Peddler's Pass at 40: The Prescott Valley Store You Can't Check Online
October 22, 2026
October 22, 2026
There's a scale from 1855 on Randy Fraker's table at Peddler's Pass. Some of the glass bottles beside it are 100 years old. Fraker sells antique coins and bottles at the open-air market on Highway 69 and has been coming there for more than 20 years, according to a recent Daily Courier feature from the Prescott Valley Illustrated team.
"That scale on the end there, that's from 1855, you know, pre-Civil War," he told the Courier. "So anyway, that's what I do."
The scale may be gone by this Saturday, and something else will be on the table. That turnover is the whole reason Peddler's Pass has lasted 40 years. Most of Prescott Valley now runs on predictable stock. The flea market on Highway 69 is one of the few places in town where you can't know what's for sale until you're standing in front of it, and that has kept people coming back through four decades of growth.
Peddler's Pass opened in 1986 and marked its 40th anniversary this August. The Courier reports it has been "family-owned and operated since the beginning." Today Suzy Arnold and her son Aaron run it.
Two big changes have hit since the Arnolds opened. Prescott Valley grew a great deal, and online services like eBay reshaped how collectors buy and sell. The Courier notes that Peddler's Pass is still open on weekends all year through both.
The property covers 10 acres and draws dozens of independent vendors, each with their own selection. Suzy Arnold describes the market more as a social life than a business.
"This is my social life," she told the Courier. "Everybody gets along really well, and the customers go, 'Yeah, I came out here with my parents when I was a kid and now I'm bringing my kids.' It's just a happy and fun atmosphere."
Families coming back across generations explains why the market survived. It doesn't explain why the stock is new every time, which comes down to who is behind the tables.
The vendors the Courier met in late September fall into three groups, and each one brings its stock from a different place.
The regulars. Fraker is the clearest example. More than 20 years of selling antique coins and bottles makes him a fixture. "It is a lot of fun. We're a family out here," he said. "I have appreciation for old stuff."
The travelers. Jim and Stacey Anderson were selling during the Courier's visit. The couple travel the country collecting antiques and curiosities, from cobalt blue dishware to porcelain Buddha statues, and this summer was their first time through Arizona. Their stock comes from well outside the region.
"I love the hunt," Jim Anderson told the Courier. "You see in Wisconsin, people got barns full of stuff that's been sitting for 30 years or more. To be able to go in these places and just look around and find things you won't find in stores and stuff like that; it's exciting."
That's how a Wisconsin barn find can end up on a table off Highway 69.
The makers and pickers. Mick Ryder fits here. He lays out handcrafted jewelry, pottery, figurines and books that draw on Southwestern artistic tradition. He makes colorful beaded jewelry and decorative pieces from materials like boulder opal and pre-World War II metal. The rest of his stock comes from yard sales and thrift stores around the region.
"There's no place like it. You can come and find some nice high-end stuff, or all kinds of tools, weird stuff... These places are disappearing fast."
Mick Ryder, vendor, to the Daily Courier
Put the three groups together and no two weekends look the same. The Courier lists eye-catching pottery, household tools and a metallic Nepalese flask among things you might find on a given weekend. Some weekends also bring seasonal produce, houseplants or golf carts.
"There's treasure out there to be had," Ryder said. "This is really the last kind of a place that you can find unusual stuff."
This October shows clearly how the rest of Prescott Valley shops. On Thursday, October 15, 2026, ALDI opened on Glassford Hill Road in the Kohl's shopping center, between Kohl's and Walmart. A line of shoppers stretched toward the entrance, and the first 200 customers got goodie bags, Signals AZ reported. The Daily Courier counted more than 500 people at the opening of the first ALDI in Yavapai County.
That's a lot of people lining up for a store whose appeal is knowing exactly what will be on the shelves. The Glassford Hill corridor is being rebuilt around that kind of trip, too. The Town of Prescott Valley's Glassford Hill Road Widening Project is adding a northbound and a southbound lane between Long Look Drive and SR 89A. The Town expects to finish in late December 2026, depending on weather. Its October 16 update listed retaining wall construction and curb, gutter and sidewalk work between Spouse Drive and just north of Tuscany Way/Granville Parkway.
Both kinds of shopping fit in the same week. You can do the weekly grocery run on Glassford Hill and then spend a Saturday morning on Highway 69 with no list at all. A grocery chain sells the same stock at every location. At Peddler's Pass, what you find depends on which vendors set up that weekend and what they've collected since the last one.
These tips come straight from what the Courier reported and from the market's own listing:
If you'd like to make a full day of the Halloween weekend, Signals AZ's 2026 trick-or-treat guide says the Prescott Valley Early Bird Lions Club's Safe Trick-or-Treat returns to Findlay Toyota Center, 3201 N. Main St., on Saturday, October 31. A morning at the market and an evening at the arena make for a full Prescott Valley Saturday.
Familiar faces like the Arnolds and Fraker keep the market recognizable. The new stock keeps it worth another trip. In the Courier, Suzy Arnold describes customers who first came as children and now bring their own kids. The Andersons, by contrast, were brand new to Arizona this summer. The Courier credits the Arnolds' "accessible vendor fee and supportive presence" with keeping the market relaxed, without the stuffy feel of a typical antique store. Low barriers for sellers bring in new tables, and new tables give longtime shoppers something new to look through.
"You never know what you'll find out here, that's for dang sure," Fraker told the Courier.
Places like Peddler's Pass are part of why people put down roots in Prescott Valley and stay. If you're thinking about your next move and want an agent who knows the town down to its Saturday-morning routines, Jill Hughes would love to hear from you. Schedule your free consultation or request an instant home valuation.
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