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

[gunbunny]

I'm semi retired, but I teach school on one (school) year contracts. Because I am semi retired, I can't collect unemployment during the summer months as per my contracts. (I am service connected retired from the US Army and I took Obama's early retirement from the Post Office)
I sell locks, lock sets, and correct, hard to find keys at Carlisle and Mopar Nats.
I do well enough that it covers my costs, and it usually covers what I make from my teaching salary for the three months I'm down.
I enjoy doing it, it's fun to talk to people, it's cool to be able to help people and guys usually are impressed with my cutter set up.
Carlisle is the best. I can do more in one day at Carlisle than I day all weekend at Nats.
The downside, I never get to see anything at Carlisle unless it drives past me. I'm always waaayyyy to busy to break away to look for stuff.
I do go to the swap meet at Hershey PA. in the fall. That's the ultimate swap meet if you never been. You'll have to sort thru a bunch of stuff, but I have found that can I make money off something from every table.

 

[cosgig]

Walking around the Nats swap meet a few years ago and I see a 67 Barracuda hood leaning against the fence in someone’s spot. Super clean hood, and the inserts were perfect. I ask him how much and he says he’s been asking $200 all day but everyone just wants him to take the inserts out, give them a super good deal, and leave him with just the hood. He tells me $125 and get it out of his spot, he’s done with this ****. I get out my money and take the hood and all. Took it back to my truck and was followed by at least 3 guys trying to buy the inserts from me. I removed the inserts, put them in my truck for safe keeping, and put the hood in the bed. Still have the inserts in Nellas car, and I gave the hood to my buddy for his Formula S car that was in a fender bender. Best $125 I’ve spent in a long time. Yes, the inserts are still perfect, they even have the light argent paint still on them and looking good! And not a pit on them.

 

['69FuryConvertible]

I used to do the local swapmeets until my sources of parts dried up.

Best I ever did was Moparfest in 2018.

Best score was two truck loads of parts for $200, and amongst it was a '69 426 street hemi block and a '75 440 short block.....and no, I'm not BSing, it's still mind boggling and a story I'll be telling my grandkids

 

[harrisonm]

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

Nice. You gotta love stories like that. I was thinking that a clutch would not be a big problem, but lifting the body? That sounds like a big hassle.

 

[harrisonm]

Walking around the Nats swap meet a few years ago and I see a 67 Barracuda hood leaning against the fence in someone’s spot. Super clean hood, and the inserts were perfect. I ask him how much and he says he’s been asking $200 all day but everyone just wants him to take the inserts out, give them a super good deal, and leave him with just the hood. He tells me $125 and get it out of his spot, he’s done with this ****. I get out my money and take the hood and all. Took it back to my truck and was followed by at least 3 guys trying to buy the inserts from me. I removed the inserts, put them in my truck for safe keeping, and put the hood in the bed. Still have the inserts in Nellas car, and I gave the hood to my buddy for his Formula S car that was in a fender bender. Best $125 I’ve spent in a long time. Yes, the inserts are still perfect, they even have the light argent paint still on them and looking good! And not a pit on them.

Nice. What are a pair of those inserts worth in that kind of condition?

 

[cosgig]

Nice. What are a pair of those inserts worth in that kind of condition?

Probably $500 plus.

Unfortunately the hood will probably never be used. The S car it’s slated for has been dormant since 1971, because of the aforementioned fender bender. 17k miles on it! 383 4 speed car.

 

[barbee6043]

I have a Mopar bud in Al. He had a bud that owned an old boneyard and he would let my friend go out and take off bolts, screws, the little things for free. My bud would drive to Carlisle and sell these "trinkets" for $1 ea. He had many many little plastic boxes with 3 x 3 holds for each and all labeled. By the end of the day, he had a 5 gal. bucket full of $1 bills but probably not $300 total! for the 3 days! but he loved the trip and selling that stuff. Jimmy Smith. Alabama.

 

[YY1]

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.

View attachment 1716267170

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That's funny. Two of the best Don Garlits meets I had were both in a light rain.
I was wearing my "Henry Blake" hat to keep dry, and I had people backed up 3 and 4 deep waiting to buy stuff.

 

[diymirage]

Nice. You gotta love stories like that. I was thinking that a clutch would not be a big problem, but lifting the body? That sounds like a big hassle.

It wasn't what we'd remember from the 70s, when cougars were landyaghts, this thing looked more like a European sports car

But they managed to stuff a V6 and a 5 speed manual in there and they installed them much the same way ma mopar installed the drive train in our A bodies

But once it's in, there no wiggle room

 

[autoxcuda]

That's funny. Two of the best Don Garlits meets I had were both in a light rain.
I was wearing my "Henry Blake" hat to keep dry, and I had people backed up 3 and 4 deep waiting to buy stuff.

If other sellers do not come because of rain, that reduces your competition of sellers.

 

[PROSTOCKTOM]

A friend and I went to Ford Carlisle 10-years ago and sold $18,000 worth of stuff between us. That was the best haul we ever had at a swap meet.

I sold a BBF Trick Titanium bellhousing, a Boss 429 block, some intakes. It added up fast and we were a lot lighter on the trip home. Any Carlisle event is awesome.

Tom

 

[barbee6043]

I drove all the way from Mo. to Carlisle twice, back in the 90s. The first time it was hot like now, no body was buying anything. All they did was walk around with a sweat rag and complain about the heat. It was HOT! This was maybe 93 or 4 or 5? Took me 3 days to sell a 70 perfect shaker hood for $600.
The second time, I took my perfect 71 340 Cuda survivor (but with a perfect repaint) that needed nothing. Triple back 4 speed car. Priced to sell in the swap area over by my buds parts. No one even nibbled. This was about 1996-7 and priced at $9000. Then a storm blew thru one nite, and put a bad scratch on trunk lid.
Carlisle is a great show but I have not had luck there!

 

[MMissile]

I hadn't sold at a swap-meet in decades, and decided to do a couple last year.

I went to a local mopar show in Jan, with a minivan full of stuff and sold 2.5K in one day. That was pretty good.
Went to a local outdoor mopar show in the spring, and sold 6K of stuff out of my minivan, in about 5-6 hours. Splendid.
I went to the nats last year. First day [setup] I sold 11K in parts. Friday and Saturday....2K. Dealers were buying....
I went to the new Norwalk/mopar show/race....hardly covered the nut for the weekend. That was poorly advertised.

I'm not physically able to lug stuff around now, and am sitting-out this year for selling at swap-meets. Maybe after another back surgery.

 

[volaredon]

Years ago I went to the winter swap that used to be at Larry roesch Dodge in Elmhurst IL in Feb.
Id been there to browse and buy prior, I think I sold there 1 prior year to this one about 3 years earlier.
Among my stash I had a set of 273 adjustable rockers and shafts in a crane cams box. I honestly didn't dig too deep to see if they were original Mopar parts or whether they were something special from Crane. I had them at $50. This guy kept coming back badgering me to let him have them for $25. I kept telling him no. I left to use the bathroom and he came back and told my wife I said he could have them for $25. She let him have them for that price. I was pissed.
Then later on I went to get some pop and here he has a booth 3 away from me and has MY parts on his table for $75. I was really pissed. I told him I'd give him his $25 back and I think he was gonna jump the table and choke me

 

[volaredon]

Got another one
I've sold misc garage stuff at flea markets at least as many times as I've set up at a swap meet selling car parts.
At this one flea market I used to frequent (more often to buy than sell) I had a 12hp cast iron kohler off a garden tractor. I had $50 on it. Same story, different buyer than above. Probably 80 miles from Elmhurst, this one was in Indiana.
Guy kept bugging me to sell it for 1/2 or less. I told him I'd keep it for that. Had a buddy working with him that came by offered me the same. Then the original guy came back by probably 1/2 hour later. asked me again how much. I really had to have for that motor. I told him $60 since I'd seen him already. Only this time his buddy who came by 2nd and asked me about it was leaning against a telephone pole about 3 vendor spaces down "watching". I told the guy that between him and his buddy (and I pointed towards the pole) they oughtta have $50 between them. Even then everyone else into those sort of thing wanted at least $125 for a running 12hp Kohler. Why do I have to be the guy who can't get scrap price when everyone else gets the going price? I'm tired of it. When I go to sell something I try to look up what others are selling the same thing for and I try to start out lower than "them" to begin with. If I was looking to buy that engine I couldn't touch one for less than $125. So why should 20% of that (the $25 they offered me) be fair? I ended up getting my $50 out of that engine from someone else. These guys both came by later and were mad when I didn't have it anymore

 

[Kern Dog]

Years ago, my mom used to sell trinkets at flea markets. She was a friendly lady but once she got pissed off, she got mean.
A cheapskate came up looking at something and asked How much you want?
Mom stated “Twenty dollars.”
I give you ten dolla”
That was one way to piss her off. Offer HALF and you just made the list. Mom responded :
“Twenty five dollars”.
The cheapskate looked confused. Okay, I give you twelve dolla.
“Thirty dollars.”
The cheapskate shook her head in frustration and said Uhh, no-no-no, you not supposed to go up, you supposed to go down!
“Thirty five dollars.”
Mom knew there was no sale to be made so she burned the bridge down.
That is classic!

 

[missing linc]

Years ago, my mom used to sell trinkets at flea markets. She was a friendly lady but once she got pissed off, she got mean.
A cheapskate came up looking at something and asked How much you want?
Mom stated “Twenty dollars.”
I give you ten dolla”
That was one way to piss her off. Offer HALF and you just made the list. Mom responded :
“Twenty five dollars”.
The cheapskate looked confused. Okay, I give you twelve dolla.
“Thirty dollars.”
The cheapskate shook her head in frustration and said Uhh, no-no-no, you not supposed to go up, you supposed to go down!
“Thirty five dollars.”
Mom knew there was no sale to be made so she burned the bridge down.
That is classic!

I like her! I've wanted to do that sooo many times when selling something. Awesome!

 

[Kern Dog]

I love telling that story. I get a few laughs with that one. I have done it to cheap people and some have been really cool about it, as if they were thinking yeah, okay… I see your point.

 

[missing linc]

My only experience as a seller at a swap meet was pretty good. About 2008 or 2009 I packed up a whole bunch of parts I didn't have any need for, filled my Expedition and my 5x7 utility trailer. I got there a bit late, but picked a good spot I guess because there was lots of traffic. In 5 hours I had sold around 80% of my stuff, and was almost giving things away. Took home just shy of $1000.00.

Different take on the thread, I was looking for a pair of specific wheels, found them on an online website, contacted the seller and offered his asking price for them. Crickets.
Two weeks later at a local swap meet, I see the same wheels, so I ask the seller if they were the same ones from the website. He says yes, but now he wants $100 more for them. I told him that I had offered him the asking price on the website previously and got no response, but I would make the same offer. This was early on the morning, and he said no, he wanted a lot more now. I walked away, checked out the rest of the sellers and stopped by again at the end of the day. He still had them, so I repeated the same offer, he declined so I walked away.

 

[abdywgn]

^^^^^let him pack 'em and take them back home again.

 

[phantomx]

I really like swap meets for the most part and enjoy selling/talking to people. Probably the most fun I had was at Arco arena where I was selling random parts and my dad’s 51 F-4 truck. I was talking to random people that weren’t talking to me like a carnival barker. If they glanced at something I’d start telling them how they could own it today. Super fun, and sold the truck too.

I rarely ever made a ton of money as it’s been at least 15 years since I sold at a swap and the prices on even average stuff hadn’t yet begun to soar. Not selling, but one of my better scores at a swap was about 8 years ago on a 70s Jeep manual trans/tcase combo. It was a harder to find unit and the guy had no idea what it was. I paid $40 for it because it felt smooth when turned. I sold it within 2 days for $650.

On another note, I advertised a bunch of 68 barracuda parts and a youngish guy came to buy something. He was trying to piece together a car that had been partially parted out. I ended up giving him a hood, a bunch of trim, lights, random interior bits, etc to get his project moving, all for the price of the one thing he came to buy. I hope he got his car going, he seemed genuinely thankful.
Travis..

 

[Kern Dog]

I'm the same way. I'd be willing to give stuff to a guy that is just starting out as long as the dude seems genuine.
In 2024, I was selling at a Mopar show in the Bay Area. Some guy and his buddy came by a couple times and bought a few things. I thought he was a decent guy. A couple weeks later he called and came out to the house to look at a parts car I have. He turned into a greedy, nickel and dime cheapskate even after complimenting me for having prices on stuff a LOT cheaper than anyone else he saw at the swap meet. This asshole saw me being fair and tried to push even further. I did sell him some things but not at the rates he wanted. A little while later he called again and I let him know that I wouldn't sell anything to him from now on. He needed to learn when a good deal is offered, pushing further tends to really piss people off.

 

[phantomx]

I hear ya there. The guy I gave the parts to didn’t ask for deals, just that he would call me when he had more money to spend on it. After we were talking for a while, I started asking him if his car was missing this part or that part as I was pulling them out. Once I had the pieces accumulated I told him to just take it all and enjoy his car.

One time at a swap meet I had a complete set of 70 cougar tail lights, fuel door, quarter extensions with back up lights and the trunk harness with the turn signal sequencer. I think I was asking $100 for all of it, nice driver quality stuff. A guy came by like 3 times talking looking, touching, being pushy and annoying. He kept saying he would give like $30 or something because the lenses weren’t that nice or something stupid. I kept telling him no. The last time I told him I’d sooner smash them on the ground and throw them in the dumpster than sell them to him. He walked off in a big huff.

I was selling one time in the early 90s and had an iron big block 4 speed bell and I think I had $150 on it, probably high side of fair at the time but I wasn’t gonna give it away. A dude comes by and looks it over and says too much. A bit later he swings by and tries me again, I said no. It was getting later and I wanted to walk the swap quick before everyone leaves, and here’s the dude selling parts and has my same bell for sale only crusty and he wants $250 or some such. People have some nerve I tell ya.
Travis..

 

[slapstickjim]

Me and a friend used to scrap cars back in the 90s. And save mopar parts to sell at carlise and englishtown. Bought cars for way cheap sold parts way cheap. 10 spots at both meets. We would come home with 12 g easily at both meets. Alil better at englishtown. Wow the good ol days. We'd be drunk for most the meet and walk around with 6 plus grand in my pocket. Lol.

Best was one year at Englishtown sold some parts to Don garlits ( to buzzed to get autograph), that night(slept at our parts) some guy took me down the strip in his new viper at 2 am, and we also sat at bill mavericks stand and drank with him till the sun came up. Wow the stories he had. Not sure how he did a wheelie the next day with how much we drank lol

 

[Brad5301]

Last time i went to Mopar Nats i didn’t need anything, so i made a point to spend money at those tool vendors- to get odd and end things i didnt have such as a snap ring tool set. Was walking along collecting things , looking at each bin. Drifted into the next vendor table and realized it. The tool guy was staring at me , i asked if that was another vendor. Said it was, and i proceeded to settle up, but he was talking with the other guy, I presume asking if i had pocketed anything. I bought the items i had selected and he was just like “ get out of here”.

Make a point to give some business, and i was dealing with a carnie