Event Coverage Swapmeets turning into yard sales

I just got back form the Rhinebeck N.Y. swapmeet I did pretty well, however it is getting to be less of a swapmeet and more of a yard sale and arts and crafts show. I fear this is becoming a trend.
Lots of the other vendors were un-happy as well.
I go to a swapmeet to buy and sell parts.
Not to buy used lawn mowers,snow blowers or baby clothes.
I have heard some people say "Well you need the arts and crafts for the women." A sexist comment in my option.
Think the women who are going to arts and crafts shows aren't going to go to a swapmeet.

 

It's been like this for a long time. Luckily I'm always down to buy a kitchen wall decoration and some knock off hand bags.

 

Seams every year gets worst !
The swap meet in Fitchburg was real good!
Won't go to Stafford anymore!
The net is also changing things?

 

Swap meets around this area have been like that for years,I can usually walk past most of the house hold items but I did purchase a nice old wooden ice box several years ago and last year I bought a '32 Ford grill insert and a Griswald cast iron frying for my wife for penny's on the dollar from the same vendor.

I am not defending the idea but swap meet spaces have gotten expensive,especially at the big meets in Charlotte,N.C.

The exception to the rule is the swap meet that fellow Hamber Brad host The NE Georgia swap at the Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia.

Brad has done a stellar job of keeping this meet on target and he offers vendors as much space as they need for 20 bucks,not a postage stamp size space for twice the price. HRP

 

Motorcycle swap meets have become even worse. Last one I went to had more leather vests and dream catchers than parts. I have seen it change more and more lately. I never see to much of the craft stuff being bought at the swaps either. makes me wonder how some of the vendors selling it survive. However I have seen some venders at swap meets bring the same pile of parts for 10 years too.

 

It's a thin line when you can have automobilia collectibles like model kits and hotwheels, signs and such mixed in with flea market type stuff. Last swap I was at had 5 cheap new tool sellers mixed in as well. I just walk by what I'm not interested in. Swapmeets are diminishing as primary source for parts but there are still good finds.

 

Or all the made in China doller store crap it getting bad. Swaps here are getting worse and worse, seems rare to find anything early ford for realistic prices.

 

The Burnt Hills swap meet in March every year is a nice breath of fresh air. Small, only 50 plus vendors, but all car stuff. For sale by car guys to guy guys, run by car guys. Maybe it is changing to smaller swap meets, but if the quality is top notch, 50/60 vendors is good. I would sum up the annual dust off in Burnt Hills as a smaller Rhinebeck with better vendors and no arts and craps . Saves all that useless walking too
PS Sold more in 5 hours at the dust off this year then 2 days at Rhinebeck. Did slightly better at Rhinebeck last year, but took 2 days !!

 

I got a log splitter at Turlock and a sweet Husqvarma chain saw at Sacramento so I can't complain.

 

The big Portland swap meet has a stated percentage of non auto related items allowed, it is printed in the entry form, it is probably not that easy to enforce it though, but I think that the reason it has had the reputation it has is most vendors follow it knowing there are committee members mingling throughout the event. Future entry is not guaranteed.
I have not participated for a few years but I think there is a dedicated area in one of the buildings for non auto related items.

 

I get the best deals on automotive stuff at yard sales and flea markets. So I guess its fair play that non car people get deals at swap meets. I enjoy the social aspect of meets, running into people you have not seen in a while and all the BS'ing that goes with it. I am just happy that they still exist because their demise was predicted about a year after ebay got started.

 

We have some swap meets in our area that specify that you must have at least 75% automobile related items. With that being said, I went to the largest one in our area last week and there were some tables with so much junk like metal roosters and pigs, etc. it was ridiculous.

 

I go to swap meets to find things and make a buck, if there is a car show too I may look at the cars. You don't have to buy car parts to make a buck. Knowledge is king, that ten dollar piece of non automotive crap may net you a hundred dollar profit listed on the net. Rhinebeck was fun this year as it always is. Bob

 

The line between auto swapmeet and fleamarket has been blurred for a long time. It won't get any better anytime soon. Chalk it up to promoters who don't give a shit, as long as they get their $$ for that 10'X20'(or whatever) space. I don't get too bent about it, just walk by. But sometimes there's deals non-auto related, as the 37Kid above mentioned.

 

Big 3 in San Diego has always done a good job of keeping the meet on subject and I appreciate that. It keeps the meet from turning into the Sunday Drive In swap meet (I've got 51 other weekends a year to hit that), where, btw, the trend seems to be that it's become a dog walk.
What is it lately, that people feel the need to take their dog everywhere (store, restaurant, etc.) with them? Like a Child with a teddy bear. I love my dog as much as the next guy, but she can stay home while I walk the swap meet.

VEHICLE HOBBY RELATED ITEMS ONLY
80% OF ITEMS FOR SALE/DISPLAY MUST BE VEHICLE RELATED
FOOT TRAFFIC ONLY
NO SKATEBOARDING, NO BICYCLE RIDING, NO SCOOTERS
NO DRIVING OF MOTORIZED VEHICLES EXCEPT SINGLE CONVEYANCES FOR HANDICAPPED
NO DOGS ALLOWED EXCEPT SERVICE DOGS IN THE SWAP MEET BEGINNING WITH THE 2015 MEET. PLEASE PLAN ACCORDINGLY

 

Yup, the Portland organizers make it pretty clear. Here’s the restrictions paragraph from their sign-up form—I read it every year for laughs. I especially like the calling out of chainsaw statues and Beanie Babies. You just know there's a story behind everything on this list.

“REMINDER: THIS IS AN AUTO RELATED SWAP MEET. Please read and abide by the Portland Swap Meet ‘Rules’ and note the following list of unacceptable items: Food or beverages for sale, arts & craft items, utility trailers, boats or marine equipment, chainsaw statues, outdoor power equipment, wood stoves, personalized license plate frames, stuffed animals, pillows, T-Shirts and other clothing, nametags, caps, cowboy hats, sunglasses, modern or contemporary items such as ceramics, video or sound tapes, wooden toys, plants, posters, switchblade knives, guns or weapons of any kind, pornography, Beanie Babies, or any other items deemed unacceptable by the Portland Swap Meet Committee.”

But yes, at the end of the day it is difficult to enforce, because they want to avoid pissing off legitimate vendors. So if you show up with a huge pile of cool old car parts, they won’t kick over a few vintage coolers and outboard engines.

 

it depends on who is running the swap, and how they advertise/promote it

 

Swap meet promoters still have to sell their spaces-insurance,portapotties,security,taxes,etc still need to be paid. If the auto parts guys don't come, that's when you let in the other folks. Of course, space fees being too high, or promoters wanting their money up front for future spaces are other arguments, to be made elsewhere.

If you don't want something at a particular booth-walk on by.

 

This is the best bet, if you are going to let riff-raff in to sell junk, put them all in one building or one area, then they can be avoided. Fortunately most of the swaps around here are still pretty good, not much flea market crap.

 

Robert

Your dad seemed pretty happy when I stopped by and said hi.

Some meets better than others for what's available. Rhinebeck still pretty darned good in my book.

 

I've been going to a swap meet in Greenfield Iowa (I believe the Model A Ford group sponsors it) for over 20 years and I imagine it has changed a little from when it started, actually I hadn't even thought about it much. I've been a vendor there off and on over the years and bring both car parts and other odds and ends and after marriage my wife started bringing things that were not automotive related (she is a metal sculptor hobbiest) and she enjoyed going just to look for items that she could repurpose into art. A vendor that was just across from us over the years brought an actual truck load of virtually no automotive items (I did buy a pair of skirts from him for garage art) and my wife usually bought quite a few of his items. My thoughts are that people that go to swap meets go for a wide variety of reasons, not just to buy "car parts", swap meets, like magazines, don't cater to everyone's needs/wants. I walk by lots of vendors because they don't have what I want, be it glass ware or Model T parts, I get lots of exercise and usually run into people I haven't seen in a while, to me it's a good excuse to "not be home".

 

I've got to say that over here the shows are smaller and organisers try to appeal to families as the kids who come are generally well behaved and are the future.
Also I may be a little biased as my wife paints and sculpts using clay and sells her stuff at some shows. That way I get to see and play with cars and she feels involved.
When she sells at a show her artwork is generally car related and her skull paintings and sculptures seem to be well received......as others have said....you can always just walk by and take no notice.
I would rather look at genuine hand made items than rows and rows of stalls selling brand new made in China tools and consumables that are crap

 

Jefferson wi swap meet was pretty good.
Only exception was the gutter guard sales lady in one of the steel buildings.
Guys were doing a wide outside loop to avoid her. But she would do a jump out approach, which I found annoying.
She should learn body language that guys aren't interested. If not put a leash around her neck. Geez.

 

Kinda like those fools wearing the headsets and hawking razor blade and pop can welders.

 

i agree--it's either the $2 tool specials or the same auto parts that someone's been trying to sell for 10 years!

 

I think swap meets should only have parts for '56 Nomads and '40 Ford coupes. I'm not interested in anything else.

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If it doesn't get out of hand, I don't mind some off topic vendors. I like to look at the old antique and used tool guys. Money can be saved there. And I found out you can buy fishing equipment and firearms cheaper at a swap meet than you can at a flea market. And vice versa on auto parts.
But table after table of what is considered women's collectibles? How can they sell that stuff with all the gearheads passing by?

 

Rhinebeck find, and I bought it from a HAMB member, been looking for something like this for a few years now. Should clean out a drain in the wash bay of a carriage house that was built in 1918. Bob

 

We have flea markets around here on a regular basis. I sometimes go to them to buy plants and used construction tools. I DONT go there looking for car parts. Or visa-versa. If a swap meet is advertised as an automotive swap, and I go there and more than about 10% of the tables are hawking cheap chinese tools and dollar store crap, I wont be back. I can get that shit at the mall three blocks from my house, I dont need to drive 30-100 miles to a swap meet for that kind of junk.
As far as I'm concerned, there is no place for this kind of crap at an automotive swap meet, and invariably, automotive swap meets where it IS allowed to creep in cease to be automotive swap meets in short order. Within a matter of a few short years, the "flea market" booths will overwhelm the automotive booths to the point where it ceases to be an "automotive swap meet" and becomes a flea market.
Not that theres anything wrong with those, but they arent automotive swap meets.

 

Englishtown is a junkyard full of socks, used mowers, fishing poles etc. hardly any of the big name companies come any more.. I went to Rhinebeck yesterday and it was overflowing with car parts compared to Englishtown.. Hersey has more signs per square inch than times square.. All in all it's a day out with comrades in arms, rather be doing that than yard work