Saturday, June 28, 2008

The Collector's Bargain - Malaysia Style


Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by at asian-fleamarket. This is a blog for asian craft lovers, collectors and myriads of other aliens whose job is to search the galaxy for bargains at fleamarkets available. Im Angie, a native malaysian, but for bargains sake - call me Art.

Fleamarket is a resource of a lot of stuff. If you get bored or lonely, walk in any fleamarkets in asia and you'll find gazillions of items and wonderful stuff like canes, artwork, handycraft, hand-made hats and even ancient weapons of the latest design (not authentic, mind you!). Any of these things might bore you to death but might also bring interest in you that you want to have it. How long since you got hold of an Ibanese Ilang from head-hunter's days in Borneo plus it has already taken heads and PLUS the heads it took years ago is also offered for sale? :D

Nowadays, fleamarkets are also a place for a lot of pirated items and low quality stuffs like watches, electronics, shirts, and so-on. But, worry not, because I am not interested in dissapointing my readers by listing any dumb items like that.

I prefer original items. At least, it should be of original motive. The latter is mostly because original hand-crafted blowpipe, rattan baby carrier, water flask made by half-nude aborigines are not always readily available. But there are copies that were as good as originally made and also maintained the original craftmanship by locals. That is most likely to be available for anyone to browse. But then - I also have friends from the jungle where i can get almost anything arty or of original made.

I will list one item from the fleamarket and state their values. You might find this useful as I am sure you never want to be conned or have your throat cut during bargaining with the sellers. I will also publish interesting facts and items and pictures where you can seek your soul and find something from asia to put in your home for a few dimes (Im not a seller - but if you like something I showed, you can ask me to buy on your behalf and ship it yo you). My consultation advice as a native and local is for free :p

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