What is the best/worst you've done when selling at a swap meet?

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Kern Dog

Kern Dog

Build your car to handle.
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Like many others here, I often sell stuff of mine to buy stuff for my own projects. We buy parts cars and sell stuff from them, we sometimes buy stashes of parts from some old timer and pack it up to sell at a swap meet.
I love selling stuff.
This guy I know that used to live in a tee pee sometimes sold at swap meets but his grumpy demeanor surely turned off buyers. I tried to show him that smiling, eye contact and saying Hello is better than ignoring people.
I'm not broke but I feel better when I offset the costs of building or upgrading the cars with the sale of stuff that I don't need nor want.
THIS IS NOT A SALES AD. PLEASE DO NOT TURN IT INTO ONE!
I've sold at different car shows and events. Sometimes I've done well, other times it was a waste of time. The worst was when I've sold at the Sacramento Raceway show. People were there primarily to race but they had a swap meet and car show too. I never made more that a couple hundred dollars there.
The best ever was in 2014 at the Mopar Alley show in Fremont Ca. They used to have their show at Ohlone College but had to relocate when the college expanded and built in the spot where they used to hold the show.
I've never had any rare or super valuable stuff. No Shark tooth grilles, Hemi or 6 pack stuff, no 340 parts, Hardly ever any E body or spare Charger stuff either. I am not the guy that occupies 4 spaces and has a crew of helpers.
I'm just a guy that scoured the junkyards, cleared out garages of former enthusiasts and bought cheap A bodies to strip down.
The best day ever was $2850 and a lot of it was $20-$50 stuff. Emblems, arm rests, gauge clusters, interior stuff as well as K members and a few body parts. Other times I've scored between $500-$800.
No matter what, I'm just out there selling stuff that I don't need or that I already have 2 or 3 more of back at home.
I have stuff that was given to me by members of our local Mopar club. Many times, the haul is 90% worthless but sometimes there are some good things in the mix.
What about you?
 
Last year at Indy was great! Lots of buyers/sellers what a contrast this year.
 
Not really car related, but last week I picked up 2 kayaks at a garage sale (sundolphin journey ss)

Paid 100 bucks for the pair

A few days later I had to at the project house, which has access to a private lake, so I took the kids, and loaded up those kayaks

Got em in the water and hated them
I've been in kayaks before and never had any that were more nervous or unstable then these

So when I got him, I posted them on Craigslist for 250 (knowing full well whoever comes to buy them is going to want to haggle on em)

2 days later I sold them for 150

So, I got to use them for a weekend and made 50 bucks, though that was pretty good
 
I had a bed load of parts at a show, backed in, unloaded, pulled forward, unloaded the rest. Could not see out the rear cap window stuff piled up so high. When we left, it barely come to the top of the wheelhouse...kept looking under the truck, thought I had backed over some parts.
Best $ show was buying a box load of Dinky/Corgi toys from a resale shop and selling them for half of what was listed in the current price guide. Bought for seventy-five cents each and sold on an average of 25 dollars each.
Worst one was a local train show. Sold enough to pay for the spot and then came home with a display cabinet the vendor next to me gave away. Could've said no...
 
I don't know whether this qualifies for your "Best / Worst" question, but back in the mid-'70s my ol' man bought out the remains of a F_rd dealer that had been closed for years. There were a bunch of things we could use for our own projects, but he had to take all this new crap, from the fifties, that nobody wanted. All sorts of NOS trim, horn buttons and rings, lots of useless stuff like that for, like, Victorias and Sunliners, and things like that that no one cared about.
Also a bunch of Model A crap, like a big box full of transmission gears.

We used to go to Carlisle every year, before there were any spaces inside the track, and right after they started to put vendors there, and we couldn't get rid of any of that junk.

We got to where we'd make a deal on something someone wanted and force them to take a NOS F_rd hood ornament or whatever, which they probably threw out.

As far as "worst," we had that box of gears, and after a certain point, I just started chucking gears in random directions at random intervals. I was a teenager. It never occurred to me that they had to land somewhere. Fortunately, nobody seemed to have gotten hurt.

Finally, one year, I'm pretty sure we just left boxes of that stuff next to the trash cans when we left.
Maybe that was "worst."

- Eric
 
Back in the mid teens I had a run of making between about 2500 and 3500 a year for a few years.

The worst ones are where you barely make the entry fee back and then have to see if you paid for your gas there and back.

IIRC the best single show take was about 2K.

The funniest show was a local regular all makes swap.
The previous month I had bought a pair of Magnum 500 wheels for $10 each.
Late in the day and they guy didn't want to pack them up.
Said they were Mopar. They weren't.
Took them back the next month and didn't even get them unloaded.
Guy gave me $50 each.

Same show, I had a bumper jack.
Guy asked how much. I said $20.
He haggled and haggled and berated the item and haggled and wouldn't let up.
Finally I said, give me five bucks and just take it...to get him outa my way.
As soon as the money changed hands-
He starts jumping up and down and yelling "I sure got you, har har har"
"that's for a 67 super sport, I got you real good"

I just didn't have the heart to tell him it was for a 72 skylark.
 
YY1 said:
... I had a bumper jack.
Guy asked how much. I said $20.
He haggled and haggled and berated the item and haggled and wouldn't let up.
Finally I said, give me five bucks and just take it...to get him outa my way.
As soon as the money changed hands-
He starts jumping up and down and yelling "I sure got you, har har har"
"that's for a 67 super sport, I got you real good"

I just didn't have the heart to tell him it was for a 72 skylark.
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I had a '71 Skylark once. There wasn't a single part on that car that was worth $5.

Guy like that, you just want to beat him with the jack.
But it's almost as satisfying to picture him carefully restoring it, then being told by a judge at a show it's the wrong jack. :D

- Eric
 
YY1 said:
Same show, I had a bumper jack.
Guy asked how much. I said $20.
He haggled and haggled and berated the item and haggled and wouldn't let up.
Finally I said, give me five bucks and just take it...to get him outa my way.
As soon as the money changed hands-
He starts jumping up and down and yelling "I sure got you, har har har"
"that's for a 67 super sport, I got you real good"

I just didn't have the heart to tell him it was for a 72 skylark.
Click to expand...
i hate people like that. i get it that we're at a swap and there should be a little haggling and that's fine. but don't be offering me 10 bucks and a burrito for something both of us know the retail on.

when somebody chirps about it, i just tell them buy it online and pay tax and shipping then. i've got the room to keep it, and it's not like it's milk and it's gonna go bad.

at this past spring fling, the sunday swap is generally a lot lighter than the madhouse of saturday. so it's pretty early, and not a lot of people and this dude and his posse cruises up and he starts pawing thru all my brackets and hardware and such-- mind you all of this is cleaned and organized, mostly labeled-- and pulls out a 904 shifter lever...

he grunts: how much?
i say $10
and he goes: i'll give you $2
so i say: no thanks. that's okay.
and he snorts: it's sunday and there's nobody here, you're lucky i'm even offering
so i say: it's still early. you can keep your money, might need it if you find something else.

you can almost *hear* the eyerolling his crew is doing. this is obviously old hat for them.

about half hour later a guy comes up, says hi and do i mind if he digs thru the hardware boxes. then pulls the lever out of the box and says: how much? and i say: you tell me man. and he hands me a $20 bill, when i go to break off some change he says keep it.

anyway, nickel dick timewaster dude comes cruising back by later looking for the lever and shaking up all my hardware and i'm all: what's the deal chachi? you're junking up my junk, man.

you still got that lever?

nah man, i sold it.

he grumbles and gripes at his buddies who just pay him lip service while two of them proceed to buy about $60 worth of brackets and hardware off me.

swap meets be weird, man. mopar people be weird, too.
 
I had been to Mopar Nats every year from maybe 1985 till last time, about 2003 or 4. Missouri to Ohio was 12 hours, hated that nasty place. One to Carlisle twice. Love it but way too far. selling parts helped pay for parts/materials for my builders. Or did it!???

Most fun I had was when I bought "all the parts" I wanted to pull from a 72 or 3 Ply Satelitte out of a friends bone yard. Darn cheap for all. This was maybe 1998 or 9. I hauled it all to Nats put up sign that said everything off a 73 Sat. and sold every darn piece. People were so excited to buy such as NO ONE takes parts of such especially back then! I made good E$ and made a lot of guys really happy. At that time, I had two nice ones back at home, a 73 or 4 base Charger 400 4 speed car one of 75 and a 73 318 Charger.

I had the haggle, I rather price my parts at a good price, fair to me and the buyuer.... but that is not the game 99% want to play.
 
I have been a Ford guy, a Mopar guy, a Chevy guy and back to Mopar. Wife's family was Chevy, so I got 1. Got a 69 Z28. started collecting Chevy stuff. had 5 DZ 302 Z motors. Traded 1 to a guy for 11 bb Chevy motors, oval and square port heads, alum intakes, etc. Took stuff to swap meet 1 year later and had to give it ALL away for 500.00. Best was at a local all makes swap in Belleville, Il. My buddy and I took all our extra Mopar stuff, about a truck pull and came home empty. we made about 500.00 a piece. That was a lot of money in the late 70"s.
 
Ive never had a real bad experience. Most meets It's about $300-400 per day. Best was this past April in Portland. Did around $2000 minus $500 for hotel ,gas, etc. Most people were good to deal with. Had one yahoo come by with his buddies looking for a 70-71 quarter marker light. I had 4 in a box. He looked at one and asked how much? $40 I said. $40 I'll give $10 he replied. I guess we're not doing business today I said. He hemmed and hawed for a bit then said I'll give you $40 for all 4. I counted out loud. Hmm, $40×4 makes it about $175. He said, why is it $175? I replied, because Im charging you 10% for tolerance. At this point his buddies erupted in laughter. He said let's get out of here, and away they went.

I'd also add that I think you do better if your items are organized and easily accessible to customers. On tables, in bins, and labeled.
 
barbee6043 said:
IT is an art to be able to "talk the seller" down without totally pissing him off!!!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
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You mean it's not a good idea to "gas monkey" sellers? LOL

I love those people. Same as others have mentioned, I have a price on it and you offer 25-50%. Don't have time for you. Most of my stuff even at the marked price was a really good value.

My last day really running a swap spot I barely sold enough to cover fuel/entry. That was the last time I bought a spot. Best days were solid and paid the rent for a few months!
 
Not exactly a swap meet, but I made out like a bandit on a 69 Barracuda parts car about 20 years ago. My 69 340 Barracuda had an automatic, but I always wanted a 4-speed. I checked with Brewer's, but it was going to be at least $2500 to buy what I needed. I found a 69 Barracuda FB with a running 340, 4 speed, bucket seats, console and an 8.75 with 3.55 Sure Grip on Ebay. I won the auction for $2700. It cost me about $400 to drive to Chicago, rent a trailer and drive it home. So I'm into it for $3100. I took out all the 4 speed stuff, then I parted the rest of the car out (it was pretty rough). I also sold the automatic and the console out of my car since I would not be needing it. I made about $3500 selling stuff. So I got the four speed conversion for better than free.
 
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barbee6043 said:
IT is an art to be able to "talk the seller" down without totally pissing him off!!!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
Click to expand...
I had a guy look at a pair of bench seat hinge covers I had priced at $10. He offered $5 saying that they weren't in that good shape.
"Then why would you want them? That is why they are priced so cheap."
He gave me ten dollars after laughing.
 
I did $5500 at a Fall Fling.

Bought out a huge stash of E-body parts from a guy to get a fraction of cool items out of the total.

It was a FULL U-haul box van full of parts. I didn't have a place to store that much stuff. I had stuff laying out in my backyard, in my living room, in a full garage space, etc. And lots of it was tough to ship. At Fall Fling I unloaded the day before. No way I could of setup the morning of.

So I sold E-body dash frames with core pads for $75, A/C dash assemblies $50, Rear seat frames $40. Priced to move. Most buyers flipped that stuff again. Lots of meat left on the bone.

End of day there wasn't much left. most fit in a couple of Costco totes. I sold some good items before the show. I still three times'd my money and I still have NOS Doug Nash 5-speed w/shifter, rebuilt 3.55 SG, and about $2K in E-body parts.
 
When I went to Mopar Nats. back decades ago, I got there as soon as gates opened on Thur. for the early bird buyers and the other parts vendors looking for good deals to flip. I sold about 30% of my parts Thur, and by Fri late afternoon I was usually 70% sold out and by Sat at noon 98% sold out.. Then I watched all the vendors that on Sun by noon when they were ready to pack up and leave, they still had so much of what they had brought. many times way more that "much".

I always wanted my parts priced to MOVE and make the needed profit to go there. I would ask a buyer IF he thought my price was FAIR, many times they would say "YES, but IF I don't haggle my buddies will think I am a pussy!" :poke: :BangHead:
 
crackedback said:
You mean it's not a good idea to "gas monkey" sellers? LOL

I love those people. Same as others have mentioned, I have a price on it and you offer 25-50%. Don't have time for you. Most of my stuff even at the marked price was a really good value.

My last day really running a swap spot I barely sold enough to cover fuel/entry. That was the last time I bought a spot. Best days were solid and paid the rent for a few months!
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I could always recognize a what I thought was a fair price, and paid that for a part I needed. If a part I needed, I thought was over priced I made an offer. If the guy got pissed and beligerant, I left his spot never to never return again. I have paid premium for parts that were hard to find I needed bad. We all have no doubt.

Back in the day, I bought at small local swaps, I always had cars to build. I could sell a part for $50, make $10 profit and 2 months later need that same part, then have to make 10 phone calls, drive 2 hours, wade thru the weeds and wasps and copperheads to take it off, and end up paying $75 for it!!!
I tried to haul parts to Nats to help pay for the 12 hour trip from Mo. Last time was about 2004 and the price of gas, the cost of swap space and hotels made it NOT worthwhile at all. It works for the locals there. Locals are only 4 hours away!! and sleep in a tent!!
 
Kern Dog said:
Holy crap...I missed that one. What year was that?
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Fall Fling 2016

This pic was near end of day. Sold a ton of stuff real early. I had stuff packed on these tarps ! See how they are empty.

There was light rain in the days before. And it was a light spectator turnout.

FF16DaveP Sm62.JPG


Copy of IMG_0069.JPG
 
harrisonm said:
Not exactly a swap meet, but I made out like a bandit on a 69 Barracuda parts car about 20 years ago. My 69 340 Barracuda had an automatic, but I always wanted a 4-speed. I checked with Brewer's, but it was going to be at least $2500 to buy what I needed. I found a 69 Barracuda FB with a running 340, 4 speed, bucket seats, console and an 8.75 with 3.55 Sure Grip on Ebay. I won the auction for $2700. It cost me about $400 to drive to Chicago, rent a trailer and drive it home. So I'm into it for $3100. I took out all the 4 speed stuff, then I parted the rest of the car out (it was pretty rough). I also sold the automatic and the console out of my car since I would not be needing it. I made about $3500 selling stuff. So I got the four speed conversion for better than free.
Click to expand...
Well, in that case


I was looking for a daily one day, and I had my heart set on a 99-03 cougar

One showed up at a local lot, and I was on it like a hawk

The guy said he couldn't sell it to me untill his mechanic had gone through it, but once it hit the lot, he probably wanted 8 grand for it


So I show up a week later with 8 grand, and he was not happy
Turns out when the mechanic went through it he found it needed a new clutch (which meant dropping the drive train and lifting the body up before you can even get the transmission off the engine)

But he was a man of his word and sold it to me for the aforementioned 8k

I drove that car for a year or so before I totalled it (about a week after I spend 300 dollars on replacing the sunroof)

After my deduction the insurance wrote me a check for $9500

I quickly swapped out the sunroof and sold that for $750

Made out well on that car
 
I’ll usually do three Mopar swaps a year all here in North Carolina and I’m just trying to get rid of the clutter that I’ve accumulated over the years. With that said I’ve never a had a bad day but the day will come shortly where it won’t be worth selling parts and I’ll start showing again.
 
I love the sport of swap meeting you will see me anywhere from Florida ,Eastern Tennessee ,Carlisle Pennsylvania ,Ohio,NC (my fav).....and so on...but ot hinders me from finding deals...I take a buddy and get him to sell/watch/text me...etc.. while I shop....I'm a shopaholic at swaps
 
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