A new flea market opened in the Strip District Sunday, 17 years after Pittsburgh’s only… A new flea market opened in the Strip District Sunday, 17 years after Pittsburgh’s only large-scale, flea market closed.

When Janis Surman, a longtime flea market enthusiast, noticed that Pittsburgh lacked a central urban market, she began to feel an itch. Laid off from her corporate job of 17 years with AT&T, Surman spent 12 months unemployed, facing a poor job market with few prospects. And soon, the itch that first only tickled her imagination began to consume her morning, noon and night.

“It was just something that started to grow in my mind, and finally it got to the point where I thought, ‘You know, I think I can pull this off,’” Surman said.

Within months, the Pittsburgh Flea was born.

Sunday, Surman held the first Pittsburgh Flea, an eclectic market featuring a wide range of used and new items, between 21st and Railroad streets in the Strip District. The Pittsburgh Flea will occur weekly, every Sunday between 8 a.m. and 3 p.m., through Nov. 14.

Despite the weekend’s gray skies and 38-degree drizzle, shoppers came in swarms to the previously empty lot off Smallman Street.

Early that morning, a woman bundled in a windbreaker hunched over a table. “I know I’m kooky, but I just like it!” she said, giggling as she picked up a ceramic container with a naked woman bejeweled on the lid.

Surman’s project took off last August when she approached Neighbors in the Strip, a community development organization in the Strip District. The organization connected Surman with local businesses and referred potential vendors, hoping to bring new visitors to the area.

“It’s going to bring a totally different dynamic to the Strip District,” said Becky Rodgers, executive director of Neighbors in the Strip. “So hopefully when they’re down here visiting the flea market, they’ll stroll over to the rest of the Strip — have some beer at Roland’s or breakfast at Pamela’s.”

For Surman, the Strip was the obvious venue. It’s city-centric, has the space to accommodate the project and people already go there to mingle and peruse, she said.

As Surman and Rhodes advertised the project via word of mouth, the itch quickly began to spread.

For Sunday’s event Surman confirmed 240 vendors, the maximum the area could hold, and had a waiting list of 40 more. Not all confirmed vendors participated Sunday due to poor weather conditions, but the quirky spread of items for sale did not disappoint.

The Pittsburgh Flea isn’t just a bunch of “flea-sters” grabbing up “used and bruised items from somebody’s garage,” Surman said. “I wanted it to be a little edgy.”

The market featured a diverse mix of new and old, bizarre and mundane and included antiques, original art and collectibles. There were organic soaps and lotions, homemade dog biscuits, African textiles, Star Wars comic books, vintage bow ties, mosaic pottery, jewelry made from silverware and soy candles. This list goes on.

The majority of the vendors were local, but some came from as far as New York state and Virginia. Some sellers will rotate weekly, and others will anchor tables summer long.

In a time of economic difficulty, budget-conscious customers can bargain and haggle and find items at discounted prices. “People feel better about that,” Surman said. “I think it gives them a little bit of psychic income as well.”

And for Pittsburgh’s always frugal student population, the flea market could prove worthwhile for its varied mix of inexpensive wares and its low-cost entertainment value.

“It runs until 3 p.m. so you don’t have to get up early. Also, it’s right in the Strip, which is a fun neighborhood to explore,” Anna Kahler, a junior neuroscience major at Pitt, said. She, along with junior Chris Brett, is part of Surman’s small flea market staff.

“This is a great way for students to decorate their rooms or apartments, find interesting and eclectic pieces that you don’t see in every Target, and also it’s a great place to spend a Sunday morning,” Rhodes said. “You can be hung over, and you can get some greasy food,” she laughed.