We did a few previous posts on the Coney Island Flea by the Sea flea market — the one that was supposed to add some color to the crumbling mess that is Joe Sitt’s playground. While they had a decent run for about two weeks, it looks as if the bottom has once again fallen out. They’ve succeeded in screwing up yet another thing that actually had some potential to do well and help revitalize the neighborhood.

One of our readers, Linda, shot us over these recent photos from the Coney Island Flea Market. As you can all see for yourselves, it looks far better than what we posted a few weeks back. Bright, colorful tents are now adorning the stale metal poles that were there before and they’ve signed up way more vendors to round the whole thing out. We gotta say, it looks good.

A few weeks ago, I decided to spend my Saturday afternoon in Coney Island enjoying the first traces of summer: eating hotdogs, enjoying the boardwalk, and – one of my favorite pastimes – browsing the ginormous flea market that was supposed to be set up there. But I was met with huge, aching disappointment.

As someone who’s been on both sides of the haggling scene, I’ve seen some hardcore hagglers stand firm and score some pretty sweet deals. On the other hand, I’ve seen the novice haggler walk away intimidated and empty handed. If done right and used in the appropriate places, haggling should increase your chances of getting a few dollars shaved off the bottom line of a price tag. The idea is to adopt the tried and true methods that have been proven to work. Keep reading for 5 tips on shoring up your haggling skills. And once you’re done? Take a trip to the flea market and see if you can’t put some of those skills to work.