When Quoc Duy Pham first came to Old Taylor High, 410 W. Seventh St., he recognized a vintage gem.
“I have a group of friends in Austin that sells a bunch of vintage items in Georgetown, Round Rock and Hutto, so I was just thinking, ‘This is a high school. This is an old school, and I have got vintage stuff, so why not teach the new school the old school, and bring the old school back to life?” Pham said.
Thus, was birthed Taylor Market Days.
From 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, OTH will host a new vintage pop-up event featuring dozens of vendors selling clothing, video games, collectibles, records, art, handmade crafts, comics, and much more.
“There’s going be clothes, records, toys, 80’s 90’s toys, things from the 60’s, things from the 70’s, all the stuff that we grew up with back in the 70’s, 80’s, 90’s, and 2000’s is now coming back to life,” Pham said. “And I am bringing it to Taylor.”
Pham, a professional reseller who recently moved to Taylor from Austin, wanted to share his love of treasure hunting with his newly adopted hometown and partnered with Mike Van Jones from Vintique Mall, 2121 N. Main St., to launch Market Days.
“I resell full time online, so all these guys that are coming by, they are all people that buy recyclable and reusable products, which is good for the environment, and instead of being wasteful, we are reselling used items,” he said.
Pham said he got his love of second-hand from going to flea-markets with his parents, who came here from Viet Nam, while growing up in the small town of Orange.
“I was raised not to waste food and reuse everything,” Pham said. Pham said the plastic and other waste associated with buying things new is bad for the environment.
“You go out to the Goodwill bins, or you go out to the garage sales, and you would just see how much people accumulate over time, and it fills up a whole house, and often people just dump it away in the dumpster. We are just giving (older items) an opportunity for a second chance, but we are also making a living off of it too.”
