We call ourselves Marketplace, so part of our job is exploring how marketplaces work in all their forms.

Come with me as we visit five markets, all in the near orbit of this program's world headquarters in Los Angeles.

None are financial markets in a formal sense, but all markets are financial markets in a way, right?

My goal was to learn from the experts the

right and the wrong moves in places where humans buy and sell face to face.

Welcome to Tricks of the Trade, a marketplace special. I'm David Brancaccio. What we can learn from

the pros at five marketplaces, plural.

We start tricks of the trade in one of the great bazaars in America,

the Rose Bowl flea market in Pasadena, California.

All right, going through the entrance now into the Great Emporium.

It's a perfect morning.

There's no hint that in about hour and a half

it's going to be 117 degrees. The stadium for the big New Year's Day game has more than 89,000

seats. So imagine its massive parking lot filled with sellers of vintage everything. A beer tray

from the 1984 L.A. Olympics, a century-old Russian dress.

I have a good old-fashioned market cart.

It's like an appendage when you come to the market.

Meet our guide, Annette Vartagnan, who has 84,000 followers at Vintage Splendor on Instagram,

showing off her flea market skills with some shopping on assignment from clients thrown in.

She's got a white straw boater hat for the sun, that card, and actual cash.

So let's say you negotiate something and it's $110, you only have $100.

You're giving them $100. The vendor's happy, you're happy.

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