Event Coverage Jefferson swap meet, Loss my butt

been going to the same swapmeet for the last 27 yrs selling the same type stuff from the same spot some times i sell a lot of small things. some times i sell heavy things. as long as i break even on space, gas and motel i am happy[ always take hard to find stuff or thing you do not want to bring home]

 

I know both Jefferson and Iola have restrictions on not selling water/soda/beer/food on swap vendor sites because it cuts into the food vendors take and they don't want the competition. People have been kicked out for doing that, although that's just at those two swaps.

 

Was at a Grateful Dead concert many years ago (Yes I saw them a few hundred times, don't hold it against me) and we were selling beers in the very hot parking lot with a sign that said cold beer $3 each 2 for $5 (somewhere in Wisconsin i believe). Two state troopers (older cop and an obvious rookie) came over and stated "it's against state law to sell alcohol without the proper permit, cease and desist or go to jail". Me " can I sell over trinkets, etc." "sure , kid" So I ran around the lot gathering up stones. When they circled back around in a half hour my new sign said Pet rocks $3 each breeding pairs $5, FREE BEER with every purchase. The rookie charged right at me, but the veteran grabbed his arm and told him" Drop it, he 's got us good" Wink at me and walked away. Coolest cop I ever met.
Free water with every purchase would be my solution.

 

I went this year... I begrudgingly dragged my butt there because I have a new project and figured what the hell... True it has gone down hill. Full of everyone's junk. I go there with a specific list of items. But am always willing to dig through stuff if I see someone has some quality parts out. I picked up a few items. Went there with $500 to spend... I didn't break $100...


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

Swap meets are the highlight of my week. Thank you for vending! I view them more as a social event and hope I can find something I can't live without.

If there are no prices clearly displayed I walk away. You are wasting my time having to ask while you are talking with a buddy about anything but car chit.

A cooler with one buck water is a great suggestion.

The guys that are the JOKE of the swap are the guys in the same spot with the same stuff year after year. Mix it up.

 

I don't do that price haggle thing . I know a lot of people do . If I see a $10 part that has $15 on it I'll walk by it .Life is too short for me to stand and argue over used car parts . I also hate it when you are talking to all your old friends and blocking anyone from seeing your merchandise.Just my opinion.

 

Well... Saturday is Cedar Rapids and the weather looks cool, rainy. crap. Gonna go anyway, bringing parts for a buddy (some hot rod 4.3 V6 stuff) and my '29 Plymouth, some other misc. parts. Anyone wanna put an M112 blower on something... well, also hoping to find a few odds and ends. You're right, it is an addiction. I think I get more social time with car buds at swap meets than all the rest of the year!
Bring your umbrellas!

 

Fremont Swap......use to go there when I lived in Sioux City.....always enjoyed it.

 

We no longer do swap meets, WAY too much internet business to spend the time loading the truck, driving, setting up, returning home, unloading the truck. Hershey was 15 days each year when we did Hershey. So, a few observations from a vendor that used to do swap meets, but no longer does:

(1) The ONLY reason to do the local meet (unless it happens to be a BIG meet) is to support the local club.
(2) Keep your same spaces each year. This is absolutely critical. Hand out business cards to your customers with the space location printed on the card. We used to get customers at Hershey from all over the world that found us that way. Of course the internet makes it much easier for your customers to find you.
(3) Vary your merchandise from year to year. If it didn't sell last year, take something else this year.
(4) If you vend, NEVER, NEVER, NEVER leave until the day AFTER the meet! If you work elsewhere and must be back Monday morning, take an extra day of vacation. Sales used to be extremely brisk the last few hours of the last day, especially if you gave a discount. EVERYONE loves a bargain. If the last day was Saturday, we did 10 times the Saturday morning take Saturday afternoon.
(5) If you vend, get a extra space or two, and rent a tent! We often had our best days at Hershey when it rained (of course, everyone knows it NEVER rains on Hershey ). People would use our tent to stay dry during the shower, feel guilty, and spend money!
(6) If you vend, always have someone minding your space. Nothing ticks off a prospective buyer more than not being able to find the vendor. With cell phones, very easy for even someone that knows nothing about your parts to call you and make a sale if you are out looking.
(7) Unless it is in the dollar box, PRICE your merchandise. A cardboard tag attached by wire with the item application and the price is great. The second most aggravating issue for a customer is seeing something the customer wants, and unable to immediately get the price because the vendor is with another customer.
(8) If you vend, be in your space BEFORE the official swap meet starting time, and be there until AFTER closing time.

The above my two cents. Hershey was the money maker; Iola (WI) was second, Lawrence (KS) was third, and of all the shows we did, the only ones we consistently made money. Iola was our favorite show, until the state of Wisconsin decided to prevent professional vendors from vending. I heard they relaxed some of the (opinion) stupid regulations after a couple of years, but never believed in fighting city hall; when the regulations were issued, we gave our spaces to one of our really good customers, and never went back. Since we started going to Iola the third year, we had really good spaces.

Really enjoyed the roughly 30 years we did swap meets, but really way too busy to do them again.

Good luck to those who do.

Jon.

 

This sounds like rock-solid, good advice learned over many years of experience. Thanks for sharing this Jon.

 

This is not going to be well received, but I think it might be the pink elephant in the room.

We all have 50-90 year old cars/drivetrains. We need/want pretty specific things that are generally uncommon. You could go to swap meets for ten years and not find the exact bit or bob you need.

Case in point; here's the last 5 items that I needed for my car:

1. Windshield wiper bezel nozzle 59-60 Cadillac

2. Windshield wiper motor 59-60 Cadillac

3. 2-55-57 Rochester 4jet choke plates, shafts and linkages.

4. 59-60 Cadillac electric window switch in dessert tan

5. 40 amp GM negative ground generator 59-62 long body.



Now I drive this car every day. I have to get my children to school in the morning. It rains a lot here. It's hot in the summer. There's cats, squirrels and skunks who will get in my car at night if I can't shut the windows.

So how many swap meets would I need to go to to find specific stuff like that? It only took trolling Ebay for a couple days to find good, cheap used OEM examples of all these. I got exactly what I needed, when I needed it.

I found a 55 Eldorado dual quad manifold with original carbs and linkages on Ebay for $300. Was a bitter old vendor at a swap meet ever gonna give me that deal?

I got a complete used Jetaway for parts on Ebay for $125. Again?

Correct rear axles with good bearings $50 apiece.

Driver's door glass $40

Etc.


I do like swap meets/flea markets. I like the trip there, walking around, etc. The world is changing, the "good old days" are gone, we're all gonna die eventually and when we're gone no one will care about how things were and how great we were, on and on. I know it sucks. We were watching al old movie recently, and an old black rotary phone was ringing, and my kids said "hey that sounds just like your iphone, what is it?"

But I kinda view Ebay as a giant flea market that the entire world can participate in at once. A swap meet that I can go to on my smart phone during my coffee break.


Sent from my iPhone using H.A.M.B.

 

There is one local swap meet/car show that is on 2x a year. I see more vendors with die casts and hot wheels cars than anything else. Now the household items are taking over. There are always a few guys with thousands of used sockets and wrenches, good to pick up an odd tool here and there. But the car parts vendors, their merchandise is poorly displayed and rarely has a price on anything. Even the car show itself is like meh... awards are given at 3:30, most cars are gone by 2:00 .

 

I have been a car guy my entire life so please don't shoot me for what I am about to say!
At age almost 71 I see peoples interests changing and it hurts me to say it but there just seems to be less interest in anything old car related right now.

I was talking to a good friend one day and he asked me how my business was doing and when I said it's been slower then normal for this time of year he said the following to me which really hit home.

My friend said many of your old decals are from the 50's, 60's and 70's so the guys that remember this stuff are passing on each year so your market for selling this type of stuff is getting smaller each year and the younger guys don't have any memories since they were born after 1980

He's right and that is the exact same thing happening I believe to everything old car related.
You will always have a market to sell things but it's going to be a much smaller market then you have had in the past.

I believe the hand writing is on the wall as they say and I really don't like it but I guess it's part of life.

Jimbo

 

Man, so much gloom and doom. And I'm not questioning you guys, because I expect every region and every meet is different. But from my perspective, the big regional meets in the Pacific Northwest are doing fine: Portland, Monroe, Puyallup.

Funny thing is, vendor numbers fluctuate each year with the weather (I think 20% of vendors are last minute "walk-in") and then guys try to read the tea-leaves: "oh my god, swap meets are dying" and then "hey, swap meets are back." Uh, no, it's the weather. When I started buying at swap meets in the '80s, the old guys told me the days of swap meets were numbered. Now I'm the one selling at the meets, and they're still telling me that.

I think a lot of it depends on whether it's a hobby or a business for you. People alwasys tell me I could get more for my stuff on eBay. And it's true. But my standard response is, "Yeah, but that would be WORK. Selling at swap meets is FUN." When it's no longer fun, I'll quit. But I'm sure if it's your business, you have a different perspective.

All things change, but I think swap meets will outlast me.

 

In Minnesota where I'm from I started going to swaps in the late 90s before eBay started rolling and the little local swaps were just people getting rid of un wanted parts usally very reasonable

the bigger swaps like Jefferson and Iola were more bussiness on a weekend you could see the same part show up at 4 different spaces with a higher price each time on swappers just speculating as a bussiness

I stopped getting serious about swaps around 2005 ..., when I get up at 5am to treasure hunt the last thing I want to see is something I been looking for way over priced and hear the proverbial " well on eBay , these are going for xxx"

I still go to swaps but it's not exciting as it once was

 

I was kidding my neighbor about it was nothing but old AMC parts (he's an AMC guy).
Seriously though, I notice more and more yard sale crap, and guys who go to horrible freight, buy tools and sell them at the meet.
The hottest new overpriced item is 80's pile of shit 3-wheelers / ATC's. $600-$800 for some pos that has been sitting out in sun for last 25yrs and needs or is missing 75% of its parts. Laughable.....

 

Tomorrow I am going to the Cedar Rapids swap meet in Iowa, and it's supposed to be raining buckets. But I'm still going. And since the vendor and buyer count will be down cause of the rain, I expect all the doomsayers will say this swap meet is dying. Oh well.

 

We used to attend petit jean every year. However we quit because its to hot. too rough a terrain for old folks to walk. too much yard sale stuff. no prices and when you ask it too high priced. Estate auctions are my preferred way to spend money and add to the hoard. I went to one a couple weeks ago and bought a truckload of letter series Farmall parts. Good radiators for $15 each. A U4 power unit $35. Brand new 4 cyl magnetio $35. little 110 air compressor $5. any way it was a fun enjoyable outing. Swap meets just aint fun for me anymore.

 

Hershey weather this year was Very good. I did notice that mid day weds it slowed down a bit. That was when it was the hottest. Bottled water guys made a killing. The weather was almost too good,, but the heat had a factor on foot traffic.