Who's going? I'll be there for my thirty sixth year swap spaces j54&55 stop by and say hi or better yet buy some crap
36 years straight! Impressive! If I ran the swap I'd give you the spots for free or at least buy you lunch. Hope you do well.
I will be there R34 35 spaces. My kids went with me now my grand kids oldest 18. Been going a long time for sure
I will be there for sure. Its a bummer how its been changing the last couple of years. End of day Saturday its a ghost town. I will do my best to stop and say hello. I'm just a camp ground guy I live just out side of Jefferson so I'm not going to drag my stuff 2 1/2 hours.
I am vending spots BT 48-50. Been going there for about 20 years. Lots of 49-51 Ford , 61 Galaxie stuff available. Stop by and say, Hi
I'll be in the campground as usual, spaces D & E 29. Stop by and say hi. Look for the Argosy camper (painted Airstream).
went 28 years straight and then I missed the last 10 years including this year. Hope you all have fun, make money and/or find the parts you need or that next neat project that you can't live without. Post pictures please, thanks.
Only took a couple pictures, even though I had set out to take a ton. Went on Thursday and found tons of good stuff, had most of my money blown in the first three hours, and passed on some stuff I may regret. Got a lot of great parts for my Merc project though, didn't expect to find all the stuff I found. Went back on Saturday and it's a totally different show, guys already packing it in, very little worth buying was left by Saturday. Getting there early really seems like the key. This Deuce Tudor was rough for sure, but only $2800 and still fixable. If your dream is a real steel Deuce, this seemed like a starting point anyone could afford. Same guy had a '33 Ford coupe trunklid that was absolutely smashed but was still fixable and only $300, I'll probably regret not grabbing it when I had the chance. This '35 sedan delivery was really neat too, $12.5K not sure if that was a good deal or not. Despite the bounty of Merc parts I found on Thursday, my only big purchase on Saturday was this big Double Cola clock with a big chunk busted out of it for $25.
The new shuttle buses from the campground to the swap meet really sucked. Everyone was bitching about the service and how hard it was to move parts in them. Some of the drivers had an attitude also which didn't help. Way too many empty swap spaces and others with NO car parts at all. Been going since 1978, the show and swap is starting to really suck, may not go again.
I saw the school buses driving through, didn't realize what they were for. The old tractors pulling hay wagons around as a shuttle was fun, I used to ride around on them just for the hell of it. I wonder why they changed it. I also heard the bands were well attended from behind the fence but there were few takers who wanted to pay the cover charge to get inside the fence. I doubt they'll do that again. I'd hate for the whole show to dry up and blow away though, have been going every year since I was 12, never went without coming back with something.
we left before the entertainment on Friday , but had wondered why anyone would pay to go inside that little fenced off area when it was obvious that you would be able see and hear everything from the outside i too missed the tractors and wagons...i used to ride them just for fun and would just jump on one and see where i ended up. didn't go for a bus ride , but considered jumping on one of the short buses just because i have never ridden one i also noticed a lot of empty swap spaces and non auto related stuff. by Friday i had counted 21 snow blowers. lawn mowers were in abundance too. i will call it more of a flee market than a swap meet overall , it still was a good time. saw many old friends , met a few HAMB members and bought a few parts. we will probably go back next year. the chicken dinner on Friday was excellent as usual. and i highly recommend the meatloaf at the Crystal Diner in Iola if anyone is interested in that $2800 deuce sedan body the seller goes by muskratdan on that famous auction site. here is his website: http://www.dansoldcars.net/
It seemed like every 3rd swap space had a string trimmer or electric trolling motor for sale. Lots of swap spaces selling magnetic bracelets, sunglasses, and other non auto related stuff. The management got greedy for the swap space money and have let this grow through the years.
The reason the buses replaced the wagons was because Iola was bought out and before volunteers drove the wagons because it was a great Iola tradition. Now they lost the volunteers ,pay for the buses to move folks from the campground and parking lots, raised swap vendor spots$5 a spot and charge $2 more per person to get in. As far as the empty spots everyone is correct .Besides all the hill spots that were full of vendors before and now enclosed a mini concert there were about 20% empty spots. 8 spots alone behind me in a great FLAT spot for vendors.There are so many empty spots that most buyers that come in don't even see them all.As the vendors just parked there rigs and pickup trucks making it appear to be fuller than it is. Before vendors had to park OUTSIDE in a vendor parking area.If you could just reach down and pluck out the NON car related sellers on top of the empty spots it would only be, at best, half full from it's 4400 vendors spaces.The concert is a joke and takes away from the actual SWAP meet tradition that started it all. I heard somehow stocks were sold by the original owners to individuals and somehow another group now owns 51% of Iola swap and the original family lost control.
The main car show used to be on Sunday, now Sunday is not even listed as a show day. Thursday is listed as a show day, but if you come to the campground on Wednesday they charge you another $30!
Went for the first time in several years on Saturday. I was a little disappointed. Apparently, Squablow bought all the Merc stuff on Thursday. I bought a cheeseburger & a water.
RUMOR only....someone got hurt on the trailers pulled by the old tractors, and sued. Insurance company paid out, and refused to continue with such unsafe transportation. Now we got shitty buses that can't hold big stuff, and drivers that don't care...but one bus had a tip cup, i was tempted to pee in it...what a joke. Shitters in the camp ground stunk horribly thur morning, think next year, i'll just walk into the woods around the campground. Very dissapointed, not to mention you had to make sure there was something to wipe your ass with before sitting down...seems they ran out regulary....mental note, bring my own next year. Yes 30 bucks extra per site for wend night, talk about a joke, somehow been avoiding that fee for years Concert seemed like a joke from some campers i talked to, hope they lost money and don't do that again. guess there were some people standing by the fence listening and were asked to leave. Lots of empty vendor spots, but raise the price, take extra wrist bans away form them(used to give them more) they will lose vendors that way. 25 years of camping and enjoying the weekend...seems to be heading down hill the last few
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