After just three Flea Market Wars events, school district officials have pulled the plug, with unraveling facts about the show and its producer creating some buyer’s remorse.
The setting for the show — a flea market in the parking lot of James Logan High School in Union City — officially kicked off April 29 and was set to film every Sunday. The concept was meant to build off the popularity of similar shows like Pawn Stars and Storage Wars. Crowds were growing. Buzz was buzzing.
Flea Market Wars’ producer, Michael Gouveia, promised to bring in celebrities to buy items from competing vendors, and even said the popular A&E show Storage Wars would donate storage units to be auctioned off.
It all sounded great — until the New Haven Unified School District cut the cord on the show. And just as quickly as it had started, Flea Market Wars unraveled and serious questions were exposed about the show and its producer.
Though crowds grew in size each week, after the first Sunday marketgoers never reported seeing any cameras. And nobody ever reported seeing anything close to an actual celebrity.
According to district spokesman Rick LaPlante, Gouveia hadn’t paid the proper district rental fees and didn’t provide any insurance documentation necessary to tape the show. Gouveia was supposed to pay $800 per week, plus additional weekly custodial costs of $120, La Plante said.
The district released a statement saying:
“The New Haven Unified School District has terminated its relationship with the individual who was renting the James Logan High School parking lot on Sunday mornings to run a flea market that he said he was having filmed for a “Flea Market Wars” television pilot. The individual failed to provide requested insurance documentation and has not paid his rental fees.”
This is where it starts to get fuzzy.
Maggie Nye, a spokesperson for Original Productions, which produces Storage Wars, said the company has “absolutely no knowledge of Michael Gouveia.” Furthermore, a production manager for Storage Wars added that the show’s producers have never donated storage units and have also never heard of “Flea Market Wars.”
Eagle-eyed readers might notice Gouveia’s last name is spelled differently from SFBay’s previous story on Flea Market Wars. In April, Gouveia confirmed with Union City Patch that the spelling of his last name was “Gouvea.” However, according to the New Haven School District, the name on file is “Gouveia.”
A typo? Perhaps. It also may or may not be coincidental that a Google search of “Michael Gouveia” returns results for someone in the area with a criminal background. A “Michael Gouveia” from San Leandro pleaded guilty in 2005 for scamming eBay customers out of more than $30,000 by auctioning non-existent Mickey Mantle and Michael Jordan rookie cards.
The Facebook page for Flea Market Wars Facebook page — since removed — said that Gouveia worked at A&E Networks as an Executive Producer. Before being taken down, The page had said “disagreements with the New Haven Unified School District and the City” forced them to stop filming.
A comment posted on Facebook by Flea Market Wars had read:
“This had nothing to do with insurance forms. Those were sent in and paid in full over a month ago.”
Regardless of any other claims by Gouveia, residents say the cancellation of Flea Market Wars is a loss for the community. Gouveia had originally said he planned to donate the proceeds to school district, but since there isn’t any real show being filmed, it looks like there won’t be any real money donated.
Last modified May 25, 2012 10:50 am
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Lets clear up the comments about donations from storage wars:
It was brought to Flea Market Wars attention that a volunteer who had been working with FMW told us that while storage wars was filming in the bay area he went along and was to obtain from storage wars 4 storage units. He seemed very credible and after it was brought to our attention from the report in the patch we found out that that our volunteer did not receive any items from storage wars nor did he work with A&E network as listed on the facebook page. We have since then removed him from our team.
--Lets clear up the twitter issues as well:
We were in the process of filming a pilot in LA, the cast required 2 beautiful women who were to sample at some great restaurants and give a review. Once we found out that the girls had been involved in an internet adult business, we terminated any further contact.
--The issues here are not: Reality TV, Porn, Misspelled names, false statements these issues have all been addressed. The real issue is that because of the NHUSD not keeping up their end of the initial deal and greed we will never see what this could have really turned out to be, it was growing very rapidly and its a shame that the Kids and teachers will have to be fired because of the ENORMOUS DEFICIT they are facing.
--FRANK CAMARDA the truth will set you free. Dont walk away from this without making it right.
--Flea Market Wars E/P will meet with anyone anytime, face to face to get to the truth.
Did A San Leandro Scammer Fake A Reality TV Show?
No he did not. End of story.
Dimitri Hagnéré
No wonder the district is in the shape that it's in.. This project would have definitely been a great opportunity for them. And Camarda couldn't even own that part of the deal, huh..
Patty Manalisay Harris
Thank you for the explanation. I am happy to delete my comment. The last thing I want to do is participate in a war with you and the district. I was very supportive of the entire project and visited almost each week with my family. I was hoping it would benefit all. I hope you are able to post a comment in the Patch. Good luck to you!!
Many vendors and sellers were disappointed because they were not selected as a cast member said Juan Lecaros of Comic Figure Addict of union city. Most of the negative comments are from those who wanted really badly to be on the show.
Just like Juan Lecaros of Comic Figure Addicts said, " I only did it to get more notoriety for my store."
When he wasn't selected as a cast member her was bitter. Better luck next time he was told.
--The facebook page is up not not down like reported.
--Greed from the NHUSD is the real cause.
--The issue here is the truth and nothing else. No one was scammed we had an agreement that fell through due to greed, we provided a great place for individuals to come out and make some extra money buy selling their household items.
--Frank Camarda knows the truth, the NHUSD saw dollar signs as Frank said in a conversation that his supervisor AKUR only cares about the money. This issue is not about someones past it was about trying to help bring the community together and have some fun along the way.
--We at FLEA MARKET WARS have always told anyone who asked about our show we are going to be filming a pilot. Anyone who knows how the industry works would know that if a major network was filming they would have their own film crew onsite, but that was not the case. Flea market wars had their own Production. Thats how a pilot is done.
--On Wednesday school officials did not pull the plug on the show, the shows executive producer did that when the NHUSD employee Frank Camarda contacted Flea Market Wars and said that the original agreement that we had has to change, Frank Said ,"I did not seek approval from my supervisor so he wants payment now for the past weeks". The payment agreement for the school parking lot rental was to start on June 1st per Flea Market Wars and NHUSD employee Frank Camarda.
--Frank Camarda of the NHUSD knows the truth that pertains to the agreement between Flea Market Wars and the NHUSD. He could clear up the lies if he would just come forward.
--Lets clear up the remarks by Rick Laplant. He states that Flea Market Wars did not have insurance that is untrue, both parties involved have a copy of the insurance policy that holds a $2,000,000.00 worth of insurance, $1,000.000.00 above what NHUSD required.
--If the NHUSD would have kept the end of the deal this would have grown into a great venture for the school district and the community.
--Flea market Wars is willing to meet with the NHUSD with reporters in attendance and address these issues and bring the truth to light. ANYTIME