Destination for unique and unusual home decor and vintage clothing
by Lyndsi Naron
The Bolivar Bullet
Moonstruck Flea Market opened in October of 2016 and has been a staple in the community ever since.
Blake and Katie Moon said they knew they wanted to start a family business and had talked about opening a flea market since they began dating in college.
“I am a Delta State graduate, and I majored in business with a focus on marketing,” said Blake. “I was an outside salesman for 10 years for C Spire prior to this. That helped develop my people skills and customer service skills. I tried to utilize all that with this business. I’ve always had an interest in anything vintage/old or antique. I love walking into an old house and smelling the old varnish and just everything about older craftsmanship and older quality items. I grew up with a mother who most of my childhood took us picking, to estate and yard sales. I grew up around that and learned a lot from her and she’s been doing antique dealing and swapping for most of my life.”
Katie said Beverly Moon, Blake’s mother, is a tremendous help at the store and she has been with them every step of the way.
“I have an Associate Degree in Applied Sciences,” said Katie. “I’m a medical laboratory technician. I worked at the women’s clinic here in town for 13 years. It was a big leap of faith for us to both quit our jobs and do this. My grandfather owned an antique and furniture store, he refinished furniture and stuff in Drew. I grew up around it with him and going to auctions and yard sales and learning at a young age what things were, and how to pick. So, we both had a similar background.”
Blake shared that they didn’t have too much trouble picking out a name. It was always supposed to be a family business, so they started with their last name.
“We wanted to have some sort of tie to it,” said Katie.
“The whole thing was coming up with something catchy,” added Blake. “All of us got together and just started playing around. I actually whipped out the thesaurus and just looked up every word with moon in it. The idea is that you come in to the store and you are ‘Moonstruck’ in more ways than one.”
Blake and Katie are involved in many projects and are expanding their business slowly as they move forward. They shared they have taken on a 20,000 square foot storage space to house their inventory, which they may turn into an auction space in the future.
“We have taken pictures of everything that is there,” said Katie. “If someone comes in and says I am looking for a china cabinet, well we can show them we have this one it’s just not here in this building. We have sold several pieces that way.”
After about a year into the business, Blake and Katie started doing a consignment version of estate sales. Instead of having everyone come into the house of the deceased, and overwhelm the families, they are able to go in and box everything up to sell for a reasonable price at their store.
“Our main thing we’re doing now is our estate consignments,” said Blake. “Instead of doing an estate sale where a lot of items end up just given away, we bring it all to market, appraise every item, and sell it for the family on consignment. It’s a perfect relationship. We just go and get everything out of the house, and then, it may take four-six months to sell a certain piece, but it does eventually sell for what it should be sold for. Over time the family makes a little bit more money off the estate items and we take all that weight off their shoulders. We handle boxing up everything and getting it out of there so they don’t have to emotionally deal. That also allows us to put cool new stuff out every single day. Many customers come in two to four times a week because they know there is going to be new stuff every day.”
They said that just through word of mouth they have done about 50 estates in the last six years. They still go to auctions, stop for all estate sales, and visit every yard sale they see, but the estates are their main focus at the moment. Currently, they have a waiting list for potential vendors, as they do rent out a few spots in the store and a waiting list for the estates.
“The only other venture is the snow cone concession stand, and then we have outdoor markets,” said Blake. “One Saturday a month, we will just invite outside vendors to set up around the perimeter of the building. It is seasonal, and it’s just another draw for the market and for Cleveland really.”
Katie added that the outdoor markets feature local honey, antiques, furniture, yard sale items, crafts, jewelry, art, and just a little bit of everything.
According to Blake and Katie, there have been a lot of interesting finds over the years, but a few of the most interesting would be a 1940s Denton Dairy counter display sign, a wooden Shelby Country Club sign, a piece of furniture with a hidden compartment full of gold jewelry, McCarty’s pottery that had been buried in the garden of an estate, and a single fold wallet that had 15 100-dollar bills, all dated 1969, in it.
“The wallet had been in a box from when we had gone on a picking trip,” said Katie. “We had bought a bunch of boxes and lots of stuff. It had been sitting there for two years before we even started going through the stuff. We have no idea where it came from or who we got it from.”
Blake shared that he was about to put a two-dollar sticker on the wallet before he opened it and glanced inside.
“It doesn’t feel like you’re going to work and just working at a job that you’re getting paid for,” said Katie. “When we go to work every day, it’s not just to go and get a pay check. Instead, you’re building something with your family. You’re hoping that you can build something that is going to last for a very long time. You are putting all that energy and love into something that you are building together. I think, for me, that is what is special about it, and our daughter has grown up there and now she comes and helps out and she has learned so much.”
“We’re kind of like a hotspot now for people to have something to do, and after seven years it’s really grown into something special,” added Blake.
Blake and Katie are adamant they have something for everyone including; furniture, dorm accessories, laptop stickers, kitchenware, art, vintage clothing, records and a vinyl selection, old toys, dvds, books, pottery, old school annuals, local interest pieces, and much more.
“Thank you to all of our loyal customers that we do have because they really keep us going and we appreciate them,” said Katie. “We have customers come in two or three times a week on their lunch break just to walk around. They said that it helps them get through their day. We have a really good set of regular customers that we love to see and we have created friendships with these people. It’s really awesome to be a part of.”
“We wouldn’t be the kind of success we feel we are if it weren’t for the Cleveland community and all of our regulars,” said Blake. “Just take a minute to come in and take a look, because even still we’ve had people tell us that they have driven by a thousand times and when they finally come in, they end up becoming regulars. You can’t judge it from just the outside wall you have to come in and really see what it looks like.”