Swap Meet Guide - The Perfect Swap Meet

Even with the inroads of Internet shopping, automotive swap meets remain the primary source for vintage cars, parts, and projects for a large segment of car enthusiasts. One man's scale of condition from restorable to good to N.O.S. may not match yours or ours, so there is still no substitute for seeing and handling a vintage part in person. One might think there are no more old goodies to be found, but new events are being held around the country, and the larger and more established swap meets are running out of room. What's the appeal that keeps the swaps going?

It's much like the Gold Rush of 1849. You get up at 3 a.m. on a weekend, pack all your shopping supplies, get a thermos of coffee, some donuts, and a heavy jacket, and head out on the highway to some remote field or fairground where you wade through huddled masses to scuttle around displays of rusty/dirty or shiny/new car parts with a large flashlight 'til you're ready to drop. When you spot that item you may or may not need desperately but can't pass up, even at a price you can't afford, you swoop in and your kid's red wagon now trots along behind you with a new treasure your wife doesn't know about. It's so cool that you may decide to build a whole car just to utilize this component, but it'll look sooo great on the garage wall until then. To many old and new street rodders, it doesn't get any better than this!

Bargain hunting is the main focus when attending a swap meet, whether you're a buyer or a seller. To answer the question, "What, to you, makes the perfect swap meet?" both groups would respond that a solid deal is the ultimate goal. However, there is some obvious difference of opinion on the achievement of this, depending on which side of the swap table you're on. A buyer would consider it a highly satisfying meet if he found a Tri-power manifold, a Mor-Drop axle, and a Deuce grille shell all in the first hour and for $100. He could quit while he's ahead and go back home and crawl back into bed before the family knew he'd even gone out to a swap meet. The seller, meanwhile, would also be pleased to get the maximum the traffic will bear for all of his parts and go home similarly early, serenaded with the hollow but sweet sound of an empty truck.

In high school physics, we're taught that water seeks its own level, and one demonstration was putting colored water in a length of clear plastic tubing. You could raise or lower either end of the tubing and see the water adjust to indicate the same level at each end, no matter what. That's analogous to the time-honored process of a swap meet buyer and seller coming to terms over swapping gold for tin. The camel traders and lamp vendors of the ancient Arabian bazaars would be pleased to see their haggling skills still being utilized centuries later, albeit without the use of scimitars or cursing, for the most part.

Besides the two main groups participating in swap meets, the vendors and the cash-in-hand wanderers, there is yet another voice to weigh in on our examination of this bartering institution-the promoters who actually put on the events. Their voices must be heard as well, so we'll take a look at each of these groups. Some of their comments may be factors you haven't considered in your own analysis of what makes the perfect swap meet.

Buyers
Of the three groups we interviewed, the buyers are the ones at the swap meet with everything to gain and nothing to lose beyond some cash for gas, donuts, and maybe an entry or parking fee. Their main purpose in attending is ostensibly to look for a car or parts for a project, but we know far too many graybeards who have one or two finished street rods and no plans for anything else, yet we see them at all the swap meets. There's more involved here than strictly commerce, and that's the intangible part that's hard to explain to those outside our hobby. Besides acting as the hunting grounds for affordable parts for your projects, swap meets are very much a social gathering-a chance to see old friends and meet new ones with similar interests.

Some enthusiasts, young and old, find the swap meet is also a resource and research library. As long as you're smart enough to ask questions, there is always something to be learned from the various vendors. Is a '40 passenger front fender the same as a pickup model? Is there more than one type of oval-port big-block head/intake? Ask three or four vendors specializing in those items and you'll come away richer in knowledge, with information that could save you from buying the wrong item for your project. Don't see the intake you're looking for at a space devoted to intakes? It takes but a moment to ask the guy if he has what you need, and chances are he either has one at home or knows someone who does. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Even other buyers standing nearby tend to jump in with a suggestion if the vendor draws a blank.

As much as anything else, buyers are at the swap meet for fun, but they do have their preferences. A good location, easy parking, lots of vendors, and good weather are all pluses. Other considerations that rank high are a variety of food vendors-especially at large all-day-to-see-'em events where you may eat breakfast and lunch-and of course a beer vendor is icing on the cake for some buyers. All this inevitably leads to an appreciation of plenty of Porta-Potties spread around the event.

While vendors drive into and out of the swap meet either before or after the event, buyers want to take home larger items they've picked up now. Roads and rows big enough to get a buyer's car or truck in and out during the event without running over someone is considered a good thing.