I bought a glove box door for a 52 Chevy for $5 and drank $8 worth of beer with the guy that sold it. I love swap meets.
I was at st thomas drag way ( sparta ) some time back 4 mopar day ,, bought like 8 pistol grip shifters , all 25 $ and under ,,, bought 426 hemi intake and carbs 175 $ , at cayuga another day , bought hemi air cleaner 4 challenger with T/A hood ,very rare 225$ N O S . at a yard 4 8 lug pontiac rims and drums 150 $ metakflake wheel , 25 .. the list goes on ,,,it was and is the thrill of the hunt , great thread guys.. Kev
At the Portland swap meet I bought a 1950s US Navy submarine siren for $10.00 not knowing if it worked, Took it home and hard wired it to my shop alarm. Holy crap that thing is loud!
A bunch of Fish bowl fuel filter(s) for 25 cents each!!!! Then I got to ride home in a tow truck after the o.t. threw a water pump. To top it all off I walked in the house and threw down my back pack.... only to realize my fishbowls were in there (now busted). ... Mcungie P.A. was a great swap meet for me!
Of course these are a FEW years back, but: Scored a T-bucket frame with complete mounted rear suspension with early mustang rear end for $150. Next meet, a glass body with short bed attached for $75. Made a few $$ on that one. And, the dumbest I remember: I had a Y-block 3X2 manifold in my hand with a $10 tag on it, set it down to get the sellers attention, & some asshole picked it up & yelled "I got $10 for ya!" So, I confronted him & said I was buying that. He sold it to me right there for $12. I carried it about 10 swap spaces, when a seller yells out "Wanna sell that manifold?" He offered $40 or the cast iron Fenton flathead headers that should have been going home with me. Dumbass me, takes the cash.
were to start is the question.but ill tell you that last pomona swap meet i scored on four chevy artillerie wheels 15 inch with new but sun cracked tires for 250.getting them powder coated to put on my 39 truck.
picked up a outstanding set of SW oil, amp, water temp TWIN BLUE gauges with orignal bracket for $2.00 just last summer. They look like they had never been used.
I scored a snow cone for a $1.00 once because they made the wrong flavor, was supposed to be $3.75. It was over 100° that day. also a perfect 57 Chevy gas filler door $1.00, guy had no idea what it was.
I bought a box of parts at a swap meet maybe fifteen years ago that had one small part that I needed laying on the very top of the pile of parts in the box. I tried to buy just that part but the owner said take the whole box or nothing at all. I say okay and give him the 5 bucks he is asking. Now this box is probably 2' by 2' by a foot deep. I go to pick it up and it was really heavy. So I struggle away with the box back to my swap meet space and start going through it. Inside was a power steering pump for a tri-5 Chevy. The kind that attaches to the back of the generator. I dig further and find an aluminum flywheel for a small block Chevy and an adapter to mate up a sbc and an early Ford trans. I just keep pulling stuff out of the box and cannot believe this guy sold it for 5 bucks. Obviously he had no idea what was in it. Hell I sold the power steering pump that very day for $75!
I was at the Cherry auction swap meet in Fresno a few years back looked down and saw a 33 Chevy truck lid. He didn't know what it fit I got it for $20. I sold the rusted one I had fo $200
A Mickey Thompson Crossram intake for 409 Chev. Under a table and barely visible at an indoor swap. Vendor said it was "very expensive", tried to brush me off. Turns out very expensive was $400. Sold it a week later for $2200.
This past summer at a swap meet I bought 4 chrome Guide headlights, in great shape and complete with insides for $5 each. I walked by them a couple of times, thinking they would want a couple of hundred bucks that I didn't have. Good score as I needed all four of them.
You guys are going to different swap meets than I do,,I feel like I have goat a few good deals,but no steals! HRP
Danny, There were some VERY good deals/almost steals at Brad's last swap in Dec... I just didn't have the $$$ Although I did get a set of those heavy duty castors that one guy had for $20- Brad said the guy left and came back two or three times with a new load of them to sell!
I recently bought a set of NOS 18" magnesium 12 spokes for $400 Still in the box with the shipping tag on them and wrapped in the original newspaper Posted from the TJJ App for iPhone & iPad
A pair of '64 Max Wedge carbs for $40.00. A gold metalflake steering wheel for $15.00. And a pair of Stahl up-sweep big block Mopar dragster headers. That are now fenderwells on my coupe, $60.00. All in the same weekend.
First generation Mustang front bucket seats. The pony ones in pale green original covers in GREAT shape for $125.00 He wouldn't take $75.00 and I walked away. Two spaces later my friend took me to task and said to go back and buy them. I did. Later that same day, another pair of regular (not pony) first gen Mustang seats were spotted in absolutely terrible condition going for $300.00. Never seen them in pale green before or since and they're VERY cool. They're going in my AV8. Andy
Several years ago I was at the Pate swap in Tx. and scored a NOS 34 Ford grill for 225.00. That was a very good day.
I got a fresh machined and ready to go 389 block, box of brand new pistons, and a ton of original 389 clean parts for 200.00
Bought a new in the box ac delco pump that said high performance big block chevy on the hand written tag for $15. Got curious a couple of years later when I spotted it again on my storage shelf. Ran the part number and it came up 69 ZL1 Camaro. Brought $420 on ebay later that week.
How about a new in the box 32 Ford tall fuel pump for $10? A 32 tall coil for $1. It was on some sort of dist tester and was hard to ID.
My best score was not HAMB friendly but my wife and I have always messed with mopar muscle cars also, she drove a 71 shaker hood cuda at this time, (about 6 years ago) and I went to a swapmeet, there was a guy with an old box truck setting up, he had 9 71 cuda grills, had a stack of lower valances for 71's had over a dozen decklids, some with wings some with luggage racks, tons of stuff, all for 70/71 cuda, and 70 challengers, I started stacking stuff up, and then just looked at him and said how much for the truck and all? he kinda laughed I said I am serious...he said $2500 I bought it, the grills brought over 1200 each on ebay alone, I had consoles, about 45 of them, about half were 4-speed consoles, they brought 250 each or so...I think we made around $25000 on that load of parts, we took pics of the stuff when we unloaded it and sent them into Mopar Collectors Guid and they printed them as the find of the year, I have to agree, it was the find of my life!......So far!! I am still hunting!! LOL! Jim
Lots of good swap meet stuff but the couple I thought of- at Portland many years ago I bought a 30-31 A commercial grill shell for $5. I took it home and hung it in the garage (dads). Years later when I wanted to finally use it, dad had given it to a friend of his the month before.. Second was when I was doing a 55 belair hardtop. I walked in to the Yakima swap meet and the first booth I went to the guy had a box with all the trim, hood bird, tail lights etc. $30. Dad looked at me like I had accidentally been the first man to walk on the moon. "That is not how swap meets work, and you will never find what you want that easily again boy- it ain't like going to the store to pick stuff up". He was right, but a bit jealous - he trolls swap meets for Pierce Arrow parts so you can imagine that most of his swap meets end with disappointment.
56 Packard Tail lights for 60 bucks. also bought three sinclair gas pump globes at a yard sale for 2 bucks a piece.
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