The Flea at MIT

The giant monthly yard sale that is the Flea at MIT offers sophisticated electronics, computers, tools and more in a casual Cambridge setting.

It has gone on for more than 25 years and is classic MIT. 

Fenced-in parking is available across Albany Street free because Shire Human Genetic Therapies opened its lot to the Sunday-morning Flea (as in flea market). The lot and parking garage filled with vendors is behind MIT’s McGovern Institute for Brain Research on Vassar Street.

There are older, professorial types and younger, student-looking women and men on a budget buying or selling. This is a smart crowd and somewhat social. Many seem to already know vendors or other buyers. 

“Students get exposed to the high-tech community [and] older people in the community get exposed to new ideas from the students,” said organizer Steve Finberg, who helped found the Flea.

 “Everybody gets to trade, in a very green manner, their electronics, their old computers, their old electronic parts. It’s a big recycling event.”  

Hundreds of vendors offer computers, electronics, lab equipment, computer parts, tools big and small, monitors, technical books, software, cameras, ham-radio equipment and more. Guitars, keyboards and amps are at some vendor tables. 

Sometimes there are bargains and sometimes a vendor will consider an offered price. 

The Flea is on the third Sunday morning of each month, April through October, rain or shine. There is tailgate space for 600 sellers and free, off-street parking for 2,000 cars.

There are treasures, but also junk. This is not for the casual shopper or someone confused by Best Buy’s computer section.  

“It’s a high-tech electronics flea market,” says organizer Finberg. “It’s organized by radio amateurs and electronics experimenters and you can get almost anything high-tech. We say, ‘you can find all things nerdly.’”

At a past Flea, a vendor was selling unclassified, sophisticated, electronics that he said came from a scrapped AWACS plane. At another, an elderly man from New Hampshire was selling telephone equipment from the early 20th century. 

Sometimes a few friends will  sell things they don’t use anymore from the trunk of a car. The charge for a space is just $20. Serious vendor will sometimes bring computer parts, bundles of [usually older] software, tools and assorted electronics in a rented truck. Friends or family provide sales help.   

The Flea started mostly as a swap meet for shortwave-radio enthusiasts. They’re sponsors and are still there, a bit older and with, mostly, antique-looking shortwave-radio equipment.  

Ham-radio operators perform life-saving service in disasters, when emergencies knock out everyday communications. But the Internet, and even CB radio, has taken a toll on the hobby.   

The flea is on Albany Street, Cambridge, between Mass Ave and Main Street, at about 33 Albany St., near Albany and Main in the Kendall Square area.

HelloMetro Tip: Hours are 9 a.m.to 2 p.m. but many sellers pack up around noon. For the best selection, arrive early. You can get a dollar off the $5 admission with a copy of the monthly flyer on the Internet. Just Google, “Flea at MIT.”

- by Dan Sheridan, Boston Reporter for HelloMetro  (Click to leave a message)

Dan Sheridan

Dan Sheridan is an editor, reporter and media specialist with a background in newspapers, magazines and publishing. He has reported from Tokyo, Singapore and Bangkok and wrote Access Boston, the popular guidebook, from 2002 to 2008.