Went to Thompson speedway swapmeet yesterday(Ct.) and noticed a lack of ventors! The lower field was almost empty, the "back road" was only about a 1/3 full & the"swamp" was about 1/2 full! The weather was perfect, cold in the AM but got real nice later on.Also at about 9:30-10 there was hardly anyone even driving in or online to pay. Maybe today will be better, who knows! JimV
I think that snowstorm really screwed people up. I spent the day cutting brush and raking leaves. A lot are still without power. Vendor spaces are a hundred bucks there. You've got to sell a lot of junk to put some money in your pocket. Good luck at Compounce!
The last time I went half of the vendors were selling yard sale ****. Ten dollars to walk around and look at other peoples junk. Cant bring myself to open the wallet. I can walk around in my yard and look at all my junk and even find stuff I forgot I had for free!
We went last year and payed $85 for two guys and a pickup. They try and tell you it's for two days while knowing full well most folks won't go all weekend. Maybe low car counts, and bad attendance are what they deserve, especially in a bad economy.
Sure did. I went looking for a couple of very uncommon parts to put a 303 Olds motor into a 40 Ford. One part was the trans bell adapter, and I found it at daybreak for $10. I could have ordered a repro one from Speedway for $199 plus ship. Then Dave50 spotted me and found me a new timing chain and some good used gears for the Olds...thanks, Dave Also bought all the SW gauges and switches from a 65 Autocar for $7... A kill switch and some other switches for $10 Some old wide stainless 15" trim rings for $10 (maybe Lyon?) A very tiny vintage underdash heater $10 A sweet chrome Art Deco vacuum wiper motor $10. I've never seen one this fancy.. from the early 30s; it's going in my 32 Nash conv. ...and I found a new Merc flathead 10" clutch disc for the Olds-to-Ford swapover, at Lake Compounce today. $5 ! I am going to busy this week.
I scored 5 boxes of oil cans cheap!! Added 38 to my collection and have a good 100 or so to re sell. Sold a gas pump, and bought some other stuff I was able to re sell and make some $$!! Also found a guy selling some rare license plates for super cheap! Scored about 30 that I needed for less than $30!! Lot's of good trading going on and if ya looked past the snow blowers and used tires there were some good stuff hiding on the tables. I'm still seeing spots though from the pressure treated wood and tires burning on the infield!! Did notice a lack of vendors and not much bigger stuff selling. $100 or less seemed to be the spending for the day. There was a really nice tall T- 2 door sedan priced great I was surprised to see not gone by the time I left. I had a great time and was glad to see old friends!
it was my first year at these swap meets and enjoyed both....I thought Thompson was huge! but I dont have past years to compare it to....i found a bunch of stuff from both and happy with my purchases....i was disappointed with the lack of flathead stuff and the few flathead items i did find were mega over priced.
I found a few things at lale compounce which made the trek up from jersey worth it. Scored some nice hubcaps for my ford, wiper arms, a NOS Ford cap and rotor in the original box for $1! A few other little things and a whole pile (like 130) late 50s-early 60s hot rod and custom magazines for $100. No Lincoln stuff but wasn't surprised. Saw way more worthwhile stuff than at Englishtown.
I was a little bitter at it taking longer to get from 229 to my parking space then it took to get from 684 to 229.
F&J I WAS GOING TO BUY THAT adapter to but got a call and then flaked out.. I am glad you got it and I am glad I could help ya out on the t-chain. Keep intouch with him he has alot of stuff.can't wait to see your 32.. I want to check out those wheels to
I hear ya, there making a boat load of money between vendors fees & walk ins!Sometimes getting something cheap isn't that cheap when you figure in the 10 bux!! Thompson was running 100 ft drags for awhile on tuesday or wed nites & was wondering why they weren't making a go of it because they were charging $30 to run!!and $10 to watch !I guess ya don't have to be a rocket scientist to see where that went!!lol jimV
While it's true that some of the vendor area was vacant, I was happy with my take. I walked in the gate at 7:00, and by 8:30 I was back at my truck, unloading my wagon because I couldn't fit any more in it. One of my better purchases was a very smooth turning original Vega steering box for $30.00.
Ten bucks hmm not to bad IMO LARS is $45.00 to get in the BiGE is 15.00 i believe and thompson is alot bigger. It cost them alot of money to open them gates, people leave there trash there,theres the help to organize it,theres toilets that need to be pumped etc it goes on and on folks, Its not a bad price we ***** about 10 bucks and boycott these places i wondr how many of us do that at election time just my .02 on monday morning. $100.00 space to make ????? How much ebay cost money paypal cost money etc its life the awesome 50`s are gone I say everyday i grew up in the wrong era, everyone wants the money but not the work to get it.
Every time someone starts blatting about having to pay ten bucks to gain entrance to a swap meet, I wonder how many of them then head down to the convenience store to buy a pack of cigarettes for the same money. It's all a matter of what you value and how much. I generally offset whatever it costs to get in by not buying any overpriced food while I'm there.
you make a good point, but for example lets look at Thompson, i heard it cost $100 per space and they advertise over 1000 spaces...so thats $100k, then lets say 10,000 people over the course of the 2 days buy tickets at 10 bucks a piece, thats another 100k, then the food and drinks we buy we all know they gouge us, lets say on average a person spends another 10 bucks each and I think that is a low average, a sandwich is 6-8 bucks and a drink is 3-5 bucks and thats not including the individuals that eat a few burgers and 2-3 beers and soft drinks so thats another 100k, i figure the cost would not be over 50k to run the place for the weekend, the majority of the workers are probably not making more then 10 bucks an hour and they are the ones that probably clean up also, i saw about 20 toilets, the minimal amount of electricity, insurance...i didnt see any detail cops....so they still cleared about $250k and probably more, if they made the event free they would have had happier venders because they would have sold more and they would have increase the food sales, they will more than likely would still have broke the $200k....but compare to 45 and 15 bucks it was cheap but I wont be going to either of the higher price swap meets, i have a local one that is almost as big as the Lake that happens every month that costs between $1-$5 depending on what lot you park in for a car load of people, thats my comparison and why in my perspective I see sticker shock
agreed, i am lucky i am not hooked on cigarettes but I did limit my spending on food while I was there but still spent $20 between me and the girl...we where there for almost 10 hours...hunger got the best of us but we could have spent soooo much more on food and drinks if it wasnt for our will power
Plenty of positives and negatives on both sides. When these places are gone and theres parking lots and houses and strip malls where will be?? IMo its a good venue and close for alot of us. Its the best ten bucks i spent in awhile I had to lay off the ice coffee 3 days last week...........
ya true..if you look at the $10 per person just as entertainment there is additional value there, my movie theater charges $13 a ticket now i guess if you look at it in different ways there is good and bad...i did have a really fun and enjoyable weekend
I've been going to Thompson since 84'. Its grown a lot over time but has the good stuff gets scarce the yard sale & **** moves in...even worse at Stafford. Did get a older style complete Halibrand Quickchange for a vintage race car ($300) & picked up a nice pair of oval track style BBC headers w/ mufflers & pipes for $50 & a pair of Frankland racing hubs complete with backing plates & brakes for $75. Just a lot of walking & looking past the junk to spot what you're looking for. As far as shows the asisles @ Thompson are wider for walking w/ wagons & karts etc...u can stop & look at something unlike Stafford where the rows are sometimes only wide enough for a couple people & a wagon. I'll be dropping Stafford from my schedule....
$10 is nothing. You can't get a good pizza today for $10. Short tracks across the country have been suffering for the last 10 years. Just because they have one weekend that a ton of people show up doesn't mean they had a great season. It's all relevant, if folks want the swap meet cost to lower than support the track during the race season. The food is usually outside vendors who bid on the contract for the season. Can't blame the track there. I agree with Jimmy though that $10 to watch and $30 to race at the 100 foot drags was ridicules. I have no complaints about paying the $10 to get in, but I would like to see them be a little more strict about not having junk like furniture and salvation army clothing there. Someone should be at the gate watching what comes in, maybe separate the flea market stuff to one area as best as they can. Either way I'll be there next time.
I enjoy the Thompson show and do well buying there every year. Highlights include a Mopar performance parts 360 R3 race block ,heads, and intake for $500 all brand new never used. I also snagged a factory 57-61 Corvette 2x4 setup for $500. And a few 4 speed transmissions. I'll go back while everyone else stays at home and complains on the HAMB about the $10 entrance fee.
While it is nice to see folks got out and enjoyed the weather and the swap meets, I have yet to see anyone put a true "actual" value on the parts they bought. Not one person so far has mentioned taking into consideration - A) the mileage added on to the vehicle they drove to said swap meet, in regards to maintainence. OR B) the cost of the gasoline they used back and forth to said swap meet. In this economy one must factor those things in as well in order to get a "true" cost of the parts you bought at a swap meet versus online. Please don't misunderstand me, some parts can not be bought online or even found readily anymore, so swap meets are a necessity, but you must be completely honest with yourself when it comes time to look at the "true" cost of each part. Least we forget every time we leave the driveway there is the possibility of having a $500 day, whether it be due to our own fault or not.
I DID put a value on the $10 adapter I found, that is on sale at Speedway for $199 PLUS shipping. As far as buying small stuff like switches....I just bought a very small chinese toggle switch for a customer car at Carquest for $8.95 ! The small stuff adds up on a build, too. See, the difference between a person that can "gather" stuff, and the person that is a catalog builder, is that the gatherer can work up to very popular 32-40 hotrods with vintage desirable motors for dirt cheap. The catalog builder will have even more money tied up in a gl*** car, or a 50s 4 dr sedan.
or....we could have gone golfing. walking around outside with your buddies on a golf course=lots of cash. walking around outside with your buddies at a swop meet=cash saved or made. factor that in.
Getting a good score at a swap is a bonus but catching up with people and making it abit of a social event is well worth the $10.00 bucks I reckon anyway. Abit like building a rod/car,you can't put a price on your hours of building,that's part of the satisfaction of doing it yourself.Why do some have to put a price on everything?
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