An acquaintance who walked with a cane wore himself out at fall Hershey and was looking for somewhere to sit for a minute. He was in the middle of chocolate field near the rest rooms, and since none of the restroom attendants were present, he parked himself in one of the empty attendant chairs where they usually sit with their tip plate. He dozed off for 15 minutes and awoke to find that he was up almost ten bucks.
Maybe not a story about a swap meet deal, but…. Over a thirty year period, I overheard the same story, and I’m pretty sure it was orated by the same geeser , about a more or less pristine (ot) 65 GTO that was towed by Victory Auto Parts to their yard in, I think Bensenville, in Metro Chicago. Seems this guy wanted to buy the car, but couldn’t agree to the yard Forman’s price. That pissed off the Forman so he hopped on the loader, backed up and took a run at the car, forks in attack mode, and ran them right through the car. I heard that story three times, at probably ten year intervals, sort of like Groundhog’s Day. By the third time, I knew what the next line was going to be, and quietly recited it to my wife as the old guy rambled on. She was amazed the way it tracked what I just told her.
That was quite common to do back in the day. We used to do it when some jerk would keep lowballing us on cars or parts day after day.
had a buddy with a 32 Ford 3 window. he had it at his swap space selling his wares and made a sign for another 30's car he had that was basically a rolling frame, a dented body and a bunch of rusty parts, can't remember what it was... he was selling it for like $500. and left the car at home so he puts the sign in front of his running driving painted 32 and was all pissed off that people came by and asked if he was selling the 32 for $500.00. when I suggested he move the sign he was then all pissed off at me.
I had someone like my post on swap meet stories so I have to add some more. I like to draw ones attention, so for years I have had a fishing rod hanging with a wallet stuff with folded $100 bills. I got a bunch of stuff at an auction and ended up with 100+ bottles of finger nail polish. I put them out with a sign that read " FREE take something home to you wife you cheap BASTARD About 10 years ago I got a fake chicken at an auction and took it to Carlisle with a sign saying BARN FIND. He got a lot of smiles but became simi famous at Hershey. I have had 100+ people take pictures, selfies and pose with him. Had a young girl kneel down by the chicken and act like she was licking it while her friends took pictures. A few years ago at Hershey I guy stopped and told me he worked for Hagerty or Grundy { I forget which one } and had taken a picture last year and put it on their web site and that chicken had been seen all over the world. I don't know if the chicken will make the trip this year but I will be in vendor spot IA 28 this week in Carlisle and OBG 1,2,3 in Hershey nexxt week. Stop by and say hello. Earl
A couple of years back at the Portland swap meet, on a Sunday morning, my gal and I went out for a walk to have a look see. Well, not too far from our space a group of guys had been selling VW parts all weekend long, so, they did not get the traction from a lot of us. But, something on their table caught my eye. Now, they had been selling since Thursday. All kindsa traffic, so when I spotted something on their table, I was blown away. It was a spotlight with a wooden handle and a large GM brass tag on the side. Casually asked how much and one of the guys swilling a Miller motioned to me, and said, "That's been there all weekend. $10." Hell yes I bought it. Later that week I sold it online to a Bomb group for $650.00 (the photo is from online, but exactly like the one I scored. )
Craziest I ever witnessed was at a motorcycle swap meet in northeast Kansas City. There was a full-on brawl, not sure what started it but I heard lots of yelled four- and more letter words, and by the time I figured out where the noise was coming from there were four or five guys guys throwing haymakers at each other. It only lasted fifteen seconds or so before the gathered crowd intervened and broke it up. There was a lot of verbal jousting afterwards, and thing finally cooled off enough to where the participants went their separate ways. Since they were wearing colors I doubt they were arguing over the price of a Paughco hardtail frame or a Shovelhead inner primary. I did once buy a posi differential for an Oldsmobile Omega for $15, which dropped right into the rear axle of my O/T Nova.
Spooky, I surely hope you looked the guy up and gave him his fair share. I bought a set of magnesium wheels from a guy, kept saying how light they were. Paid 500, sold for 1500 years ago.
I set up at a small swap meet a few years back. Right across from me was a guy with some Model A parts and 4 chrome Guide headlights. I didn't bring a lot of cash with me so I was hesitant to ask what he wanted for them. Finally I went over to ask and he said ..."Well I guess they should be worth $5 a piece." I quickly paid him. They were Guide in excellent shape. Two of them are on my avatar truck and I sold the other two that had the small lights on the top for the equivalent of 200 bucks.
I remember him and that trailer well. I think I even bought a few things off it. I remember that at Yakima at the fairgrounds he would have a pay box fastened on the trailer for people to pay for stuff as he wandered around the swapmeet. We didn't know each other very well but shared a couple of friends and I probably talked to him at some of the auctions around the valley more than at swap meets . Back when I lived in Texas and would load up my left overs and haul them to Pate I carried a model T fender with a rusty headlight shell on it along . I had No use for it and had it marked 2.00 and it wasn't drawing any interest. Some of the guys in my club came by my spot and Laddie Segrest looked at it and said I was too cheap so I made the 2 into an 8. This was honestly a piece of rust that I had drug out of the fence row with the T body parts I made my T bucket out of. While they were standing there some guy came by and wanted just the headlight but I said he had to take it all and he handed me the 8 bucks and packed it off. That same swap meet was my first experience of selling something and then seeing it in the buyer's booth marked up about three times what I sold it before but That was another item that I had drug home out of a field with other parts that I actually wanted. That year at Pate it was hot and I could have done pretty well selling a box of rocks for 2 bucks each with a free beer with each rock . Somehow I had a shoe for a pony end up in one of my swap meet boxes and I hauled it to the Swapmeet at the fairgrounds in Kennewick Wa one year. I was pulling stuff out and setting it on the table when I came to the pony shoe and I set it out and we got to joking about it so i made a tag that said "Genuine Early Mustang part) The only guys who didn't think it was funny were the guys with Mustang T shirts or jackets on. I intend to load up all of my left over stuff next spring and haul it to a couple of swap meets and convert it to 48 Chevy truck money. On some of it lowballers might get the shock of their lives as I don't intend to haul much of it back home.
Looking around for stuff at a typical swap meet, I see an 18 splined new process 4 speed hemi box, get talking to the guy, it had been pro-shifted and had been sitting for 20+ years in dry storage. How much? $200, bought it and sold it the next week for $800.
I went to a flea market , not automotive and paid $26 for a wood box with a label, K R Wilson Oil groove tool. Sold it on eBay $1200 for Model A babbitt
I've told this one before on another thread but what the heck, one more time can't hurt The wife and I are at an auto flea market and she spots some kind of meter box/tester thingy. She picks it up and asks me if I know what it is. I look at it, read the label (Densometer) and explain that it must be a stupidity meter and look (she is still holding it), the needle is jumping At this point she calls me an idiot, sets the meter back down on the table, then she turns and walks right into a tent pole We laughed about it ... later
There's lots of guys like that. A guy in a wheelchair tried to pass off a cordless tool as 'just needs a charge'. The battery was useless but I had a good one at home.
I was at the bloomington gold Corvette swap meet around 1992 ( last one they had for a while there ) I saw some 57 Vette parts I needed and had then in my hand and was looking at some other stuff while I waited for the space owner to be done with a customer . I had a wonder bar radio that was marked $600 and thought what the hell if buy it . A guy walk's up sees me holding it and cowl vent while waiting my turn and he says to the vender hey ill give you $700 for the radio and the vender says sold . so im looking around to see what other radio this guy bought who just cut in front of me and the A hole goes hey I just bought that radio . I was like the hell you did and the vender says sorry . I looked right at him and said well I guess you did Ill just put it back were I found it and tossed it into a pair of cylinder heads from about 5 feet away hearing it break . F you was what I said next as I laid the cowl vent down and walked away . Guy was lucky he didn't say a word . Takes some nerve . Had a guy at Jefferson about 15 years getting impatient as I was looking at a set of Wilwood calipers and rotors for 49 chevy spindels and a buunch of other parts MY wife was holding and kept saying are you going to buy those and then if your not I am . ( Blowing any chance of me making a better deal ) My reply was I if you try you wont have a use for them with broken legs . He was excuse me and I was F you and handed the vender the cash . Jefferson in 1998 I had a a nice 21 foot Belmont jet boat in the car corral and I see I guy looking at it i was talking to a guy a few spots down . I watch and he flicks his lite cigar right into the boat . And comes walking my way as Im going to see WTF . his feet were still going one direction as his head was going the other . I had the hood off his sweatshirt still in my hand draging him back to the boat and pulled out the cigar out of the rear seat . Security got involved in that one and Gary from Jefferson and I had a little talk . Was the last year I bought spots and sold there One year Jefferson again a guy knocked my wife over with a mini bike and kept right on riding and that got really heated . It was the last year they allowed guys to ride them around in there to . SO now tey rent you a mobility scooter to run into people. last one one year at jefferson I go to leave and im parked against standing corn in a row of cars . I walk up and Guy had his ford 4x4 truck mirrors literal 4" from my window on the drivers side . and on passenger side a flat bed backed in and its 6" from my door AND a guy with a station wagon with crappy box trailer is barked side ways behind all three of us with his trailer blocking my way to back out and I can not go forward . I waited a bit about 45 minutes thinking the guy would be right back maybe ran in to get something he bought . Im in a 73 chevy short bed and I can't even get the tail gate down or open a single door, I walk to the gate and see the security / event worker and tell him what's up he's says I saw the guy park the trailer there and walk in . enough was enough . I realize if the trailer was gone I could back out If I can get in the truck . I unhitch his trailer that has type were you tighten it down nthe ball . I unscrew the hitch completely apart un hook the trailer wheel it around and put the tongue on his hood ( resisting the urge to drop it on there) , get my stuff loaded now that i can get my tail gate down , climb in through the rear sliding window as the rain started coming down hard and get my truck running rolled down my window and read just the Fords door mirror so it now fits in the back of his bed and left a hour and 45 minutes later than when I got to my truck . I hated to be a A hole but enough was enough. The flatbed was so close on the driver's side I could barely get out past the sideways station wagon. a 5 year old could not have got in either door . the gate guy just watched and waved as I left . The other 40 years of going to meets have been fantastic made lots of friends and had some good times . Slept under a car tailer trailer at Jefferson all night while it snowed with my wife one spring about froze but it was a good time. have a garage full of swap meet treasures.
Many, many years ago (maybe 30-35), a friend is checking out the Charlotte Flea Market and sees a full set of these. Says to himself, "those have to be the tackiest, most tasteless and vulgar wheel covers I have ever seen." An hour later when he returns to buy them, they had been sold. De gustibus et de coloribus non est disputandum.
Charlotte swap meet. Father and teenage son. All they had was a nice 38 Ford tube axle. $125.00. I pulled out a $100.00 dollar bill. Sold. The son was grinning ear to ear.. Again at Charlotte. Woman whose husband had passed on had a 201 Halibrand 2" open tube rear end. Complete. Rotors, hats, spinners, calipers and hub carriers. Each and every part N O S . I am too freak'n imbaresed to tell you what I paid. The word spread among the hot rodders there. I am building a sprint chassis with it now. What do you think it is worth?
I wouldn’t be happy taking a widow for a sap^, I’d have to sweeten up the pot for her at least a little depending on what she was asking for the q/c, but that’s just me. I’ve never had the buyer beware attitude either, but hey, it’s different strokes for different folks I guess. I prefer to rest easy at night.
OK Louisville Street rod nationals swap meet, seen a comp cams box with a piece of tape on it the read "new in box $50"... the end of the box showed the it was a 280 magnum camshaft. I opened the box and the cam was sealed in a plastic bag. Long story short it was a TRW cam. I guess he didn't lie, it was new in a box. I used the cam eventually, but the guy was obviously a piece of shit.
All depends. Husband might've been a total arsehole and she might've picked up a couple of million from his insurance policy.
I have a simple, short story that's not a big deal. Think of it as an excerpt from the divine comedy we call "swapmeeting". The backstory is, along with my own, original shift knob creations, I also deal in 'survivor' knobs. I find'em, refurbish 'em as needed, and hopefully get 'em back into traditional vehicles. I like to have at least one T-handle in case someone asks. So I'm in my space at the swapmeet and a young, millennial-age fellow indicates a Hurst T-handle on my table with one hand and he's holding out his smartphone in my face with his other hand. He's got eBay on the screen showing a Hurst listing and he wants to know if I will match the listed price. I give him the Stinkeye and I ask him, "Where do you think I bought this one? Did it fall out of the sky and lucky for me, it landed on my table for free? I searched to find it, paid the tax and shipping, improved its condition, and now I've priced it right so I can make a few bucks. It's in good shape; the threads aren't boogered. I don't believe the one you have there on your phone is of the same quality. Why don't you cut out the middleman and buy that one on eBay and check your mailbox for the next week to ten days because it's already at what you want to pay?"
There are some good stories on here! I like reading all the Portland International Raceway (PIR) stories on here. I have been going to that swap meet for 10 years now. I know alot of people complain and say that swaps are not what they used to be but if you go and look and hunt you can still find things. I also don’t get the holier than thou attitude of some guys in here getting mad about folks making a profit. As long as it’s honest and ethical there is absolutely nothing wrong with you selling things to make a profit. I sell things all the time at a good profit and those profits go to help with family expenses or put back into my tool fund, etc. I don’t retail my friends but I will retail anyone else. Plus if someone makes a good offer I will usually accept it. Never hurts to ask.
I can’t ever remember offering more than the seller was asking for. Heck, I’ve even been known to ask if they’ll take less on a $1 item.
The Jalopy Journal
