Event Coverage The Swap Meet is Dead! Long Live the Swap Meet!

Love swap meets- going to Kalamazoo this weekend. I usually buy nuthin... But I get so many ideas and it's a great time to get out with the boys!!

 

Just a reminder, the big Nashville swap meet is this Sunday, at the Expo Center.

 

Im of to one now in Berwick, Victoria, Australia, weather light rain but should be awesome as we have been starved of these events due to Covid and turnouts are on the rise. Glen

 

its funny, for the longest time those early 60s dodges were seen as "too weird and too ugly"
But I liked em, and I'm a Ford guy!

the 62 dart was kinda weird though.

 

'62 Dodges look like some sort of genetic mutation.

 

so im confused, why did the tires survive but the glass is gone? did it shatter or melt?

 

Just left one of those little swap meets that would help with the rumors that swap meets are dead. But, it was also like a family reunion seeing lots of friends.

 

I went there today wasn't an empty table in the place. It seemed like a year or two ago only half the spots were filled.

 

LARS is worth the price of admission (so was the Big 3), I go to club swap meets mostly now. No charge to get in OR parking, concentrated towards what I'm looking for, I buy a donuts and coffee to support the club (either A, T or early V8).......the only downside is that they are small.

LONG LIVE SWAP MEETS!!!!. Even ALL swap meets.....without them life would be boring .

Only "show" I look forward to every year is the Model A Pancake Breakfast in Orange, Ca. <<< (shameless plug).

 

The car inside the burned out garage with no glass also has no tires, just rims.

 

The swap is still a great social event to catch up . Generally find something I didn’t know i needed/ wanted. Flying over and plan to do the Lone star roundup swap meet, then a couple of days with our TX buddies at Pate and the on to NSRA Knoxville . Don’t care if we save a whole lot of $$ and find nothing , it will be an adventure. Great to spend time over in the US with good buddies telling lies and having a blast , making memories.

 

Ahhh, i thought i saw tires on it, my bad.

 

All those years of "...and I can get it on ebay for..." have finally bit many in the ass. And now the sellers are made to bend over and spread em since money collector and selling venues are sending 1099s. Told ya. Gimme a chilly morning, shitty lawn chair, hot coffee and a dirty joke all day any day. And all that heaven surrounded by vintage car n garage stuff. Fuck your ebay n paypal, gimme 20 bucks...

 

Glendale swap meet in phoenix was standing room (outside in parking lot of course) only. Venders and buyers.

 

What theHighlander said.

 

We were there in the same space we've been in for 41 years, selling rusty old Ford parts. I bought some junk too. Even an old sink for my shop restroom.


It was good seeing you out there Jay!

Neal

 

That’s why you couldn’t find anything, Neal was ten steps ahead of you.

 

Love a swap meet found good stuff at some local small one and found some great stuff at big swaps meets, Take wagon, cooler and folding chair and can be there at least a couple of days. always run in to some one I haven't seen for a while. nothing like hearing someone calling your name from two rows over. Good hunting

 

I think swap meets will rebound big time, it also depends on how much of "car only purest" the promoter or sponsor is, only so many geezer's around to sell Flathead parts, so you're going to walk past booth's selling baby clothes and home-made jelly. There will be exceptions of course, but folks are getting spooked with 1099 bay. That's the formula that quadrupled the size of our local antique engine show the last 10 years.

 

I did make it to Hershey "One Day" back around 1981. Three of us left NC and drove through the night, arriving at dawn. Hit the swap at first light and walk until dark. Got in the truck, heading south and looking for a motel. Not finding one we just drove back home to NC. That sums up my "One Day" at Hershey. It was great, hope to do it for more than one day sometime soon. But for now I settle for the Charlotte Auto Fair.

Lee

 

Friday scores? what spot were you in or area?.

 

Hello,

Perhaps we got it wrong, but isn’t the idea of a swap meet to get rid of stuff you no longer want or have a need for in your build, garage or just possessions? If it is a business of attending swap meets, then we as customers are just going to a place where every item is like a shopping mall and not intended to clean out garages or home possessions.

When we were teens and into the 20-30 something days, it was a huge garage sale at those big “Swap Meets.” The items were taken out of garages and brought with the idea of selling them that day. No returns on any product and for the next month’s swap meet, new “junk” will come out of the rest of the garage stuff clogging up the workplace.
If and when we took the 40 Ford Sedan Delivery full of stuff, we were always asked how much for the 40 Ford. So, finally we had to put “not for sale” on the window. We still had offers given to us. It was an attractive sales item with the bright Orange/Red beacon amongst the rust colored parts we all had sitting on the ground.

But, somewhere in those years, there were some folks that looked at the large swap meets as a business and kept coming back with their same stuff they had the previous month. No one bought it then and it sure seemed like no one is going to buy it this month’s piles.

Once those upstart businesses started showing up at swap meets for hot rods, antique parts and garage stuff sales, it kind of ruined the whole idea of cleaning out your garage with left over parts. When my brother moved to Santa Barbara, he had a stock pile of old car parts and some hot rod stuff. his idea was that it became a mini business and brought in extra income for his family. So, he continued to keep what he did not sell one week and brought it back for the next month’s sale day.

Jnaki

He invited us to come up to his place and bring our left over stuff. My wife could not get over the fact that it was a giant garage clean out with boxes of parts and accessories. She was in the garage in an instant with several boxes gathering items together. Those things we bought a long time ago, sat around gathering dust, now will finally get out of the garage boxes and be gone over the weekend event. It would help if we sold all of the stuff and did not bring any boxes home. She had a direction and goal.

So, our idea was that we started with a price set and whatever was offered, make the sale. Some bartering, but the goal was to get rid of the items. Regardless of what the others were selling and what the competitive price was, it was going to be gone by lunch time.

From the 7 a.m. starting point, set up and open sales, we were having fun selling stuff. When my wife saw that I was bartering with a customer, she walked up, excused herself and said to him, what was the price you wanted to pay? When told to her, she gave the item to the guy and took his money. That was bartering at its quickest. As the guy was walking away, I told her I could get more money for the item. Her thought was money was in her purse and the item was history… no use waiting for something to happen, she made it happen. A sales person in the making… ha!

NOTE:

By Lunch time, our stall from the back of our little station wagon was relatively empty. Only a few items were sitting in the asphalt space, looking lonely. So, the first person that had some interest, they walked away with the items. Give away prices for a fast sale. Nothing was going back home in the back of the station wagon, except for our toddler son. My wife’s mantra was working and then we were able to walk around to see what was being sold.

Others had the similar idea. It was getting warm in the coastal sales site and it seemed like a lot of people wanted to do the same thing as us. Sell quickly for any price that will move the item. We left our little empty space and wandered around until it was time to have lunch. We bought a new wooden skateboard deck for a Dollar. (from a well known local manufacturer) The guy threw in some new wheels/trucks at his cost, not the advertised sign cost. Just because we had some interest in his new skateboard deck, he wanted to move his products fast. Our kind of sales event.

Finally, when we came back to eat lunch, my brother still had ¾ of his stuff still labeled and sitting on his asphalt space. Compared to our empty space next door, it was as if 7:00am was the starting point again… we were happy and had some extra cash in our pockets. He was adamant that he would sell out by closing at 4o pm. We left before 2 pm. He took his stuff back home to stuff his garage again. YRMV

What about today’s adventures? My wife is the person with ideas and when something does not fit her design spaces, out it goes. Her sister likes our stuff and is a willing place for our “stuff.” Or, we give it away to the local thrift store that needs items to sell or give away. It is not worth the effort for us to have people to trapse all over our garage or house to try and bargain for the items. The local thrift store needs our business and it goes to someone in need. … So it is “pay it forward” for us…

 

That's very true--I'm doing it myself after the realization that nothing lives or lasts forever. I go to only one or two per year and have noticed the crowds seem to always head to the old guys who are selling stuff. So do I, but i find myself normally just having a conversation with someone who understands the era i'm from.

 

The Lethbridge swap meet is this Saturday, February 11. Why is it that when I go, I see something really unique, walk on past it, only to regret not buying, needing it in the worst way later, and another one is never seen again?

 

Often that's the best part of swap meets and Rod Runs.

Lee

 

Still missing the Big 3 swap meet in San Diego even the times it rained.

 

Absolutely the best. All killer, no filler.

 

I sold at the Tri-State in Denver last weekend. Went home with $900+ and bought nothing. Cleaning house. One item sold as I was setting up, so I brought in its twin the second day & priced it higher, and it also sold fast. the first item ended at the stall across from me late on day 2 at twice the price & he took it home. I have no complaints & plan to return next year. Some items sold fast & cheap, (just like a girl I knew in high school) others took some time.

 

I really like Pretty much all mopar pickups from 41-65 I don't think there is an ugly one in the bunch.
My personal favorite being a 41 to 47 or a 57 to 60...
I think Dodge trucks are still pretty reasonable compared to a Ford or Chevy of the comparable year with the acception being the 57-9 sweptside's as they went up about 15 years ago to a price range where I refuse to buy one I guess I missed the boat.