Max's Trader Days going strong after 16 years in Lima

LIMA — “Hey, this was on your $5 table. Will you take four?”

“Yeah, they said for $75 they would sell the full vanity and sink.”

“A hundred and it’s yours.”

These and other conversations are filling the air at Max’s Trader Days and Water Dog Races Friday at the Allen County Fairgrounds. Now in its 16th year in Lima, the event has grown to the point where, for one weekend a year, the facility turns into a vast open-air market, bringing together nearly 2,000 vendors, selling everything from guns to artwork to jewelry, and tens of thousands of visitors.

“It’s been wonderful,” Max’s Trader Days human resource coordinator Amy McCluer said. “We have 1,900 spaces that we try and fill, and we usually fill up with about 1,800 vendors because some vendors will take more than one spot.”

This growth over the last decade and a half has primarily come through word-of-mouth, McCluer said, with people flocking to the event from all over the country.

“This year, Max [McCluer] spoke to a gentleman who was coming with his grandsons from Niagara Falls,” she said. “He just heard about it from another flea market and thought, ‘It sounds like fun. I’ve never been there.’”

That flea market connection has created its own sense of community, whether at Max’s Trading Days or at other flea market events, to the point where the annual event has turned into a quasi-reunion for many vendors and attendees as they catch up with friends they may not have seen since last year’s event.

“This is one of the things that I think is so special about Trader Days,” McCluer said. “We’ll have grandfathers, sons and grandsons where this is their weekend where they hang out and just sit around a campfire and talk.”

Maria Hammond of Findlay has brought her custom jewelry and accessory business, All Sports Jewelry and More, to the Trader Days for the past 12 years, and she enjoys the laid back atmosphere, something she credits to event founder Max McCluer and his family.

“Max is great,” she said. “It’s fun to go back and forth with people and learn their stories and everything.”

Deidre Kellum of Upper Sandusky has been coming to Max’s Trader Days with her husband for the past few years. For her, the event is the perfect opportunity to get away from it all.

“It’s a weekend away from the kids and with friends,” she said. “It’s a nice mix of relaxing, shopping and fun entertainment at night.”

The flea market, along with the water dog races, are continuing Saturday and into Sunday, with the event expected to wrap up in the afternoon. Admission is $15 for adults and free from children age 12 and under.