Do you think about the previous owners of used things for sale at flea markets?

Some of the items do make me sad, they were obviously prized by their owners and then had to be sold for some reason (needed money, passed away, etc.). Other items seem very out of place (new and in box) and I wonder if they were stolen and being fenced at the flea market.

No, and never. Not worth the time and effort to speculate, when it’s 99.99% likely that my speculation is wrong.

Sure, you can make up stories about this stuff, (and people make movies about it too), but – not worth the effort.

Sometimes. Sometimes I think it’s maybe old people or people cleaning out the homes of loved ones who passed on. When I see stuff from the 70’s, it reminds me of my childhood.

When I come across person items like diaries,photographs,poems tht someone had spent a lot of time working on in the Thrifts shop of Flea Markets I feel sorry for the families that had missed out on that insight on their relative.
These types of memoirs ‘should” be in a Museum.
I just returned from a Memorial Service for a 94 Year old lady whom had been quiet and by herself most of her late years.
At this memorial it was discovered tht she was in fact a writer of Poems,Diaries,Articles that made it in the Newspapers etc
However I was disappointed to find out that her remaining family members did not consider giving her files of notes etc to the Museum, nor try to publish her works?
They could not be bothered, for some reason ( she passed away about a month and a half ago)..so perhaps in time they may do something in memory of her “stories” etc.

People do not realize the connection of personal items that are left behind.
It is a conduit to that very person that passed away.
Too many times I have seen and heard of people who’s first response is to throw out their loved ones items , only to later regret it and search for those items as a means to connect to them later (years).
In my case my late mother gave away my late father’s items to the Second Hand store in her neighborhood to the chagrin of the rest of the family.
That was in 1976 and we are still trying to piece together my late father’s Boxing Career, with little to go on. I had puiblished a book on parts of his life , but wish that I could get more photos, News Reels, Articles on not only his career but also that of his brothers whom also were Professional Boxers in the early 1925’s.
The late Grandfather on my fathers side of the family inadvertatnly “hid” his box of beautiful photos of early life of these family members, but neglected to tell anyboy as to where he hid them! We believe that he had hidden all in a strongbox below his home in a makeshift cellar of which is now destroyed when ithe property was sold and a Business is rebuilt on top?

I feel bad when I see photos of people for sale at flea markets. I feel like I wish the families knew the photos were floating around and that the photos would be invaluable to the families. Same with scrapbooks. What a personal memoir of the person who made them!

I think historical societies would appreciate photos and diaries more than museums. However, if every deceased person’s personal things ended up in historical societies, they’d be overwhelmed. The things mean more to the families of the deceased than historical societies. They are good for research but have more personal meaning to families.

@jca
Since not everyones memoirs etc are preserved intact, then perhaps those families should publish photos or duplicates in a book form for the general public and also for the families to purchase for themselves. ( example www.Blurb.com is a good site to start)
Create your own book.
I did a Family Tree Photo book with pedigree info for generations in the future in order to honour the past ancestors that strived to make our present as it is and to preserve their memories for all time.
i was delighted to discover Grandchildren ( adults) purchasing copies for their own children.

No; I don’t think about the previous owners. And I don’t expect anyone to think of me when I die and leave my stuff for sale. I mean when and if my daughter puts my things up for sale. I’ve gotten many things from garage sales and the owners were smiling and telling me to enjoy them!
My younger daughter makes money when she takes her kids’ designer clothes to a huge flea market. She just loves doing it.

I no longer go to garage sales. They make me sad.

When I was a kid I found a little ceramic statue in the garbage. It was of a Chinese girl sitting down in front of a pot, and there was some Chinese letters on said pot. It was painted dark red, chipped in some spots and dirty. But it looked so cute and adorable and at the time I was wondering why it got thrown out. So I took it home, and even gave the girl a name.
I eventually lost that statue in a move, I wonder if someone else found it and kept it, or if it got thrown away again or got broken.

Yes, all the time. Even if I get it wrong all the time, it’s in my nature. I’m also the kind of person who notices the people who I pass by in the street and I actively wonder about their lives. I don’t like not noticing people in life. It depresses me when people don’t ever notice those around them. I also always wonder about people buried in cemeteries and often get the urge to just randomly leave flowers, which I know kind of borders on ridiculous, but… it’s just a gesture to say that someone isn’t completely forgotten, even in death and even if I didn’t know them. Even though I believe it’s most likely that we all just die and there is nothing after, it doesn’t matter to me, because I’m sappy and sentimental and I’m okay with it.

Possibly yes. No doubt some flea market sellers are most likely fencing stolen items.

Wow! Touchy subject. I not only feel bad for someone’s well-loved items being hawked for profit- only to be purchased and then listed on an auctioned sales sites for a higher profit! (It’s going to go to someone who really wants it!!!! $ for leeches! Please!)
Even more upsetting: the sale of personal or family scrapbooks, photos, slides or portraits! It makes me hate that when going to certain restaurants, some have placed photos of individuals/families on their walls as decor. I am quite sure that most would NOT have desired to have their likeness nor their family’s end up there. “Hiya Folks! What’s for dinner?”
Some purchase photos, slides, family memories at flea markets. (Profits for the uncaring.) Those purchases have even ended up as entries in various period family photo contests! How totally callous! Horrible family or estate liquidators looking for more money by selling such PERSONAL items! Shame on them!
Do you use greeting cards made from of older, obviously personal family pictures, with the captions making fun of the subjects by quirky or degrading captions or inferences?
Oh, were the pictures, etc. haunted! Just what is needed for their thoughtlessness!!! BOO!

Yes, I always do if the person who it used to belong to isn’t there. I mean, at garage sales if the owners are sitting right there, I don’t wonder who they are etc. But anything else…very very much so. I recently found out that the house we rent was built in 1861. I am totally enamored of everything in it now. I think of all the things that happened around it in the past 150 years. Wonder who lived here, who died here….all the things of life that happened here. We have a doorknob set from the late 1800s in one of the doors. The wonderance of who all has touched that makes my mind boggle with possibilities. I mean…Civil War era…to now? Holy cats!

Family pictures depress the hell out of me, especially if there’s a notation of who they are.

And I think of the things I’ve sold, like the stainless steel bowl that caught the raw sewage when the pipes were bad. My unusable, someone else’s favored batter bowl.