History What was your best swap meet score?

One of my favourites was at Portland about 10 years ago. I noticed a box of original 1959 Caddy tail lights, all apart but in very good condition and complete with every clip etc. I asked as calmly as possible “how much for the tail lights?” “How many do you want?” He asked. There were six in total. I replied how about the whole box? “Would you do $10 ? He asked.

 

A few years ago at a local car clubs swap meet, none the less, I found an Auburn dash insert with a couple SW curved glass gauges. I asked the guy how much and he said $30. All I had was about 27 bucks and offered it up and he took it. Reinforced what we had said about these locals not knowing hot rods. I flipped here after a few months for a few hundred dollars.

 

A complete running hemi from a 1958 New Yorker. $400 Greenfield, IA swap meet.

 

I have had many good deals over the years. I was set up at a local swap meet a few years ago ( Sat&Sunday ) when this old guy come along and ask me if I would be interested in a pickup load of junk. I ask what all there was in it and he said mostly old Ford stuff. I was staying in my camper that night so I ask if I could come and look at it that evening. He lived about 5 miles away so I went over after the swap was done for the day. He had it loaded in his truck as he was going to take it to the scrap yard on Monday. The truck was heaping full of Model A and early V8 Ford stuff. I didn't look too hard and ask what he wanted for it. He sad it would probably bring $50 bucks or so at the junk yard. I tried to give him a $100 he would only take the $50. I called my brother to bring the trailer and we loaded it up and took the trailer to the swap meet for Sunday sales. The best things in the load was a really nice 34 Ford grille and a Grancor 3X2 set up for a flatmotor, with three 97 carbs no less. At the swap meet that day I traded a set of 17 inch 34 wheels for a cherry set of 53 Pontiac accessory wire wheel covers that I sold on eBay for $1500 the next week.
The old guy offered me a shot of Jack Daniels after we got all the stuff off his truck so a couple weeks after the swap meet I took him a couple bottles and a gift certificate to a local steak house, it made his day, plus I made a friend for life.

 

Not me, but Moriarty's score. I seem to remember an old, rusty lawnmower at the Cedar Rapids swap.

Sorry, big guy.....just had to bring it up.

Mine was from a local credit union swap sheet.......Hilborn F.I. for a slant 6 mopar.....everything but the pump and bracket(s).....$175.

Roger

 

My best swap meet score goes back about 25 years. My AVATAR had the Mercruiser Marine engine installed and it was running fine. I knew that at some point in the future I might want to install an original Model B engine and they would be harder to find at that time. I decided it was time to start looking for a good rebuildable block (the one that had been in it was running fine but it was .125 over). Almost the first person I saw was Joe Mac of Ford Parts Obsolete. Joe had located (I think in a warehouse in Poland) a large supply of NOS Model B parts in the late sixties. He brought them to the states and assembled them into short blocks. I think he ended up with several hundred short blocks all built with NOS parts. Over the years he sold all but one short block, which he put in his home closet for a “future project”. Joe was getting a divorce and it was time to sell the engine, I sure got there at the right time. Where is that engine today, in my closet of course?

 

Several years ago at the end of a swap meet when everybody was leaving, there was a pile of parts abandoned in a spot with a "free" note. I grabbed the flywheel, on a hunch. Turned out to be a Pontiac, which I needed for my project. I didn't do as well as the guy who got the C2 Corvette rolling chassis, though.

 

Please insult us some more

 

Probably the weirdest was on a Saturday night cruising in Richmond Virginia in my 1931 Model A hi boy parked in a gravel parking lot with 40/50 cars most of us in are early twenties. Two undercover city officers pull up behind my ‘31and the officer driving gets out , strolls over looking the car over. Asked me if I wanted a new fiberglass hood for my car. I looked over and said I didn’t have enough money to buy it. He said I didn’t ask you for any. I said sure thanks. Told me to wait and he would be back in 15/20 minutes. Back he comes with the new hood. Dilemma, where am I going to secure the hood? Stuck it standing upright behind the seats driving the the freeway. Thinking back , that had to be a sight.

 

I have one of those, had it in my old F250 Highboy for years. Bench seat, honey, sit over here by me- and it would be right in her face lol

 

A cherry pair of '28 AR front fenders for my AR Tudor in 1973. $40/ea.

 

This day and age I ever expect to find deals but they’re there. Everytime. I really like the bigger generic meets where there’s some old shit stuffed in a box and they don’t care what’s in there.

Pair of SP tops for 25$ That one sticks out to me right now.

 

It's been a few years now but I got to a swap meet when most people were still setting up their spaces. I used to "collect" 5 spoke wheels. I see a guy pull a skinny 4" wide out of his pickup bed and I rush over. Hey you have a pair of those I ask. Sure do it's in here somewhere. How much for the pair. He says how does $40 sound. Paid him immediately. I went straight out to my car and hid them in my trunk.

15" X 4" Crestline. I sent them out to have the edges polished front and rear. When I called the polisher to see if they were done he told me another customer had seen them and offered $1400 for them. I still have them

 

I've already told the story of buying a 57-64 Pontiac 4.88, posi third member for 50 bux but on the way home from the swap meet, my buddy and found a farm sale. [Imagine that in Nebraska] There was a nice little 50s Jeep pickup at the end of a row of more complete jeeps. I told my buddy I was gonna bid 50 bucks and he laughed, saying I'd never get it for that..
I got it. Put a 62 Pontiac rear axle under it and a 30 Dodge wavy front axle. Fiddy bought it and put a 455 Buick in it....drove it to the HAMB drags from Michigan.

 

First in a group of car parts for $15. Second in a rack of magazines in Little Rock for $30. Third at a swap meet in Harrison, Arkansas for $25. All purchased when I was a cute kid between 12 and 15 years old.

Times have really changed....

Sent from my Pixel 3a XL using The H.A.M.B. mobile app

 

Classy and move.

 

I bought a milk crate full of '63 California plates (pairs) for cheap right after I heard they would become California legal.
prices went way up after that.

 

Best buy ever, not at a swap meet but at a yard sale. My friends rag me still today. I saw a grille
leaning against a tree at a yard sale as I past by. My cousin & I were not Yard Sale shopping &
I asked him if he saw it. He said No Way did I see a grille at the speed we were traveling.
I turn a round & went back. There leaning against a tree was a straight 1933 Ford Grille. I bought it for $10.00 & went on my way. (BEST DEAL EVER) I still glance at yard sales as I
go by looking for something to top that buy. Jerry from N.C.

 

About 9+ years ago at Rhinebeck, a pair of Ford inscripted Fog Lights, excellent chrome (and they worked) for my Model A to use as front signal lights, twenty bucks and the lady wrapped them in newspaper and provided a plastic bag. 2nd was a week ago at a local swap, 40 grill guard, almost new for a 1/3 of a new. Still grinning ! !The fog lights The fog lights are now on the 40 for the same purpose.
Paul in CT

 

Not mine, but Bob Swanson's ( 37 kid here on The H.A.M.B. ) Bob went to The Elephant Trunk flea market in Danbury, Connecticut, and saw an old re-chromed grill for sale for $ 40.00. He was't sure if he recognized it, but was smart enough to get the vendor's telephone number. Bob went home, looked it up, and found that it was a 1933-34 Willys model 77 grill. He called the vendor, and asked if he still had the grill, which he did. Bob then drove to the vendor's house in Long Island, and bought the grill. when Bob got home, he called me, and asked me if I was interested in buying it. I offered Bob $ 1,000 for it, and he accepted my offer. When Bob came to deliver it to my house in Manchester, Connecticut, he got lost, left his cell phone at home, as well as my directions to him as how to get to my house. I can't remember how we finally got together about 3 hours past the time that he should have been at my house. At least it ended well for both of us.

 

You can't ignore the yard sales and flea markets altogether either. I got a factory 3x2 Ford 406 setup for $25 at a flea market years ago. And my ex son in law bought a 55 Chevy 2 door hardtop for $500 at a yard sale. I found that car parts are cheaper at yard sales because usually the seller isn't a car person.

 

Dunkirk, NY swap meet about 12-years ago. One pair of very good 682-c and another pair of 682-J headlights in similat condition, from two different vendors, about 10-spaces from each other. Both sets for $25.00 per set. I sold one set for $200 and can't recall what I sold the other set for. Bought a lottery ticket the same day, but my luck had run out by then......

 

Halibrand V8 rear cover (<<on my roadster) for $20 at Shades swap. Went with the $75 center section from a newspaper ad.
33 Ford grille for $150 at Petite Jean swap.
Two Wico mags for Model A-B for $40 at Petite Jean swap.
Pair of nice Eddie Meyer 8BA heads for $300 at Maggie Valley. Traded for two NIB 97's.
Alexander OHV conversion for Model A-B for $200.
Three complete 97's for $15 ($5 ea) at Nashville swap.

 

Hurst Dual Gate with the key for the hydro. $40! In perfect shape.. I told a guy who had a 63 Pontiac that it would of fit right in what I paid for it. He then tried to guilt me into selling it to him for what I paid for it. I offered it to him twice and he played games. When I sold it to a guy who was tripping over himself to give me $500 for it, the first oaf got so pissed. People are goofy lol..

 

Macco large top tool box loaded with tools at a yard sale. Asked the lady and she said they are her ex-husbands....125.00 Also at a flea market a flathead valve bar made by KR Wilson for 7.00...He wanted 10.00....

 

Good for you. the first guy had his chance. Remember " step up, or step back " or, " you snooze, you lose"

 

“You snooze , you loose” Good for you .

 

Very classy. Good for you...



Rusty, Greasy, Noisy

 

Another guy that I know, Ron Hansen bought a Harmon-Collins flat-head magneto at a Farm flea market for $ 10.00. Since he wasn't a flea market vendor he asked me to sell it for him, and we would split the profit. I did sell it, for $ 1100, we both did well.

 

Years ago I bought a '63 Chevy Wagon that I really didn't need but made an offer and the seller accepted. I drove it for two years and sold it for twice what I paid.
Since then I haven't been to a swap meet. Not really needing anything "used" for my '58 Impala but one is schedule next Sunday July 12th the first I'll attend in about 20 years so will see what's available.