The local flea market is a retail environment one cannot truly understand without experiencing it. Furthermore, flea markets tend to be distinctly different based on region. Go to a tourist destination, like Central Florida or the Outer Banks, and you will find vendor after vendor selling cheap sunglasses. A flea market in upstate New York may have only one eyewear vendor.

It is not unreasonable to be skeptical of flea market sunglasses. After all, flea markets are not known for their high-quality merchandise backed by strong warranties. But at the same time, you can find some great deals at flea markets. Not every flea market item is a cheap piece of plastic made in some faraway land.

If you are into flea market sunglasses, here are five things to know before you buy:

1. Cheap May Only Reflect Price

Cheap prices are a hallmark of the local flea market. But when it comes to sunglasses, cheap doesn’t always describe quality. For example, you might have a flea market vendor who purchases product from Utah-based Olympic Eyewear, a distributor of wholesale sunglasses and a direct competitor of Luxottica brands.

Olympic Eyewear brands offer excellent quality. They are well-made and fashionable. They cost less because Olympic’s business model calls for making money on volume rather than per-unit price.

2. Wholesalers Aren’t Always American

The other side of the cheap coin is that wholesalers are not always American. In other words, a flea market vendor might be purchasing wholesale sunglasses from overseas distributors. That suggests the products are also manufactured overseas. This doesn’t necessarily denote poor quality, but you might not be getting an American-made product. Keep that in mind if American-made is important to you.

3. Knockoffs Are Problem

The one thing you need to be very careful of at flea markets is potentially buying knockoff products. A knockoff product is a product meant to look like a name brand even though it’s not. Some knockoff manufacturers go to great lengths to fool customers, including using a brand’s name, logo, and color scheme.

Trafficking in knockoff products is illegal in this country. However, that doesn’t stop people from doing it. Flea markets are a good venue for knockoffs because they are low on the enforcement food chain. In short, be careful of flea market vendors offering supposedly brand name merchandise at rock-bottom prices.

4. Warranties Do Not Apply

Next up, do not plan on getting a warranty with your flea market sunglasses. Even if you’re getting a quality pair, it’s quite likely that the wholesaler from whom the vendor got the product doesn’t offer any kind of warranty. And of course, flea market vendors don’t guarantee their products either. Almost everything they sell is offered as-is.

5. Products Can Be Leftovers

There are times when flea market sunglasses are legitimate name brands at exceptionally low prices. When that’s the case, a vendor is almost always selling leftovers. This is excess inventory that manufacturers, wholesalers, and other retailers could not move within their designated time frames. So they offload them to discount vendors at reduced prices.

This isn’t a big issue except for the fact that leftover inventory is generally a season or two behind. If you are looking for the latest in eyewear fashions, you will not find them at flea markets. Your flea market sunglasses will be yesterday’s pair, not today’s.

Flea markets are a great place to find very good deals on all sorts of consumer products. When it comes to sunglasses, look closely before you buy. You can get a good deal on a quality pair if you are careful.