what do you always sell/ buy at swapmeets?

Wife just got back from a few yard sales around here.
She picked up this little red tool box for 5 bux






Some misc stuff, couple of filter wrenches, some new plugs, a nice hammer





But the jackpot is in the top tray. Mostly all Proto stuff!
5 dollars? Are you kidding me?

 

Always buy rear axle lo-cater pads that weld to the rear axle. It always seems when you need them around here no one has a set or just had as set and used them.

 

I dont have much money so i buy what i need and little trickets, i also love shift knobs. I routinely change them on my rides.

 

Just stuff for my current project and good parts at cheap prices.

 

Theres gotta be some fellow IL & WI guys that can back me up. Gotta have a Big Bar!

 

crow bar? or jimmy bar?

 

A swap meet is a place to make money! I buy underpriced items that I LIKE, if I can flip them for double the purchase price I'm happy. If they don't sell, at least I like looking at them. Nothing is more depressing than looking at some ugly part that you can't resell. I do have fun buying wheels one or two at a time and making sets of four. Swaps aren't what they once were, but I still have fun, only setup at Hershey.

 

At the last Sumterswapmeet Igot a hell-of-a deal. was going to have to put tires on old ladies pickup soon,they are the damn 17"s,Ipaid $800 dollars for them 3 years ago.guy setting up across from me was unloading his stuff and I noticed he had a set of tires and wheels just like on the truck,brand new Goodyears,picked them up for $400 ,centercaps and all.went home that afternoon put them on truck and thought what the hell am i going to do with 4 extra wheels and tires,they had at least 20,000 left on them,put them on Craigslist and Monday morning 9am sold them for $300.Thats want is so good about a swapmeet,never can tell what you might find and how many good deals you can run up on.Even my old lady said,damn you finally got a good deal.

 

I always say that I am going to sell some shit at the next swap meet... Then when it comes around I say no I wanna walk around and buy more shit..... seems like I am always buying nice or repairable 1932-34 ford truck grills.....

 

I always buy 55 olds hubcaps. At least one at every swap meet.

 

Steak sandwiches, elephant ears & emblems I don't need.

 

I buy good stuff I think I might need someday. Then next year I sell it.

 

I sold an old pump shotgun and a 22 mag pistol that I never used.
I sold an old "Ice Bucket " fuel cooler at last meet. I wish I had left it at home. It was the old style Mr Gasket cork covered tin can with the coiled tube inside.
I'm still carrying to every meet my Holley spreadbore 800 Dbl Pumper that everyone picks up, looks at and says "That's a good price" but nobody buys.
I look for older hotrod T-shirts to buy. If I see small parts I need for the 55 in good shape at a "fair" price, I'll buy em. If the prices are too out of hand or if the seller has an attitude when I make an offer, I'll pass and keep hunting.

 

For some reason I'm always compelled to buy rags at swap meets. Seems like I never have them in the garage when I need them so I always buy more. I'm also a sucker for little electrical bits... connectors, heat shrink tubing and the like.

 

I always buy stuff for "future projects" My friends always give me a hard time about buy stuff becasue I always say hey this is for a future project, or you never know when you going to need one of these. Usually I buy model A parts, Carbs, nuts/bolts, tools, unique stuff, t-shirts with random company names, hamburg.....


My favorite was a guy selling advice for 2 bucks. Each piece of advice came with a free beer! haha

 

i try to sell these $5 ea

 

Glove Box Doors...

So I can do stuff like this:

 

I mostly have luck selling the cheapest crap because people are cheap.I mostly buy the most expensive crap that I will never use for projects I have in my mind,then sell them cheap later to cheap people......my motto is buy high, sell cheap.

 

I have always kept a open mind.I know what i want when i see it.Sometimes my buddys laugh at me for buying something,then later they need it...lol
Plus there is always room for Pizza....

Steve

 

Last early ford swap meet I bought some Plastic pink flamingos from the 50's still in the box, now thats how my friends tell people how to get to my house, " After you turn the corner look for the house with the flamingos out front."

 

I buy but never sell I keep stuff for years and get rid of it to a friend and then I need it next week! So to avoid that I only buy.

 

Hot Swapmeet items for me are oil, gas, auto, soda etc signs for the walls of the barn.


Deals on oddball grilles and instrument cluster and dashes (19 teens to 1970)


Things under $5.

Boxes of similar items, (Bulk) like the 3 boxes of head light rims and doors from 20's thru 50's cars including Hudson, Graham, Essex, Chrysler, Ford, Willy's etc that I picked up for $25. There was ~40 pairs of headlight trim and doors in there and the guy just wanted to get rid of them. In bulk, the price is always right.

Boxes of License plates, again bulk is always the way to go but most guys nowadays figure plates are worth too much money and what $$ per single plate or pair.

Stromberg 97 and Holley/Ford 94's but it is getting harder to find boxes of carbs for 10 or $20 especially with the advent of ebay, but it is not unheard of way out here.

I can't tell you how many 97s I have picked up for less than $10.

-Books and manuals especially anything Flathead and Ford

Oddball, unwanted informative magazines like cars and parts, Specialty Vehicle and so on. especially if they are cheap and by the box.

I used to go to the swaps, pull out a varied amount of the above and then on the drive home I would try to figure out what my cost on each item was.

Trying to bring home 150 or 200 items @ 3 or $5 each turns my crank.
I like to think of it as 'averaging' the costs of my daily swap meet crack whore fix.

Prices have sure spiked on certain items in the last 10 years


The times, they are a changing....



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I'll carry a truckload of stuff. Sometimes its hard to decide what to throw on. But always bring home more than I went with. Original body panels are one thing Im always looking for, parts to resale to my buddies, and tools. Stopped by a yard sale one day and bought a tool box with 2 jitterbugs inside for $2. One of them was a DeWalt! My wife can't believe how I lowball. One guy was set up with some furniture yesterday at a community 'homecoming'. My wife's been wanting a rolltop desk and I've bid on several at auctions. We were looking at one and the guy said make me an offer I can't refuse. I offered $20! my wife looked at me like I was crazy. He sold it to us for $35. My wife was happy, REAL HAPPY! tnrotter

 

I usually take a list of stuff I need for my latest fiasco, but a lot of the stuff I end up buying isn't on the list. Some stuff just calls out to me.

 

Funny you should ask.It seems without fail at least once a swap meet someone ask the same questions.How much is a spot,what sells,and how do you know how to price the stuff.At least one of or all three of these are asked.With these out of the way.It depends on your geographical area.Some items sell better then others in certian areas.Pricing is easy ask yourself what you have in it and ask yourself if you where the buyer what would you pay for the same item in todays market.Good luck

 

As a vendor at swaps I will take something for everyone's budget.

From $1. to $500+.

I picked up 400 old auto decals/stickers (cheap) on ebay and split them into 2 batches. I placed one batch at the far left of my tables (I try and have 3 or 5 tables when possible) and one at the far right.

Those stickers continually put $5 and $10 bills in my pocket and really helped to supplement the bottom line. There is never a shortage of guys who have $10 to spend on Toolbox wall paper.



Having multiple tables really helps keep things in the buyers eye as well as it allows you to have a good amount of people viewing your booty -all at the same time-.

Up here, a 10 foot stall with table is $25 so 5 tables/stalls is only $125. With the 'average amount of misc stuff' that I lay out I can usually average about $200 per hour at most any swap meet.

Getting your goods seen is the most important thing a vendor can do.

Boxes of misc stuff under and behind the table just means that you are going to be taking those same boxes home as many people won't look or bend down to shuffle through them.

-Get your goods seen by the most amount of potential buyers as possible.

My trick is to always be at the end of the row for more or less a "U-turn" as people will walk around the end of that row and will see nothing but my items.

I ended up with 3 stalls and 5 tables (last time around) on the turn of the row and it worked out very well.


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