Event Coverage Death of the Swap Meet

I guess this is as good of a place as any to vent off. I depend on swap meets to furnish items for my little parts business as income. I buy a ton of parts at swap meets for resale. However over the years, the swap meets have moved toward becoming more like flea markets. It is getting harder and harder to navigate through the piles of used toys, "antique" household items, shirts and pants, outdoor ornaments, etc. I pay vendor fees, I have travel expense, motel (sometimes sleep in my truck), food, wear on my vehicle and other expense to get these automotive gems. But the size of the real swap meet area is getting smaller and smaller. Does anyone know of a swap meet that has addressed this and how they handled it?

 

Is your parts business on line or a store?
If you turn the parts around and sell them online you're shooting yourself in the foot.

 

Maybe you need to pivot to selling these other items if that is the trend…

 

1. Several good swap meets in the Okla area have been runed by crafts. The organizers are only wanting to sell spots no knowing that they are loosing money from true swap meet people.

 

I went to Moultrie last year to sell, it was amazing the people that walked by and had no interest in mid 50s Lincoln and Mercury stuff. They were all working on C10 trucks or 55 Chevy with LS 17 swaps. Then there is the occasional lamp builder.

 

Every time a car gets built, there are that many parts taken out of circulation. To save the swap meet, we must stop building cars!

 

I remember my buddy would go to fall Hershey every year. After a couple times he noticed how well the junk trinkets, toys and other bullshit would sell. So as years went buy he would find that crap at other sales and take that it to Hershey and sell it. Soon he was told by someone in mgmt that the sale was a AACA event and told not to bring that junk.

 

I shop at the marketplace swap on FB

 

i shop the hamb classifieds

 

At one time Moultrie was touted as truck based, haven’t been in many years- we did drive a 66 barracuda back from there- bucket list stuff before we knew what a bucket list was.

 

it's the same everywhere also no-one wants are stuff

 

In my area the swap meets are way down in vendors and parts. I use to travel all over the US doing swaps. Lets face it, there are only so many garage cleaners left. Also we don't have any young guys building projects. I wish I had an answer to this but it's not looking good. Where I live the real big swaps are 10 to 16 hours away so you might be lucky to break even when the smoke clears.

 

I remember when we had true swap meets back in the 70s & 80s. Hard core car stuff, and lot's of it. Hot-shot promoters came in eventually and turned it into a flea market free-for-all shit show. Hard pass.
I'll cruise the marketplace instead like Anthony.

 

Bob Eubanks?
I loved the Newlywed show!
The honeymoon is over for all of us Bob
No more swap meets like the days of old.
Ebay killed it, then Craigslist killed it, then Marketplace killed Craigslist.
We are only left with sweet memories of younger years and better times.
Like when we were Newlyweds.
My buddies and I still go but it’s mainly to get out of the garage and have a good road trip and breakfast. Then when we get there it’s more of a social event, laugh, bull shit and see who is still alive. If we find something good it’s just a bonus.

 

The business model has changed.
Now people buy and sell on-line from home. All those old travel expenses are now spent on shipping costs.

 

We just had a great swap meet here in Monroe, Michigan. Lots of vendors. Even lots of early Ford stuff. If anyone was selling sunglasses, I missed it. There was someone selling Carhartt stuff. I don’t think anyone minded.

 

I'll bet you find some nice parts sometimes. You ever save some of the better stuff for yourself? Use them on any projects you might share with us? I'd love to see what you're working on.

 

Honestly, I quit going to swapmeets several years ago. I started to notice over the years it started becoming over priced junk and alot of new parts. Now at that time the new parts vendors would give a show special discount or heck at least you'd save on the shipping. The old parts (early ford stuff) started becoming scarce and if you could find what you needed they thought it was made of gold.
The last swapmeet i went to i needed some new trim pieces for a tri-five, i figured heck ill go and save on the shipping and plus it'll give me something to do. The prices where higher than what i could have just stayed home and ordered online including the shipping .
I do miss it, times have defiantly changed.

 

When swap meets become just a business opportunity, the concept has been lost.
@Robert Eubanks , I think you have misjudged your audience here.

 

Marketplace is where I buy most of my parts.
Probably a reason swaps are kinda down.
the crap I’ve buy from FB are priced better than swaps most of the time.
Never had a guy at a swap give me a complete running engine just cause it was in the way

 

He's a big contributor here too, 6 posts including this one over 8 1/2 years
Whether or not someone pays taxes on their little parts business is up to the individual. Tax deductions don't matter if they don't pay taxes on your parts income.

 

They are called swap meets now a days because the parts swap from one garage to another.

 

Even HERSHEY, the grand daddy of all flea markets, is down on vendors every year. One vendor I talked to said "people can now buy parts over the internet easier than going to a flea market". "Why spend gas money, traveling 500 miles to a flea market, spend three day's in a motel and walk miles and miles looking for a part, when I can sit home and get the same part on line"? It's a changing hobby my friend!

 

It's probably been a week or two since the last time this topic came up...people have been predicting the demise of swap meets for as long as I can remember.

 

I sell stuff at a flea market and swap meet- at the same venue, on different days. The flea market is a way easier sell and much more profitable, the swap meet is of more interest to me. That swap meet buyer belongs to a pretty tough crowd. If this is only a business maybe you need to pick something else.

 

Went to one of my favorite swap meets last Saturday. The host Model A club has 2 meets a year. The April one partners with a sign/memorabilia group but the September one is only car parts (in theory) There where plenty of signs, gas pumps, and oil cans, etc. but not much in the way of actual car parts. Hopefully the September meet will be better. But if not I'll probably pass on future meets. JMO