiently for almost a month and finally had to check it out on the first Sunday of the month. ;)

First, I will introduce Pasadena City College's Flea Market briefly for the people like me who do not know about it. The flea market is one of the Southland's biggest and best flea markets and is held on the first Sunday of each month from 8 AM - 3 PM on the Pasadena City College campus. One of the best parts of this first-class flea market is its FREE admission! There is a $2 campus parking fee in the covered parking structure, and the parking lot was conveniently just a short walk away. You purchase a parking ticket from the machine and place the ticket on your dashboard. Make sure you take $1 bills to get your ticket. The credit card slot did not work for some reason.

 Besides the lack of an entrance fee charged by other flea markets, the revenue from the PCC flea market is used to support student scholarships. Started in 1977 by PCC students Tom and Tim Selinske, what has become the largest nonprofit flea market on the West Coast returns all proceeds to students on campus. So you can shop for deals while knowing that you are also helping a good cause!

At the Pasadena City College flea market, over 500 vendors offer everything from collectibles, new and used clothes, furniture, books and music (including vintage vinyl records and hard to find CDs), antiques, coins and postcards from around the world, jewelry, toys, plants, and much more.

 While I was busy looking at interesting antique household items like these over 100 year-old bottles and classic tea cups and Coca-Cola in bottles, my husband said he enjoyed looking at the old toys that he grew up with. I even saw a vendor selling a public phone. Just a while ago, I never thought I would feel nostalgic seeing that common thing like a public phone! ;)

 Since this flea market is so huge, I did not have time to go through all the collectables and jewelry, but I noticed that if you like jewelry, this is the right flea market for you. Pretty much, no matter what you are interested in, you can always find something you want (or didn’t know you wanted) at the PCC flea market.

Speaking of being huge, Pasadena City College's Flea Market is actually spread over three different locations throughout the campus. There are two different outside locations and another one in a covered parking area that covers two stories. They even have free shuttle service available between the different flea market areas! In L.A. it can be difficult to be out for a long time in the sun, even during the winter, so being able to shop in the covered parking area was very nice and cool to browse during the hot temperature time of the day. So depending on the weather, I recommend to go to the outdoor vendors first in the morning when the temperature is cooler, then tackle the indoor area when the weather warms up.

 Also, if you plan to do some serious shopping, make sure you bring a cart. Luckily, I brought my husband so he had to do all the carrying work. ;) Other people brought an assortment of handcarts and wagons for carrying their purchases home.
 
Not only were many people there, but I also noticed many doggies accompanying their owners to this flea market. There was even an area where you could adopt a pet there.

 It took several hours for me just to skim through the vendors, and I noticed some vendors were packing up and leaving as early as 1 PM. So I hurried to purchase a few items that I had my eye on and managed to get them at a more discounted price towards the end. But be aware that if it is a popular item, it can get sold quickly in the morning. One of the things that I bought that day was the group of 12 succulents for $10 in this picture. (The particular vendor was selling hundreds of individual cactus and succulent plants for $1 each or 12 for $10, so I HAD to buy enough to get the discount!) When they are bundled together, they are very cute and make me happy to see them every day at home.

Although I hoped there would be more used and antique vintage household items, with free admission and only a $2 parking fee, Pasadena City College's Flea Market is definitely thumbs up for me!