Famous comedians such as Jimmy Cricket and Tim Vine have made a brilliant living delivering one liners for years and I know a few market traders that have too, now don’t worry I’m not suggesting that we all start doing the stand-up comedy circuit although some of the most successful traders I know work on just one line!

When I first started on the Market back in 1998 there were so many different crazy stalls selling all sorts of weird and wonderful things, each of us a specialist in our own area catering for as many customers as possible with several lines, I myself had over 70 lines on my fruit and veg stall that all complimented one another in doing so making my stall a “ one stop shop” for fruit and
veg encouraging people to do their weekly shop with me.

I used to love seeing new traders vans pull on to the market and was intrigued to see what would come out of the back of their van, I’ll never forget when I first saw a tatty old camper van pull on to the market one morning at just before 9am and a man stepped out named Dave and started unloading some boxes, the market inspector quickly went over and started reading the rules of what time you had to be set up by to be able to trade and by the time it had taken the inspector to read the rules, Dave had unloaded and was reversing his Van back off the market.

At this time in the morning I was always far too busy to be away from my stall although I couldn’t help but notice the crowds around Dave’s stall all morning, in the end curiosity got the better of me and I went over to see what all of the fuss was about, I could hardly get near the stall it was that busy and when I managed to get to the front there was Dave, the first famous “one liner” I had ever met, selling halogen heaters, it was something that no one had ever seen before and he had about 50 of them stacked up with one plugged in “display model” burning away. I planned to go over and see Dave at the end of the day although he was sold up and walking off the market by 1pm, I managed to catch him before he left to see if he had time for a brew, he obliged and we spent the next hour or so speaking about his approach to trading and what he did, turns out he had been trading about 20 years and had always been a “one liner” selling anything from radio controlled planes, spinning mops or even teas maids! He spent a month a year in China looking for the next big thing, buying in bulk and then selling on markets all over the U.K. moving on once he had quenched the punters thirst for whatever he had at the time although always sticking to one line.

I learnt a lot from Dave in the short time I knew him and decided to be a “one liner” myself and set up a stall opposite mine selling Christmas Trees with the same strategy, stack em high sell em cheap working on volume of sales to outdo any other competition and when they were gone they were gone. I have always liked being a bread and butter kind of trader although Dave introduced me to a different kind of trading that simplified the whole business was less labour intensive, moved fast and created big profits. So will you be a “one liner” maybe some of you are already or maybe some of you know someone who has a brilliant product but not a clue where to start?

Need advice on getting started on one liners or product sourcing?

Get in touch,
Adamcorbally@outlook.com 
Adamcorbally.co.uk 
@theadamcorbally