There's a thread by a 1st timer about swap meet etiquette. Made me think it might be amusing hearing some "funny, good, bad or off the wall" swap meet experiences. I've had plenty. Starting in the early 80's I was a vendor at many Pomona meets and every Portland swap meet since living here for the last 20 years. I loved Pomona, you could walk around in the middle of the night and find people buying/selling stuff, bench racing around the Coleman lantern or a card game going with a bunch of old timers hiding their booze in coffee cups. Here's a few of my storys but have plenty more. ---------------------------------------------- 1996: 2 well dressed guys in their mid 70's on the shuttle bus ride back to the parking lot are carrying a nasty greaseball transmission (1 guy on each end). Making conversation, I said "that must be a pretty rare piece with you guys hand carrying it" Guy on the back end just nodded, the front guy says "yep, kinda' rare, it's a '39 LaSalle, MY BUDDY BOUGHT IT FOR $75. WHAT A GREAT DEAL!!, Now after we get it off the bus, we'll put it in the trunk of the rental car, then we'll haul it to the motel, so tomorrow we can check it in at the arlines, then fly it back to Minnesota, where we'll carry it out to his car, then drive it to his house so he can throw it on the pile of 'em he already has" ------------- 1982 Get to Pomona early, all my work's done, had something to eat and hit the hay at 9PM, it's gonna be a long day tomorrow. About 1AM wake up to a big crunching noise. I look out and see this guy backing in next to me with his truck and trailer load of NOS "baby moons". He ran over my original 1954 Corvette quarter panel. He did made good for it the next day and as a bonus all my friends got baby moons for Christmas. ------------- 2004 7AM arrive at Portland meet on set-up day. Behind my stall is a nice Nash Metropolitan with little rust. Has a $750 sign but no owner present. I figure it didn't run then notice current plates. 7:10AM Ask my friend if he wants to make some Nash money... he laughs, declines. 8AM Owner returns, I offer $600, he accepts and says I can have his stall too. 8:30AM I put $1895 sign on the Nash. 9:20AM I sell it for $1600 and tell buyer he can have the stall. 9:45AM Buyer makes sign for $2500 11:30AM He sells it for $1950. 12PM It's going a couple aisles over. 3PM I see it for $2895. 1PM Next day, found it at a 3rd stall with a $3200-SOLD sign. ----------------- 1984 Pomona opening morning I'm waiting at the entrance to "get the jump" on what's coming in. I stop a guy arriving with a '57 Corvette ex-g***er with no engine/trans, $3500. I tell him I'll take it but only have $3200 in my pocket. I'll go to my stall for the rest and be back in 5 minutes. He agrees. I help him get it parked in his stall then against my better judgment give him a $500 deposit and a handshake. I run back to my stall, get the other $300 and run back to his stall. He hands me back my $500 and said "sorry man, somebody paid me $5500 for it" ------------------ 1985 Pomona While waiting in line to get in, I notice the **** behind me has four complete 66-67 Chevelle SS front clips. Most of the fenders weren't the best but really nice hoods. I offered him $200 each, he accepted but I only took the hoods. He looked at me kinda' stupid then said "what am I supposed to do with the rest?" ------------------- 1986 Pomona Swap meet is over, I'm totally beat but loading up anyway. All that's left is cast iron.... 2 sets of Big Block Chevy heads and a '57 Chev 283 short block. Figure I'll turn the truck around for easier loading. ****er won't start, battery dead. I walk over to one of the "vultures" that wait for people to leave their stuff so they can pick it up. Traded a jump start for (you guessed it) 2 sets of heads and a 283. ------------------- 1998 Portland My friend brings a restored 215" Olds V8 aluminum motor. It's on a stand with a radiator and runs. 1st time he fires it up, it's just for a few seconds to make sure it runs but I notice it makes a good heater too. An hour goes by and I ask him to fire up the heater again. Well it's not only a heater it's also a customer caller. No customers.... just fire up the heater, they'll come running.
I think my story about the tail lights in the other thread you mentioned may have started your idea? LOL. I can't wait to hear the stories.
I was leaving a swap meet and only had $15.00 left in my pocket and wanted to buy my infant son a toy car before I went home. Saw a real cool car that made all the different noises when you pressed ****ons but it was $35.00. I told my tale of woe of how much my little guy would be disappointed if daddy didn,t come home with a new toy car for him. I touched his heart and he finally said okay I could have it for my last $15.00. Can you break a $100.00 bill I asked? You co******er he says! I laughed and said I was kidding....I really only had the $15.00 .
My dad was a fixture at the Cedar Rapids Iowa swap meet for years, same booth, same trailer and usually the same junk, year after year after year. His stuff was always dirt cheap and he thought the swap meet was more of a social event for him than a money maker. He also thinks that he is quite the comedian. He scored about 100 old carb rebuild kits still in their original boxes at a garage sale one year and took them to the swap meet. One guy came by and asked sarcastically if he any parts for a 1950 Hudson. My dad reaches over and pulls one of the rebuild kits out of the stack and tells the guy $5. The guy looks at him says "are you sure this will fit my 50 Hudson" and dad said yes. The guy doesn't believe him and asks him three more times if he is sure that it will fit. Dad finally says "wait a minute, what color is your Hudson?" and the guy said that it is green. Dad grabbed the kit back out of the guys hands and says "sorry about that, this kit is for a RED 1950 Hudson". The guy laughs and tries to take the kit back but my dad refuses to give it to him or sell it to him. The next year, same booth, same trailer and the same stack of rebuild kits. The same guy walks up, grabs the Hudson kit and tells my dad that he can buy it this year because he painted his car red over the winter. My dad thought it as so funny that he gave him the kit for free.
portland 1995 // me and two other buddies looking for a car for my semi novice friend ran upon a 1967 malibu with plates that read 1983. We live in seattle. paid $1000 Real grumpy old timer sold us the car. We pulled the holley off,shook the dust out,and replaced the accelerator pump it fired up. The seller had the whole open mouth cigarette falling out of his mouth look. Around chehalis terrible downpoor no wipers,I was driving with my head out the window..
Your taillight story was the idea for this thread. Post it here if you want. ------------------- 1991 or 92 Portland (at the racetrack) My buddies and I rent 6 adjoining stalls. Since it's always raining here, figured we better do something about a roof. I bring scaffolding (18' tall) and a bunch of long ladders to use as rafters. We cover it with blue tarps. Looked totally hillbilly but had lots of dry area. Many people asked if we had a building permit. I was building a house at that time, so the next day I brought the day-glo orange building permit from the house and attached it to the scaffold structure. Now when people asked about a permit, I'd point to it. Most of the people thought the permit was for real and would go read it. As a side note, by the 2nd day of the meet, our 'blue building' was a landmark and briefly shown on the local TV report. The other benefit of having plenty of dry area is when it does rain, the customers come running....
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