Event Coverage Swapmeets? What do you expect from them?

One thing i think that keeps alot of people from going to swapmeets is the fact that they really dont know what things are. Some go because its a great way to get parts for your project but they dont know how to recognise the part they need. You have to know the parts you are looking for and you have to be curious and check everything out and ask questions. Ive noticed that more of those that do have a hard time shopping at swapmeets have turned to ebay because they can find their part by listed title and dont have to know what it looks like to realy find what they are looking for. They just do a search, find it and bid on the one they want.

Since I have alot of cars to shop for I find alot at swapmeets. When i go to a swapmeet I have alot to look for from Model T parts to 5.0 mustang ford parts, Volkswagen, Mopar big block, and some random stuff for future projects. You must be ready to buy. Swapmeets would be very boring if I only had one car to work on.

you must be a good hunter!

 

I would love to see more of that at the swaps!

 

In my area I think the Decatur swap meet at the old Fair grounds in Decatur, Texas is probably the best meet in North Texas. There are more traditional "old" car items that come from the rural counties in Texas than any I have attended in the surrounding areas. Can be muddy in February but It does not compare to the other's planted on asphault.
The Pate at Texas Motor Speedway is huge and commercial. The meets at LaGrave Baseball field in Fort Worth can be hot and cold for good items. The Ballpark in Arlington about the same as LaGrave but more free parking. I seldom cross the Trinity to the East. Life is too short to drive to Dallas......

 

Springfield , OH., has what appears to be a very successful spring and fall swap meet. $7.00 general admission, $60.00 - $70.00 swap and car corral spaces [with only one pass], some indoor spaces. The fairgrounds are huge, and the place is always packed [except for the fall meet following the market collapse in '08], they advertise on the radio all over Ohio. Parking is plentiful, but you walk a half mile sometimes. They do have electric carts to haul heavy stuff for you. Lots of port-o-lets and indoor restrooms, food is expensive and varied, but not stupid like the MOPAR Nats, or Classic Events in Columbus. There are plenty of toy, and kitsch type vendors, but the women have to have something to look at and I just pass them by. I've sold both cars and parts there, and stuff sells if the price is realistic. It is a very well run event, only Carlisle, PA does a better job. In the mid-west, Carlisle is the standard. Incredible food, indoor restrooms with attendants! I don't sell any longer, but last spring, some of the usual vendors were complaining about the price of a space - they weren't selling enough and blaming ebay. I don't know the economics of producing a swap meet, but no vendors, no customers. I would rater pay a $10.00 admission if more vendors were there - maybe charge them less and make it up on spectator volume.

 

Almost all of the swap meets in N. Texas have free admission. Only a couple charge $5.00 for parking. No admission fee and reasonable parking is the ticket.

 

no charge to get in and free parking!

 

swap meets should be free for buyers... but I guess I am just dreaming as times have changed. there used to be a guy and his wife in my area who sold at every swap and had what they called the "Thompson Flyer" they would hand out with all the swap dates. they would not put your swap in the flyer if you charged admission for buyers. they handed out millions of these flyers for probably 30 years. I miss the good old days.

as stated keep the flea market guys out, and a space big enough for a truck and your stuff.

I'm really not interested in spending my swap meet money on items I can order from home on the computer. so repop parts add nothing to a swap from my viewpoint.

around here 2 of my favorite swaps are the Cal State Hayward swap and the Stockton swap. every vendor there is selling old car parts, no new stuff. both have a little bit of a car show along with the swap... not much though.. maybe 20-30 cars at Hayward and double that at Stockton.

at the Turlock swap they have a place where you can put your heavy purchases and come pick it up later. that seems like a good idea though I have never used it.

swap meets should be uncomplicated, don't have a bunch of rules and assholes out inforcing them. keep it simple.

 

As many "real" car parts as possible--that is, nothing that you can buy while sitting in your La-Z-Boy with a cell phone in one hand and your Visa card in the other. Expensive food vendors are a nonissue with me, since I either bring food with me or wait until I'm on my way home to eat, but I agree that $10 hamburgers don't help with spectator morale. Find a setup that works and stick with it; I hate going to swap meets that seem to change where you pull in, what time they let you on the grounds, or how and where you're allowed to park every time I go. As others said, advertise as much as possible, and if you believe in rain dates--probably not in AZ, but definitely around here--have one in the original ad. Non-automotive shit doesn't bother me if it's segragated from the automotive parts area. To the poster who suggested "all Ford parts in one spot, all Chevy parts in another", that would be impossible to regulate, especially when a lot of vendors have this, that, and the other brand in their load.

 

I live in Tucson as well. Here's what I expect:

I expect car-only items. Garage art is good. Jewelry, not good.
I expect bathrooms.
I expect hot days with no shade.
I expect small crowds at first, so equally small spot space costs as well, at first.
I expect no charge to get in, free parking.
I expect you to ask me for help on this, which is good!

Cheers!

 

Thank you all for your input on this. I have a lot of the same feelings as most of you. Lots of good suggestions for sure. Feel free to keep them coming in. I want to go into this venture with my eyes wide open. I have written down a bunch of notes on this and will be working on this venture.

 

I agree about the LA Swapmeet Brian. I am sure you and I will discuss this at Bonneville. What day are you leaving to go to Tacoma? Looking forward to vacation on the salt. I have been to Turlock,Portland,LA, San Diego. All good swapmeets in their own right. If I do this I will do it right. Dale

 

Curbspeed, good luck with this project, you'll need about 12-15 people to help run the thing plus the food vendor. After 50 years of flea market buying and selling I do have some opinions. Cutoff date:I like Pre WWII stuff but feel 1970 is a good round number to end things. Have pre marked swap spaces, and a set size 10-20 is normal around here and $20.00 is a good fee if it works for you, per day. Don't allow bicycles or pets. Don't allow pets to be left in a parked car either. Two people per vehicle is fair for vendor admission. Make the vendor exit easy, set it up so you can leave without worring about people walking into you. Advertizing the first year event is most important. eBay really has killed the flea markets as we used to know them, but the big ones are still going strong.

 

What killed my fondness of a local swap meet was the $220.00 gate price for a booth.We had 3 booths and enough is enough. That being said I always wondered why so many vendors sold t-shirts and toys when there was a 75% automotive rule in place.The total lack of sticking to the guidelines and rules will be the end of it. Lots of great ideas here and if you keep the shit out it will be successful.

 

My biggest complaint is the damn junk dealers.

Every time I go to a swap meet there's always the people who drag whatever antiques / garbage they find out to an AUTO SWAP MEET.

The only difference between garbage day and half the "antique" booths is how close the stuff is to the curb.

I'm not interested in melted tupperware. Thanks.

Shawn

 

Where are you planning to have the swapmeets Curbspeed ?

We might be able to locate a parts vendor that will help to sponsor your swaps in Tucson.

 

I hate what we call "sock vendors" at an auto swap. The vendors with tables of new bundles of socks,Hong-Kong toys and cheap batteries.
On the other hand I do not mind the folks with some real oddities mixed with their car parts...I have purchased some strange items in the past!
We have been to Hershey, Turlock, Long Beach , Pomona from back in the day when it was still good(too $$ like a parts shop now)The Big # in SD and The Riverside Model A swap.
I can tell you there are only 2 of those I will make very sure I attend each year come Hell or High water (and we had BOTH this year!)
The Riverside Model A swap is perfect, good mix of real vendors with real car stuff , a Saturday night spaghetti dinner on paper plates , overnight parking, pancake breakfast and $20 for vendors ,free for buyer, Summer swap date.they have been at it 30+ years!

The Big 3 in San Diego, covers the better part of 3/4th of Jack Murphy(Doh! I AM old .Quallacom) stadium and has ALL kinds of awesome stuff , real vendors, clubs, Pinstripers,car corral, lots of bathrooms, hand wash stations and again a great mix of things to buy.
It is a 3 day vendor party, SD city charges buyers $5 to park, disabled is free and buyer is free. We spend $$$ every Feb/March there even this year the Friday was great and Sat was a pouring rain but I hear it was good anyway and Sunday too!
Look close at these folks, they do it up right!
Good luck!

 

How about a "refund" for actually buying something. Say 1/2 admission price refunded, or a voucher for free admission to the next swap. This could be done by some form of unique ticket system provided to each vendor. A person buys an item, and gets this receipt/ticket to present at the exit. I have no issue paying parking/admission as it is just a part of this game. Just not so steep as to make it buying prohibitive. I am quite new to the swapmeet scene, and have enjoyed the few I have been to. Pomona and LARS was terrible for the toy vendors, but being a hotwheels geek I did stop and look. As for the household stuff, as has been said before, that's what flee markets are for. I saw the suggestion on having brand rows. Where do you put that guy that has a 57 Chevy hood, and a banjo axle amongst other stuff?

I have to drive at least an hour to get to whichever one is going on. Doing that drive I feel it is a complete waste of time and fuel $ if I don't buy something. Each swap I have been to I have toted a backpack with bottled water/gatorade, and a few snacks and nobody has said anything to me for that. I have yet to buy food from a vendor. It may make me look like a cheap SOB, but I am looking for parts, and the extra $ for food would inhibit that. That said I would allow people to bring food in, but still have the food vendors there for those that do not want to bring food.

Just my $0.02

 

Brad54 should chime in here as he runs the NE Georgia monthly swap...

 

+
Considering Tucson Electric Park in Tucson. Hardly any baseball left there since the city council dropped the ball and let the pro teams go north to the Phoenix area. Great facility and lots parking. Still exploring other options as well. This is just the beginning of a exploratory venture. I think the Hamb is the perfect place to test the feelings of swapmeeters. Keep the opinions coming. Everyone here has been to a swap in the past I bet. I'm just soaking in all the opinions and formulating a plan.

 

Why do people whine about what the other sellers are selling? If the buying public comes, who cares? If somebody is underselling me, and my price is a fair one, I go over and buy the cheap one. I win in the end.

If another seller is selling something I don't have, he's no competition to me anyhow.

Tell parts vendor sponsors that want a lock on certain parts and other people cant compete with them to fuck off.

Keep your code nazi out of my cooler. What I've got in there is none of your fuckin' business.

 

Green73, I do like the Big 3 swap. I have been many times and it is one of my favorites for sure. It seems like it is run well. I was pissed when it rained so damn hard this last year. You would never have to worry about the rain here in Tucson. It hardly rains all year long. That's the beauty of the desert. I can plan an event with a good chance of success in the weather dept.

 

Yea i was waiting on him! lol
Brad i think has done very well with his, (he did the recent "how to do a swapmeet" in Hot Rod mag)
I went to the first one he had, I really enjoyed it, seemed to run smoothly, its in the parking lot of Lanier Raceway in North east Ga, across the road from Road Atlanta....... (Good Location, everybody knows where it is )
Big congrats to him on how well his has done, (ive been to many of them as a buyer).
Come on Brad........ help the guy out here

 

As a 30yr space vender and buyer...I like RustyNewYorker for his overall view and Slow55 for the local. Have friends that go and set up all over the states - I do Pate (30 yrs) and the Southwest Swap Meet in Arlington (22yrs). As for Bass's view - some just like to say - got it in LA or found it at Hershey. Cheaper concessions will get everyone out for fun at all the events or at lease they won't bitch about it...hell they might have enough left over to buy my parts...

 

Curbspeed... The BallPark sounds like a cool venue.... but, if they are handling the concessions....It sounds like the food & drink will be expensive.

You are not gonna want to conflict with the 3 local swaps that are already established in Tucson.

TSRA has a one day fall & a spring swapmeet at the Wildcat house. Sept. & April
CHVA has their 2 day swap at the fairgrounds the last weekend of Oct. every year.

That leaves the rest of the year open for you to do your thing but ,June July & August are way too hot to have daytime swaps.

 

Somebody has to cover the cost of - The venue , the insurance , the porta toilets , the salaries of the cops who guide the traffic . the salaries of the ticket takers , the internal security , the electric , carting away the garbage , the advertising etc etc etc etc ... not to mention the $$$$ for the Lawyers you need to defend yourself from the inevitable lawsuits ... For $25 i get into the Pomona swap meet with my pre 70 's auto with my brother alongside and we have full access to all vendors and cars to look at or buy . ohh i forgot to mention ,we split the $25 in half ,, I call that a f#@% bargain . As i read the posts i marvel at the bitching and moaning about every little thing from the Wagons to the selling household shit , BTW some of my better finds have come from the 3 toothed wonders from the upper desert selling mostly household crap were a little digging revealed a HUrst shifter for $6 ... The only thing that is a total rip off is the food , I mean if Costco can sell a better Hot dog and endless Soda for $1.50 and Pomona sells a dried out excuse for a Dog and an Ice ladden soda for $9 ???? Thats a bloody RIP OFF

 

Up north at the Barrie Spring/Fall Auto Flea Market they have two or three trucks/trailers/movers that just make the rounds and deliver bigger parts to a central 'loading zone' in the parking yard. It's a free service, I think you get a ticket stub when you give them the part and the guard at the loading zone matches up your stub when you come to collect your stuff. Works fairly well, haven't heard of any complaints/rip offs/thefts from the process. Saves lugging that block around in your kids wagon...

 

Instead of starting a thread, does anyone know of any swap meets in south carolina? When and where?

 

Local area had a 1st time swapmeet,Perry Ga,That was great.The one in the fall will be a week before Moultrie Ga, And 2 weeks before Daytona, at Thanksgiving. It is being put on by people that do swap meets,buying,and selling.The first meet was very successful,almost 600 vendors,and a good walk in trade. Spots were 15x30, 40 bucks,excellent facilities,and a minimum of the other dealers. It helps to have something for the women. I was ask,vendor, by some of the women, how about a spot ,with chairs for them to sit,congreate, while hubby shops. sounded good to me. Perry Ga Swap Meet, 2nd annual coming up 2 weeks before Thanks giving.

 

If you pre-sale spaces, actually reserve them! I hate when you get to a Swap Meet, you have pre-paid and they run out of spaces, thus leaving them scrambling to "fit you in".

 

We attend all of the big swaps. Best example of them all in my opinon is IOLA Wi.
They get groups that earn a donation to run the Parking, Food, Drinks etc. Oh and they also clean the bathrooms. They do not charge you to use a Porta Potty like Hershey and Carlisle...
Anything should go as long as it is NOT New Cheap Chinese Crap. I have bought a lot of good tools and display cases from people cleaning their garages.
No Real Estate People
No Mortgage People
No Bathroom Repair People
Limit the amount you charge for a Vendor space 80.00 max size 20 deep x 15 wide
10'0" is just too narrow.
Yes and Charge at the gate for Buyers to get in. This helps Vendors to keep their prices down on stuff. it also Qualifies the Buyers. A free swap meet gives you a lot of Trouble. Sorry guys but this is the truth. A few buck is not going to break you and it helps the Swap Meet going. HELPS Pay for all the expenses.

If you leave stuff in your space when you leave. You Never Come Back.
If you leave Early from the swap meet. You Never Come Back
If you can not hold your Beer and yell and act like an ass. You Never Come Back. Drinking is ok. Just be a stay in control.