小時候看武俠小說，江湖上都有一個叫做地下黑市的地方，只有內行人，才知道黑市開始營業的地點及時間，沒有內行人引路，普通人根本不得其門而入，但是在黑市內，可以交換情報，買到各式各樣的事物，如美女或人命，只要您有錢，都有機會可以買到您要的事物，小時候，我只覺得很新奇，但也不知道是真的還是假的，也沒有想過去接觸。
時至今日，我聽說在網路上，有個東西叫做暗網，只能用特殊軟體、特殊授權、或對電腦做特殊設定才能訪問，只要能連上，就有機會得到商業機密、詭異影片、毒品、槍枝等交易，甚至代客殺人、強姦等光怪陸離的服務，或許可以和黑市類比，只是一個是線上的，另一個是線下的。
某天，我起個大早，天色都還沒亮，突然心血來潮，想去很久沒去的跳蚤市場逛逛，看看有沒有甚麼好玩的事物，在市場的入口處，就發現一排排的攤商，一堆又一堆雜亂無章的商品，就放在攤商面前，沒想到，那麼早的時間，來逛的人倒也不少，不過大部份的人都像我一樣，透出好奇的眼光，慢慢打量每家攤商陳列出來的商品，很多商品看起來很不起眼、很老舊、很髒，但是價錢便宜到嚇死人，我隨口何某間攤商老闆詢價某一小袋的古錢幣，居然只要台幣五十元，他說，他要收攤了，所以隨便賣，首先，我不是古錢幣的專家，根本無法識別真假，此外，我知道，古錢幣多一個一個的賣，打包一起賣的，真的就是拚運氣了，然後，我想，賠錢的生意沒人做，所以，我買不下去。
二手衣物幾乎都十元起跳，多少成交是看老闆的心情及您殺價的手段，二手手機也很多，最便宜的一百元台幣就可以買到了，但是我之前吃過虧，買了回去不能用，所以，不敢買這邊的二手手機，我個人覺得，在這邊最值得看的商品是各式古玩、老表及古玉，之前我有位朋友為了賺錢，特地學了好幾年的玉石鑑定，儘管是他，居他說也常常買到假玉，但是隨著經驗較多，買到假玉的機會有越來越少了，跳蚤市場的商品很多是二手物品、假貨或是贓貨，高風險伴隨著高報酬，我在這邊逛個三十多分鐘左右，天色漸亮，所有的攤商都收攤回家了，果然有一點點黑市的感覺。
When I was young, I used to read martial arts novels where there was always this place called the underground black market. Only insiders knew the location and time it would open. Without someone guiding you, regular people wouldn’t even know how to get in. But once inside, you could trade information and buy all sorts of things, from beautiful women to people’s lives. As long as you had money, you could get whatever you wanted. Back then, I just thought it was fascinating, though I didn’t know if it was real or fake, and I never considered trying to get involved.
These days, I’ve heard of something called the dark web. You can only access it with special software, certain authorizations, or by making special configurations to your computer. Once connected, you can supposedly find anything from corporate secrets to bizarre videos, drugs, weapons, and even services like murder-for-hire or rape. It’s kind of like an online version of the black market, while the old one was offline.
One morning, before dawn, I suddenly felt like going to the flea market—somewhere I hadn’t visited in ages—to see if there was anything interesting. At the entrance, I saw rows of stalls, with piles of messy items laid out in front of the vendors. Surprisingly, even that early, there were quite a few people browsing. Most of them, like me, were looking around with curiosity, checking out what each stall had to offer. Many of the items looked old, dirty, and unremarkable, but the prices were shockingly low. I casually asked a vendor about a small bag of ancient coins, and he said it was only NT$50. He mentioned he was packing up, so he was selling them off cheap. Now, I’m not an expert in ancient coins, so I had no idea if they were real or fake. Plus, I know coins are usually sold individually, so when they’re bundled together like this, it’s really just a gamble. I also thought, “No one’s in the business of losing money”, so I didn’t buy them.
Used clothes were mostly priced from NT$10, and the final price often depended on the vendor’s mood and your haggling skills. There were plenty of second-hand phones too, with some priced as low as NT$100. But I’ve been burned before—bought one and it didn’t work, so now I don’t trust buying second-hand phones here. Personally, I think the most interesting things to look at are the various antiques, old watches, and jade pieces. A friend of mine actually spent years studying jade appraisal to make money, and even he says he still buys fake jade sometimes. But with more experience, he’s been getting better at avoiding it. Most of the stuff at the flea market is second-hand, fake, or even stolen goods, so the high risks come with potentially high rewards. I wandered around for about thirty minutes as the sun started to rise, and all the vendors packed up and left. It definitely had a bit of that black market feel.