Event Coverage Worse swap meet ever! [for me]

I am just the opposite. If I see a cleaned up,painted block or anything else for that matter, I assume the seller is trying to hide or disguise flaws and sell defective or undesirable parts by making them look better than they are. I would rather buy parts as found. To me it says the guy has just decided to get rid of some parts at face value and is not trying to hide anything or sell crap for profit. I`m not saying every one sells these ways. I`m just saying that is how I usually perceive it.

 

Jegs had it on Ebay. Their normal price is $1459.99, but they had one on Ebay for $1329.99. I think they somehow screwed up because, while the auction was on I called them and the guy on the phone said that price was not possible. I told him Jegs had it on Ebay and he got a little less friendly. So I did the buy it now on Ebay and it showed up 2 days later on a truck. I ordered it on Sunday and on Tuesday it came. They must have driven straight through from Ohio to Florida !

Don

 

We stopped vending at swap meet 7 years ago. You know swap meets are not what they used to be when you see
$4.00 rose bushes and ladies dresses as swapper's at this years Back to the 50's swap meet in St. Paul.
Ah, the good old days when 95% of the vendors were selling car parts!

 

Now you make me feel bad for not looking closer at what you had, Rocky, but you know me - I'm not building a Poncho or a Chebbie, and with exception of not having decided yet what to use to motivate the '40 (other than trying to stay Ford-in-a-Ford, but that may still fall by the wayside), my mission was to find parts for my Blue Oval projects. And even at that the pickings were somewhat slim - no major '40 parts like rear ends to dicker on (and I would have had to make some kind of arrangement for delivery - a banjo rear won't fit in the back of a 6-year-old 2-door Focus), nor a bunch of other things I as looking for. In fact, one guy I was talking to recognized me because I've been trying to sell a set of OT rally wheels for over a year on Craigslist, and one other guy asked if I was still trying to sell a '64 Ford 390 after having it also listed for the same amount of time - no way I'm hauling 700 pounds of something to and from somewhere, but that's me and my situation. Sometimes you find diamonds, other days you turn up stones. I haven't been able to pay for my swap meet spaces at the March meet in Lincoln for many years because I didn't have things people wanted and wasn't willing to give things away. But I do still enjoy the social aspects. I just wonder, though, how the guy that filled 4 stalls full of old couches and other garage-sale/curbside finds did. Now, if you still had some '40 parts I could use like I got off of you over the past several years...

 

hear ya man...been selling at meets since about 1977....maybe the bay a little....and some CL....still enjoy getting with buddies at the meets....last one had two bumpers....a 49 Mopar for the customs and a 55 mopar as well....didn't want to take less that $50 as that's a core price - this was at our big Pate meet....got lots of $40's offers .....let them go at a Hot Rod reunion to guys that will use them and not resale....for $40.....

 

I used to haul a truck load of stuff to swap meets. Sometimes I did real good, sometimes I didn't. The thing about swap meets is that you never know what people will be looking for. If you guess right, its a happy time.
I don't have so much stuff anymore. I don't often sell at swaps, but once about every couple years my son & I will take a load, and see how we fair. There are some swap meets that always seem to attract a good crowd, those would be the ones we would take our stuff to. Just like there are some swaps where you see the same guys with the same overpriced crap, year after year, makes a guy wonder why they keep going, and why they keep bringing the same crap.
We would usually bring things people can carry out. Big, heavy items rarely sell, unless you get just the right guy looking for exactly what you have.

About the motor prospect, I probably would not buy a motor (or trans, or rear axle) at a swap unless it was something I really needed, (could hear it run?) and they were hard to find. If it doesn't run, I'm going to want to take it apart and look it over real good. It would be nice to be able to measure it! Even then, its pretty risky, it better be cheap. Then we are looking at how I am going to get it home, most swap meets we attend are 75 miles from home, usually we don't take a truck unless we are looking for larger items.

Swap meets for us are a father/son, and now grandson bonding experience. We usually have a list of "would like to find", a list of "expect will be there", and a list of "if I saw that, and could afford it, I would buy it." We usually come home with "something" besides sore feet and tired bones. Its the hunt that keeps us going.

How did that old saying go, "A bad day at the swap meet is better then a good day at work." or something like that. Gene

 

Bradley O'Cock who is Brad 54 here on the HAMB has a big swap meet north of Atlanta ga one time a month. Car parts only and all the room you want 20 dollars yes twenty dollars. I was told he had close to 600 vendors at his last meet. I have noticed that small clean items sell very well. I guess no one wants a dirty part in their Hot Rod. But I have also sold a lot of what I call larger items.

 

Their was alot of other things going on this weekend, goodguys show in Lincoln friday eve and allday Saturday, we went to Kearney Sunday to test the dragster in my avatar, first time ive missed a Fremont swap meet in years. I havn't had much luck selling heavy parts at swap meets locally in 20 years, have had better luck on the hamb or craigs list.

 

I still enjoy the swap meets. People don't seem to be moving stuff the way they used to. Sky high prices the first day then they seem to taper off by Sunday.

Craig's list can be a crap shoot. It's brings all kinds out of the woodwork. I won't sell anything that I can't fit in the back of my truck. Alway meet in a public busy parking lot, never at home.

 

I used to really love shopping at swap meets years ago. I'd come back to my shop afterwards with piles of parts to sort out and organize. About 5 yrs ago I got a fair deal on a scattershield, but after carrying it for 5 minutes I seriously thought about dropping it in a trash can. It really wasn't that good a price for me to carry that heavy POS as far as I did. LOL. I wonder how much that plays into what people refuse to buy these days.

 

Some days you win some days you loose. Stay calm brother.

 

SCORE!

 

Exactly, my situation is the latter...I then catch hell on here for wanting to use the part I got for little to nothing instead of spending a mint on a performance or rare part that the old guy could afford on his pension!! It's harder than most can understand.

Yep, not much left over after I get done getting robbed, legally, to support everyone else!

Huge problem out here. Yeah there's a lot of stuff, but everyone thinks it's gold! I can get a running driving RPU from back east for sub 5k. Out here? You'd be lucky to find a body for that!

See, I of course like this idea because I'm a youngin (relatively...36) and would benefit greatly! In all honesty, though, I've had a couple "flush" times when I had some good complete motors that I couldn't bring with me on a move, or things I didn't have room for any longer. I gave it away or sold for next to nothing. I felt good about it. I'm still waiting for karma...but I think I'm gonna be waiting for a looooong time, unfortunately. The giving spirit don't exist so much in SoCal.

 

Thanks for the info. Knew about the Point Mallard show, hadn't heard about the swap meet.
Both are close to 3 hours from me, so it depends on several things, weather {temp}, spending money, grandbaby, old lady, etc on if I get to go or not. Anything that far away involves planning ahead of time, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. Good to hear that they are still a few going on.

 

Oh crap Rocky...did you check your PMs?
r

 

And a 20-30 mile bicycle ride at the Beach is even better than that

 

So much for "California Dreamin'" ( and I guess I'm glad they're Not all California girls!)( I wonder how much that anchor would scrap out at??)

 

That's how swap meets work. Sometimes stuff sells, sometimes it doesn't.

It took me about 18 months of a Good until Cancelled eBay ad to sell my '59 Pontiac motor. But it sold. For a decent amount. Thats all you can do.


I did two swaps this year, one I do every year, two days with an antique and a hot rod show, one I skipped the last couple, a one day AACA show.

I sold mostly $1 hot wheels at the two-day show and almost all my sales were under $20. Someone gave me some unboxed die cast bigger cars to sell and I sold most of them. Just a handful of car parts, including the best hubcaps I had. Couldn't get a guy to go $10 on a 49 Chrysler shop manual.

At the local show, I packed different, not as much stuff. I sold more car stuff but it was a long slow day. Didn't sell any hubcaps and just a couple of hot wheels.

Almost no one spends more than $20 these days unless it's something they really need. I only take more than a couple big, expensive items to the Syracuse Nationals. Even then I bring most of it home. I have to run it on eBay to sell it. I went to an auction with a lot of decent vintage stuff and I've been selling it a bit at a time. When I can get $80 easy for a set of 53 Merc headlight rings on eBay I'm not even going to bother to bring them to a show to get offered $20 for them. The old taillights and bits that are $5 pieces, they can go to the swap.

 

Depends. Sometimes I don't get any bites, and 2 weeks later, in the same town I sell a couple hundred worth of stuff. I don't blame CL or Ebay per se, but they do make finding stuff easier. before if you needed it a swap meet was the only place to go. Now you can surf, find it and get it shipped for less than the cost of gas to get to/from the swap meet. But I still go to lots of them.

 

Last swap, I took my kids little red wagon. It was creaking and groaning under the wieght.

 

I stopped going to swap meets awhile back for a couple reasons. First and foremost, I'm usually pretty busy. Between this and that, I don't always have a few hours to drive to a meet, several more hours to try to find what I'm looking for and then a few more hours to drive home. Second, the last handful I went to I think I spent more time looking for actual car parts than looking at car parts. I mean I like pinstriped light switch plates and t-shirts with cheesy 80's slogans as much as the next guy, but that's not why I'm there. Then when I found the parts I was looking for, the prices were either way too high, or the seller was busy talking to his buddies and acted like I was bothering him every time I tried to ask him something. I used to love to spend the entire day out there a couple times a month, now I just spend a few minutes here and there looking on craigslist and go on with my day.

 

I enjoy selling and swapping at the swap meets. I enjoy the interacting with other car people

 

Me too, I've made some good friendships at swap meets , last year I was asked if I was a hamb'r & am proud to be so, made an an instant new buddy. He's building a Willys gasser 2dr sedan & bought a cool side by side weiand intake with date coded 1969 600 holley's from me & A few months after the meet he came over & I let him take my ol 40 chop ford cab "done in late 50's" home for super cheap. Because he has the talent to bring it back & I bought it just to save it. Moral of the story goes ....... 40 ford chop cab cheap..... Making a fellow hamb pal happy ...... Priceless! Flux.

 

I know how some swap meets go. Just got home and a person who I was dealing with called me at home and said I could buy a model A running gear!!! Damn am I offered cash money every body else wanted it for nothing. I believe what my Dad told me Money talks. I hate tire kickers and low ballers. Step up and pay Don I meant to say I am glad I offered cash

 

AMEN

 

I read a quote somewhere not so long ago that pretty much hits the nail on the head "Swap meets have become a nostalgic day out in memory of what they once were". I find here in Australia it's a rolling 25-30 year thing. In the 80's you'd go to a swap and there would be plenty of mid 50's stuff for sale. These days it's essentially the same, 25 year old stuff (which I have no interest in). I think most of what I see as 'good stuff' is off the market. It's all been bought and sold, and is now either being used or hoarded by someone who "might use it one day". That having been said, I do enjoy the social aspect of the swaps, catching up with guys you haven't seen in a while etc, but that doesn't help the sellers out much.

 

Our local swapmeet was almost a complete wash out weather wise. I figured for two hours of clear weather Saturday morning before the rain was due in town,it wasn't worth loading anything up,driving out,unloading,loading up everything wet,driving home,drying stuff and restoring. I cut my loses a couple days before that crap and stupidness and sold right out of the driveway after making a bunch of calls and emails.Didnt have to even start the truck.Sometimes you have to weigh things out and figure whats the best as far as time and money spent.I DONT think that way with building stuff though. Id rather build it my self and the other doesn't matter.

 

Our weather here has sucked. This Saturday there is a swap meet at Paradise Dragstrip in Calhoun Georgia and I am getting excited about going.
My son is excited as he has some money and is looking for the ever elusive "bargain"

 

If your young and want the parts you can't afford them. So intead of dreaming of a hot rod, or leaving it in the garage for 10 years, I get a sbc a t5 and a monte Carlo rear end, and drive it with the hood shut.

 

Don't lose hope Rock, I just hit a good small swap here. And scored a cheap 9" for the Jimmy and that Auburn dash insert.