When Gary Gill looks at the empty parking lot at the Montgomery County Agricultural Center, where fairgoers park each summer, he sees a bustling market.
The Rockville man envisions hundreds of people displaying their cars, trucks, antiques, fresh farm food, arts and crafts, and anything else they want to sell, and hundreds of people browsing the endless rows of items.
He sees Fairgrounds Resale.
In a partnership between Gill and the agricultural center, Fairgrounds Resale will provide public spaces every Sunday for people who would like to park their treasures to sell, especially their vehicles.
The sale will be held in the northern corner of the agricultural center, where the Montgomery County Agricultural Fair is held, just west of Frederick Avenue on Perry Parkway in Gaithersburg.
An antique collector, buyer and seller, Gill first came up with the idea for the resale last year, when thinking about the popularity of Web sites such as Craigslist and eBay but also the dangers of the online marketplace.
Advertisement
He heard stories of families’ homes being robbed after they posted items for sale online.
“People don’t want people coming to their house that they don’t know,” he said.
By the day of the first sale on April 22, Gill wants to know that at least 50 sellers will be there; he will advertise the sale online, hand out fliers at flea markets and put up a banner on Perry Parkway, he said.
Eventually, Gill wants the sale to become large enough to fill the 20-acre parking lot, with room for hundreds of vendor spaces, and then he wants to use it as a model to create the resales in other communities, such as northern Virginia, he said.
He has big ideas, said Marty Svrcek, executive director of the agricultural center — ideas that could really take off.
Gill, a landscape architect, hasn’t worked in his field since about a year ago. Nearly three years ago, he founded Capital Audiofest, an annual audio showcase in Rockville. It grows each year; last year, there were 1,000 attendees, he said.
Advertisement
After thinking of the idea for the resale, Gill began talking to companies with parking lots, to see if they would partner with him to set up the resale on the weekends — similar to a flea market, but vehicles would be the main items, and, instead of registering ahead of time, anyone can show up the morning of the sale and pay $20 for a 10-by-20 parking spot, or multiple spots, he said.
If an onlooker is interested in a vehicle, the seller can take him on a test drive from the parking lot, he said.
Sellers must sign a contract that lists items for sale and, if they are selling a vehicle, they must sign that they have a driver’s license and the title to the car, Gill said.
Gill is buying insurance on the business, he said. Because of the liabilities that come with hosting a sale, Gill had a hard time finding a company to work with, until he found Svrcek, who was receptive from the start, he said.
Advertisement
He wouldn’t share the financial details of their contract.
“I think it has the potential to grow into something very successful,” Svrcek said. “After looking at his business plan and his concept, it seems like something that hasn’t been tried anywhere before and has potential.”
Gill will rent the grounds every Sunday, from April through at least October, except when the county fair is happening in August and a few other weekends when large events are scheduled.
Svrcek said that Gill has agreed to leave the grounds as he found them. Gill said that it could be difficult, with all of the unwanted items that sellers could leave behind, but he will see how it goes.
The fairgrounds also hosts city of Gaithersburg flea markets and other events, but this is the first time in a long time that a new, regular event has been developed, Svrcek said.
“In general terms, we do what is good for the fairgrounds, and what is good for the community,” he said. “The sale gives the opportunity for folks in the community to participate — to bring their treasures and turn them into somebody else’s treasures.”
ncG1vNJzZmivp6x7uK3SoaCnn6Sku7G70q1lnKedZLmwr8ClZqKmXaK8r8DGqKSeqqlis6K10aCpqK2emcBuuM6tZKunk6DDqrjLnmSmmZ5iwKax0maYZqqVlrluuMifnGabopa2qL%2FLoqqtZ2JlfnN7j2xmanFfnJaSjY%2BrmZuKg5TAtbvRsmWhrJ2h