Korea Life Blog - Subway Salesmen



One of the best parts of riding the subway is watching a subway salesman in action. On this particular day a man was selling sticky balls. No, nothing perverted. The toy ball, when thrown against a surface, will stick to it. (I had taken an exciting video of the man in action, throwing the ball hard against the subway doors, the indifferent reaction of most passengers...but unfortunately I forgot to change a setting and it didn't come out right, of course.) At times like these I wish I could understand Korean. This man went on and on about his sticky balls...what exactly he could say for so long about them I'm not sure, but his salespitch worked. He sold 2 or 3 of them in our subway car alone.

There have been a few interesting items that I've seen for sale, though I don't ride the subway all that often. Ones that I can remember are souls for shoes, shoe polish (one lucky rider gets a free shoeshine), 1000 song cd sets for 10,000 won, and my all time favorite though I haven't seen it since, a garlic dicing thumb ring. See the relevant story on this page.

Please, if you can recall, comment about an item you have seen for sale on subways in Korea. There must be a lot of interesting items I haven't seen.