Dongmyo Flea Market - Thrift Heaven?

Many come to Seoul with enough space in their luggage to bring back pounds upon pounds of skincare products, makeup, trendy clothes, shoes, and trinkets. Naively, while packing I thought I didn’t have the need to do so. I told myself I would refrain from buying unnecessary things, so I came with minimal space in my already minimum number of suitcases. I wasn’t entirely wrong, as I didn’t itch for shopping during the majority of my time in Seoul (I can count on my hand the number of items and still have fingers left to type). 

However, I did have a particular craving on a Saturday afternoon. Having walked past numerous “vintage thrift stores” scattered around Hongdae, Sinchon, and Gangnam, I decided to do some digging on good thrifting locations. “Dongmyo Flea Market” immediately popped out at me, as TikTok videos and online blogs described it as “thrift heaven”. With nothing else to do, I decided to explore the market. 

Two stops before mine, I already noticed the surroundings shifting. As I got closer, the more that the sidewalks and alleyways were lined up with kiosks and small stores displaying anything and everything that my mind and yours could conjure up. Once I got off at my stop, I decided to wing it and see where walking a certain direction took me rather than following the official path to the arbitrary “set” official location of the market. Pushing through the crowded sidewalk made my walking considerably slower than normal, but that forced me to look at the stores, kiosks, and food stalls to my left and right. Even though I’d only taken 10-20 steps, I had seen a range of goods from Teokkboki, to fruits, to socks and scarves. I saw a narrow alleyway to my left and decided to slip into it, which led me to eventually end up in the maze of the Dongmyo Flea Market.

There were many clothing stores, some self-proclaimed as vintage with luxury brands and genuine vintage items (and thus pricier, but still reasonable), and others unlabeled or not labeled as such (more affordable). What truly caught my eye were the “tech” stores. There were stands with cameras, phones, consoles, and radios laid out on tables. As I’ve been becoming more enthusiastic about vintage cameras, physical media, and handheld consoles, these ventures consumed most of my time at the flea market. In one of the alleys, I spotted a small table with some cameras in front of an entrance. Peering inside, I saw anime figures, posters, old cameras, and mangas which drew me inside.

 After making it down the squeaky staircase (and fearing for my life a little bit) I came face to face with dozens of vintage cameras, disk players, figurines, and consoles in piles and scattered on the shelves. I browsed for way too long (they had a basement and two other floors) and then kept exploring the market.

Now being tired of the rain (by the way, it was raining that day), I decided to head back to my dorm. I wasn’t going back empty handed, as I found a scarf I really liked ($5). My throat felt like sandpaper, so I looked for a cafe to get a drink near the market (Olden Brown, with a theme of vintage America– nice atmosphere/aesthetic and drinks!) and did some work there. I was excited to try on my new scarf when I got to my dorm, but I realized it wasn’t in my bag.

I had left it at the cafe. 

I was bummed, but also had an excuse to go back… and that I did. I researched digicams all night, and eventually decided to try to get one for cheap the next day. 

Now that it was Sunday, the market was ever so slightly calmer, mostly due to it being sunny rather than rainy and gloomy like the previous day. I tried to recreate the exact same path I’d taken the last time, but the market truly felt like a maze, and I never found the camera store I saw. When I was losing hope on finding a camera, I walked past an elderly man sitting in a corner right outside an alleyway, with a wooden and decrepit shelf behind him housing some cameras. There were already two girls also browsing his cameras and asking to try them out, so I felt comfortable to do the same. I was drawn to a small one with an interesting rounded edge (instead of the classic rectangle shape). He warned me that the screen had some dead pixels, but that it otherwise worked perfectly. I fell in love with the little thing, and basically automatically said yes when he told me the price ($30). He threw in the charger and memory card for free. 

I’m not sure if there’s a moral to the story here or a witty way to wrap up this blog. I think the point is that exploring a place like Dongmyo flea market feels special. I had interesting interactions with the locals and vendors, saw genuinely good products for cheap, but what has really taken me back there two more times, is the ability to see Seoul in a new light. With the hundreds of vendors lined up all selling items with their own stories and purposes, you can see what people have loved and given away, hated and thrown out, bought and never used, or you can notice what people the people at the market are typically after (and it really can range from a TV to a can of spam). It’s an experience, even if you come out of it empty handed. BTW, I did find my scarf at the cafe. They were really nice and held it for me.

Thank you for reading, I hope you visit this market if you come to Seoul!