Is it just our's or are swap meets starting to suck all over? We had our biggest one last weekend and it was dismal to say the least. No more old stuff unless it's pure junk or priced like it's gold plated (or gold plated junk like $100 each for 94s that look like they been in a bucket of water for ten years?) Not one decent project car or truck on the lot. The whole thing seemed to be rows and rows of 80's junk. I guess all the good stuff is gone, horded or E-bayed these days. I don't get to out of town swaps much these days so maybe I'm ranting on our own swap or is it a sign of the times and good swap meets a thing of the past?
Yep, I have been finding the same thing. Not sure what the cause is although I do know several old gentlemen here in Wisconsin with barns packed floor to ceiling with model A's and parts, stacks of model A and model B banger motors (with counterbalanced cranks) and piles and piles of parts and they will not sell anything. Matter of fact they still go around buying stuff and putting it in the barns. So it seems there is some amount of hoarding of parts going on. I also think E-bay and that damn barret jackson have made everybody think that if it's rusty it's worth a fortune. Not sure how it will all play out???
Texas as well, I think it's ebay to tell you the truth, they rather get more for their buck, sit on their ass, surf the web and not have to load unload all their stuff.... San Antonio swapmeets are a joke, too much Camaro crap, model cars and a bunch of pride in the sellers junk...
I used to like Englishtown for hi-po stuff, and Rhinebeck used to be more antiquey, but near me. Someone else here recently summed the situation up the best as: "a flea market with some car parts".
Yeah...Rhinebeck is the best around here and it isn't what it used to be. But remember....the eighties stuff is 25 years old now! Norwich, NY is coming up. That one is pretty good too. Lots of farms up there, so old stuff is still getting dragged out.
I Was Out At The Pate In Ft Worth. It Was Great. Lots Of Good Stuff. You Ust Have To Be Patient And Be Willing To Dig. Other Than That I Am Quite Disappointed As Well.
I'm putting one together (see below) and I'm doing my best to weed out the cheap junk sellers. I can’t stand going to a swap and finding rows full of new Chinese SBC valve covers, bungee cords, super absorbent towels, and crappy tools. Swap meets are for car parts. Flea markets are for crap.
Those super absorbent towels are handy at the modern craphole swapmeets! I think it's ebay. I used to love selling and roaming at meets, nothing better! ebay has it's problems, but no sunburn and boners asking "whats your bottom price?" all day long. We have a couple of decent swaps here in Tucson, I go when I can, stuff's usually overpriced and/or Chinese.
someone started a thread earlier this year about old farts hordin the parts for their grandkids since they don't make em anymore. Swapmeets are like salvage yards, the years in cars change as time goes by.
Its this damn internet thats screwin us. You can bring much more $$ on ebay than at the swapmeets usually, and like otheres have said, they can just sit on their asses.
The good stuff is slowly but surely disappearing. I've sold & bought parts at swap meets and ebay. When I sell at swap meets, I get "buyers" who try to get the parts for nothing. I price stuff low anyway, because I'm selling stuff I don't need, but no matter, they want it for free. When I sell at swap meets, people steal parts. Year before last someone stole a pair of spindles, backing plates, hubs and brake drums for a 55 Chevy right out of my swap space. Unbelievable! I've caught two low-lifes walking through my spaces (when I was across the aisle talking to someone else) at a fast walk, grabbing items off the ground, acting like they owned it. When confronted, they said they thought I had discarded those parts. Yeah, that's why I loaded them on the trailer and brought them to the swap meet. I think a whole lot of people are selling their "good" stuff on eBay, and saving the junk for the swap meets. They know that the guy in Sweden will pay more for the part than the guy in Arkansas.
The problem with swap meets are numerous although I love to buy or sell at them. From a sellers perspective I like swap meets so I can withdraw from the parts bank and put the money in the cash bank. However, the cost to sell at swap meets is getting prohibitive...gas, cost of parts to sell, rooms, etc.. I just went to Knoxville: $420 round trip in gas, $464 for a room and $150 for 2 spaces. I had a partner so my cost was half ($517) I sold about $1600 worth of parts, and I can guarantee that there wasn't $500 worth of profit in there. I did have a great time, saw lots of friends and met some new ones. I sold there a couple years ago and did a whole lot better. I'm not complaining, just giving a sellers perspective. We're not sitting on a gold mine of olds parts any more - I have to pay the same prices all of us whine about. I think a lot of guys shopping don't give the costs involved to be a seller much thought. Even when I can price a new part under the average new price I find a lot of guys still go to the dealer. Go figure. Most of the time I'd rather just sell on the HAMB as eBay ain't no picnic either. Charlie
Theres still tons of stuff still up here, but prices are sky rocketing. Best and most decent priced swap meet I have been at recently was belive it or not Pomona, CA at the Fathers day show. Tons of parts, not too bad on price
I get tired of hearing "I can get this much for it on e-bay" Hell put it on e-bay then and quit wasting our time at the swap meet. I buy and sell quite a bit on e-bay myself but enjoy the swaps too. I'm a hagling fool. I've even got my wife doing it now. I use to embarass her by Jewing down sellers. Shes getting pretty good at it herself now. Thats part of the fun at the swaps. I look for the good deals being sold by those that dont know quite what they have. Bought a set of older USA made SW guages and 160 MPH speedo from a guy at Pate for $40. He was there in his $500,000 motor home and probably didnt have a clue.
True,we're not tripping over 32 pick up grills anymore.I think we need to try harder.I was at two swap meets last weekend. And i drove to Chickasha this weekend! Last weekend at a small meet ran into the usual guys.. "ah nothing here" Then I dug in some guys junk,34,56F10,37 steering boxes/columns for $5.00 each.Not pretty but parts (column drops,pitman arms) I can use.
Sounds like a good one in the making! I'll have to drive up and check it out...thanks for letting us know about it!!
I completely agree with everyone's reply. Here in Detroit and the surrounding larger swap meets there are more reproduction vendors than actual people selling parts. It seems to me anyway. Especially if muscle cars are your bag. I was at the Detroit winter swap with the ONLY piece of prewar metal there, and it sold in 2 hours. I was pleasantly surprised to find an older gentleman who had a great deal of vintage speed and accessory parts which is where I got my E & J's and Schroeder steering box. He told me that he doesn't mess with E-Bay and I was quite thankfull for that or the parts I bought I know wouldn't of been there.
Couple of points: I think nice tin seems to come in spurts - I regularly check EBAY, HAMB, "That other site" and Ford Barn for deals on '32-'34 Pickup Cabs as I have a thing for them. The past couple of weeks there has been a bunch of them for sale - a couple good deals here on the HAMB, but I couldn't get it worked out. Ebay has some super high prices - but clean stuff is bringing the $$ I think the stuff is still out there - and alot of the "project cars" seem to be just changing hands - they get bought and re-sold a little later. E-Bay, HAMB, "Ol' Skool" etc. are killing the SwapMeets. And I admit that I have used it to my advantage as well, you list it on the web, and the person comes and picks it up, no draging it to a swap meet etc.
I picked up a bucket of 94's at Detroit a few years ago. I paid $55.00 for six good carbs, everything was free and moving. I should have bought the guy out, even the junk carbs are bringing decent money. He had an old crate under his table just full of old carbs and parts.
I sell on Ebay but its mainly the small stuff so shipping is easier.....big stuff I hoard until the June swap meet where I take a ton of stuff.My basement is full as well as my garage.The 4 day swap meet is my vacation and damn I need it!!!!
Ive been looking for parts for my galaxie and ebay is killing me, the prices ive seen are ok but adding in the extra $$$ to ship a 4 speed from idaho or where-ever is whats keeping me from making the deal. I hope to get out to some local swaps soon and find things person. Plus any big purchase item on ebay makes me nervous, rarely are things a "sure deal" over the internet went I cant actually look at it and see it in person.
I'd rather load up my stuff and go to a swap-meet then to sell on e-bay. I like bench racing and looking and all that. I tell ya one thing however is if you do price a part reasonable some other seller will buy it and take it to his spot and jack the price up, I hate that! Those guys are like the B-J or e-bay guys running the prices up.
I have to agree with the above comments - but I have a real problem with guys listing stuff on the internet - world wide web - and then saying NO SHIPPING J.
You guys should try Australian swap meets. If your into late 70s and 80s Holdens there great, l have been going to swap meets looking for an A 4 bannger and original radiator for the tanks. Two years and still no luck. Saw a trashed 30 roadster body, no floor or firewall and rough as guts for $9.000 AUD. 32 grille with no insert for $800 bucks. If you dont buy a complete car over here to build, the only real alternative is repo shit unless you know the right people and have buldging pockets.
The swap meet at New Braunfels, Texas a few weeks ago was great, from a shopper's viewpoint. I didn't take stuff to sell and had a good time getting sunburned on a cloudy day. There were some clueless sellers though. Old Chevy "artillery wheels" for several hundred dollars. He swore they were 4.5" pattern- Wrong.
One thing about swap meets in general, is that unless they are hosted/sponsored by a group of individuals focused on a specific automotive (or motorcycle, etc) genre...it's hard to know what's going to be there to buy, and what people are going there hoping to find. A couple of years back, I had a Dodge Daytona...just an old beater as far as I was concerned...but I really liked the car and drove it every day. By dumb luck, the car had no rust on it...no surface rust, blisters or holes...it was clean as a whistle top and bottom and ran and drove perfectly. I listed the car on AutoTrader.com and some guy showed up to look at it the first day it was listed. He was freaking out over how clean the car was and told me about how he had gone to the Chryslers at Carlisle swap meet looking for a clean Daytona and came home disappointed...only to find mine a few miles from his home! The point being...I never would have thought to journey all the way to an event like Chryslers at Carlisle looking for a lowly little Daytona...I would go there looking for Darts, Dusters, Chargers, etc as well as the parts for them...and I certainly would've never thought to drag my Datyona there to SELL! But, what we as individuals seek out or bring to sell at any given swap meet isn't neccessarily what everyone else is there to buy or sell...so one guy may look around and say "This meet SUCKS!", while another dude is doing backflips because he just found that oddball car or part he's been seeking for ages! It's all relative, Man!!
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