In the Old Continent paying to marry a young woman is not a practice that belongs to the Middle Ages. In today’s Europe, facing as it is various problems of integration and immigration, silent and mysterious, the Gypsies remain hidden between the folds of history, the vestige of an ancient world modern civilisation has marginalised and made difficult to understand. Their ethnic group, one of the most numerous in Europe, is composed of a multitude of subgroups, present mostly in the Balkans. Among them are the Kalaidzhi of Thrace in Bulgaria, a seminomadic minority of around 18000 people whose ethnonym is that of their traditional craft of wandering tinkers, which nowadays has all but disappeared. This patriarchal clan is distinguished from others by the so called “brides market”, held four times per year in different towns in Bulgaria. These days are often the only occasions when the young men and women of the clan are allowed to meet in person. They are also occasions for newlywed couples to present themselves before the group. The rite of engagement consists of bargaining between the aspiring groom and the young woman’s father over the price to be paid. The young woman’s complexion and hair length are factors which raise the price but the main thing to be taken into account is her chastity. The aspiring brides are often very young and have rarely competed the 12-year of school legally required in Bulgaria. For a Kalaidzhi man, marrying a woman who looks as Caucasian as possible is a way to by himself out. The use of smartphones and social networks together with emigration in search for work are bringing changes even in a relatively closed and marginalised community as this endogamous Roma subgroup. Whether this will lead to anything like the emancipation of Kalaidzhi women remains to be seen.