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Donna Burns, who has rented this space with her husband, Don, at the Sparks Flea Market for more than 10 years, sets up their goods among an assortment of dish towels also for sale. The flea market officially opens today.

The time is now to grab a good chair to serve up the best bargains at Doniphan County’s two big end-of-summer holiday flea markets.

In the case of vendors, finding a prime seat for the flea markets means parking a trailer on a piece of ground in either Sparks or White Cloud. Both towns are ready to launch their Labor Day street sales to a crowd eager to swap and snatch up antiques, primitives and other merchandise.

Organizer Ray Tackett said many customers have already called to inquire about the Sparks Flea Market, which began offering its wares in 1982.

“Even though the economy is bad, we’re going to have a terrific show,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of vendors coming.”

About 400 sellers are expected for the event, which opens between 7 and 8 a.m. today and concludes by 6 p.m. Identical hours will be observed Friday through Sunday. The show normally features more than 500 dealers.

The site of the flea market has been upgraded and redecorated to enhance the shopping experience, Mr. Tackett said.

“We’ve improved the grounds a bunch,” he said. “It’s just a continuous improvement.”

Farther north in the county at White Cloud, organizer Dick Tracy said about 200 dealers are anticipated for that town’s flea market. The show begins at about 8 a.m. Friday and concludes about 8 p.m. — with the same hours Saturday and Sunday.

“We’ve got a lot of new dealers,” said Jan Tracy, who assists her husband and the town of White Cloud in promoting and sponsoring the event.

This is the market’s 39th full year of operation, Mr. Tracy said.

“We’ve had quite a few new calls,” he said, referring to vendors. “We’ve got people coming from Wichita, Leavenworth and up in Nebraska.”

Much like the situation in Sparks, improvements have helped attract more customers to the sale grounds against a backdrop of high gas prices and the Internet’s intrusion into consumer habits.

“We’ve been building the last four or five years,” Mr. Tracy said. “We’ve still got pretty country up here.”

White Cloud is located 11 miles north of Sparks on Kansas Highway 7. Sparks is located at Highway 7 and 240th Road, 23 miles west of St. Joseph.

Both towns also hold springtime flea markets.

Ray Scherer can be reached

at rscherer@npgco.com.