Primarily Petroliana Shop Talk Forums Shop Talk Petroliana Forums Showcase and Stories, Petroliana SWAP MEET stories

any good swap meet stories out there?
see anyone walking 20 feet ahead of you buying something youve been looking for months?
any steals? ---??????????? LETS HEAR EM!!!!!!

i just saw a 33 ford grill sell that i think is the one i missed at a swap meet.?.
i dont care but it got me thinking about the swap meet drizzles & steals.

my brother & i decided to sell at a swap last year, we loaded up the truck (HEAVY), then hooked on the trailer, put my ol 38 ford truck on that & loaded that heavy inside & out also.
we got there early (so we thought) waited in line forever.
i told my brother to take off once inside & i would set up because i was buying nothing! i was there to sell! (most the junk was mine anyway) i was setting up & cash was rollin in, it was still soooooo dark guys were climbing all over our stuff with flashlights.
this guy wanted a fender i had laying out in the dark & we were talking & i noticed across from me at another vendor what looked like a 33-34 ford grill & i zipped over there right in the middle of our conversation, i grabbed it & couldnt see squat (so dark) i was running my hands all over it, i offered 100 less than the big ol price on it & nope was the answer so i hit him at 50 less & nope again.
OK so i set it down to get cash out. i had to have it! (it was a nice grill & kinda cheap)
BUT the dude that was just looking at my fender was standing so close to me you couldnt slide a paper plate between us LOL!!! he followed me right over there!!!?
he grabbed that grill as soon as i set it down & said: SHES IN MY HANDS NOW!!!!!! LOL!!!!!!
i asked WHAT are you doing man? carring it back over for me or what?
NOPE IM BUYING IT!!!!!!
LOL!! i didnt give a darn. i just laughed & said MY 34 has a perfect shinny grill on it anyway.
...AND our swap space was full of guys so i ran back to do some selling!
later that day a friend of ours bought another 34 grill there & its NICE he paid boookooo for that one & (tired of toting it around) set it in our space. he was clowning around & put a 300 price on it (that i didnt see) & left for me to guard it.
just then here come the ol grill thief back around on his second trip through, he stood way back & pointed at the grill.
i just shook my head at him! LOL!!!!!!!!!!
he was just frozen in position! LOL!
i said hey man what goes around comes around!!! its all good!!!!!!
LMAO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

AW YES,
Many years ago, I was at a canyon dump site. Lots [100's] of rusty 1 quarts. I bagged up 5-7 leaf bags of cans. Took them to the swap, spread them out. A guy walks up, "what are you asking for this ROUGH can" he asks. $5, "what, look at all the rust". What would you like to pay, I ask ? He says $2, then sets it back on the ground. I think about it. I said O.K. & at the same time, I SMASHED it with my foot. Then I said, now the can is worth $2. I think all the vendors around me thought the guy was having a heart attack. He called me everything that is not in the book FOR YEARS.
I laughed so hard my belly still hurts.
LMAO, every time I think about it.
Dick

Funny stuff, guys!
When the Pate TX swap was still out on the farm, we used two-way radios to keep in touch with each other and relate finds back and forth. A lot of people did the same and sometimes on the same channel. On one trip, two guys were talking about a Coke chest.....
"Bob, did you see that embossed Vendo over at 4th an L? The guy only wants $200 bucks!!MAN, it's NICE!"
and Bob says "Where is it again? I think I want it!" "4th and L" Bob's buddy replies "It's in the back of the space where you can't see it"
Of course, we heard it all. And one of my buddies collects machines. Coke only. And was nearby. You can guess what happened My buddy said 'ol Bob had a real funny look on his face when he got there two minutes later and the Vendo was sold

Learned along time ago if you are interested in an item pick it up hang onto it if you can't find a price and don't let go unless you want to chance losing it. Never point to an item and ask a price unless your just window shopping. I grabbed a Shell original pump plate this last summer at Hot August Nights and didn't see a price. Couldn't find the seller so walked around until I got his attention. Well the price was $2500 but I scared the hell out of him cause he thought somebody walked off with it. Went to another booth and picked up and old office math calculator for a piece to put in my office and got it for $10 and got offered $100 by another guy that had intrest in it but didn't pick it up. Go fiqure. Love those swap meets. Ted

Great stories guys......Last summer me and my brother were at a swap meet real early and a truck just about runs over us pulling in their spot. It has a neat two sided neon Firestone sign with an arrow around it in the back of it and we kept on walking without asking how much it was. A few minutes later I see my neighbor with it in the back of his truck. We ask him what he had to give for the sign and he says $100. I always ask the price of items I see now. Great thread tom 2 tone.

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Scott Shipers
Home of the Chiefs
and not the Royals

While searching Carlisle in search of parts for my Austin Healey, I was looking for a turn signal/horn switch that mounts in the center of the steering wheel. Good used ones sell for around $200.00. Reproductions were avaliable for $149.00. I came across a guy set up with alot of parts in boxes still in his trailer. Somthing told me to start digging around to see if there is anything of interest. I open up a box that contained a new old stock switch. When I asked the guy what he had to have for it he said I would have to wait till his buddy got back to give me a price. I explained to him that I drove all night and was ready to head back to Ohio. He then looked me and said how's 40 bucks sound.
I almost broke my wrist reaching for my wallet.
Later on I met up with my uncle while walking the swap meet. I showed him a gas pump that was for sale but I could never find anyone around. He looked at me and said if I wanted a gas pump he had one he wanted to give me. That was my first pump (Tokheim 39 short) and started the oldgas addiction I have had for the last 8 years.

This is a good thread,this stuff cracks me up!So two years ago I setting up at Jefferson swap meet to vend car parts and gas stuff,I put out two old whitewall cheater slicks,mounted on black steelie rims kinda tacky nothing real nice, or I would have kept them for my 36 coupe.I put a price tag of 75.00 on them,I think everyone that walked past them stopped to check them out,but no offers to be made yet.My buddy that I vend with every year says lets bumb the price up to 175.00,because everyone is looking at them and its still early.Ok sounds good,I can always drop down to my orginal price,sure enough two guys that looked at them earlier stopped by again,and say hey they were only 75.00 this morning.I said ya thats when you should have bought them.He himed and hawed and finally busted out the 175.00$ and rolled them away.So I had to buy my buddy Pete a few more beers than normal,man I love swap meets!!

HEY Petroholic my brother bought some OLD whitewall slicks at the roadster swap in St.paul a few years ago & he come rolling those babies back to our space & man was there ever a line of guys behind him!

i dont think they had wheels? & i remember lifting them & they weighed as much as a 36-B without a top on it! LOL!

MAN was he getting offers & one guy steps up & says: DO YOU KNOW HOW FAR I JUST DROVE TO BUY THOSE TIRES? i finally get here & watch you rolling them past me!!! LOL!

couldnt sell them though, they had a home on a 32 ford coupe we had just snagged out of a shed that was built in 1960.
MAN those babies smoked!!!!!!
the car was fenderless & black stinky powder just flew off of them when my brother was screwing around out in the street! HAHAAAAAAA!!!!!!!
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HEY Dick thats funny!!!!!! just like the guy who ran the salvage yard i get parts from, he would tell a guy like 20 bucks for a taillight & they'd offer like 10 & he'd just smash it all to heck & say its 5 now!!!!!!
ALTHOUGH almost everytime the customer would pick up the pieces & buy it!!!!!! LMAO!!!!!!
he used to stop & tell me his stories & i'd laugh like crazy!


[This message has been edited by tom 2 tone (edited 09-02-2004).]

Ya my slicks were HEAVY also, they used to just recap old tires into slicks,so I think thats where the weight comes from.
After I sold those slicks two others came back and asked where they went.
That nostalgic is so hot right now I wish I had a few more sets laying around!!
Do you vend at Back To The Fiftes show?I scored a nice Sunoco Dynafuel script top a few years back.

Com'on guys,
there has tobe MORE.
Dick

yes must be more entertaining stories out there.

nope Petroholic i never sold at the 50s but ive been there 31 times.
we sometimes set up at the roadsters swap in October.

Several years ago we went to the Covered Bridge Festival flea markets in Indiana with some friends. I was mostly collecting cans at the time. My friend Rick (who I've been friends with for over 40 years now) and I were walking the first row of the market. Rick says "are we just going to look on the right side of the aisle?" I said, sounds good. Next thing I know Rick is on the run, headed to the LEFT side of the aisle! I'm like, what's he see? what's he see?....then I spot it..... a yellow 5 quart Kendall can. I could run way faster than Rick, but he had tooooo much of a head start on me. LOL. He got that mint 5qt for 5 or 10 bucks!
With "friends" like that who needs enemies?
Actually it was worth it just to hear the lame excuses he's come up with. LOL
Bob

We were setting up at a general line flea market when my wife and son told me to look across the asile. The dealer was setting out a clover shaped Cities Service sign. I finished unpacking the box I was working on and looked up just in time to see someone carrying the sign away. That sign wasn't out for 15 seconds! It sold for $60.

the problem with swap meets sometimes is you leave at 2:00AM or whenever with little or no sleep, all wired up on coffee, all excited & overwhelmed when you get there looking at miles of rusty prizes. LOL!
seems it takes your brain time to catch up with your body!

i bought some "homemade" stainless exhaust covers one time, they were made nice & everybody i passed wanted to look at them. i had to have them until i got home. i just respected the workmanship, someone had hours in them and i resold them a year later & now i rarely go to a swap in the twin cities area where i dont see them again! LOL!
those covers have changed hands so many times its cRaZy!
i was looking at them last year & i told the new owner they sure were made good, he said i needed to buy them & i said NOOOOOO HECK NO i already owned & carried them around once!
i can picture those covers laying in the bottom of a box marked SWAP MEET right now & ill see them again sooooon! LOL!

Too many swap meets, too many stories. About 3-4 years ago at the Portland, Or. swap meet Fred & I are walking the aisles BSing as usual when we just happen to get caught up behind a group of idiots that decide to stop & talk & jam up an aisle completely. I look down at a table with a bunch of non-descript rusty **** & spot a couple of Union Oil Aristo gas tank dipsticks from the 20's. I ask the guys at the table how much? One of 'em says how about $2 each? I about coughed up my spleen!!! 2 years ago I found a killer Eddie Meyer flathead intake at a small swap meet for a very reasonable price, had to borrow the $$ from one of my buddies!!! Turlock, 1997 I found a really nice 36" "Safety Tested Used Cars" sign in the mud for $125. Lots of gas guys had walked right past it!!! Swap meets..what would you do with out 'em!!!!!