Have Swap Meets lost their appeal?

[kqw]

Having attended several swap meets over the years including Hershey, Princeton and the PCA 50th anniversary, the amount of vendors participating seems to be waning.

Those vendors that do attend sell their products for list price if not higher. I mean, how many more "T" shirts do I need? I already have the equivalent of 5 years worth of oil filters.

How about a hat that has the "RUF" logo for $25.00...How about $2.75 for french fries, $2.50 for a 12oz bottle of wate, $4.50 for a hot dog etc, etc.

I imagine if there is a particular part(s) that are used and in short supply, then the swap meet may be an outlet to procure such parts. However, with the internet and this BBS, you can just about find anything you want.

The most fun is caravaning to and from the event but otherwise, I think the appeal is moving away from what a true swap meet used to be...

Oh well...

[Bobboloo]

I think the answer lies within your post. It's called the internet. There are professional swap meet vendors and they've learned that they do better on ebay so the prices reflect this. Loading everything up hauling it to a swap meet only to get low balled is falling out of popularity.

Even the people that are just doing projects have realized they get more for their junk on ebay so they sell there to help fund their projects.

It's too bad. Swap meets can be a lot of fun. I had a booth at GAF last week and had a blast blowing things out and getting to chit chat with other enthusiats. One of the guys was an ebay vendor who bought some stuff to sell on ebay. I know he'll double his money but that's cool because I just wanted to empty the garage out.

[Jack Olsen]

The internet in general... and Ebay in specific.

The old model of the swap meet favored the buyer. It was hard for vendors to get word out to very many people about what they had to sell.

Ebay is the opposite. Millions of buyers can see the parts, and the vendor can simply sit back and wait for the competitive bidding to start.

[Oh Haha]

You guys need to have some in OUR neck of the woods.(MI, Indiana, etc.)
I love going to swap meets. I am not much of a haggler so that doesn't appeal to me. I like to see the part I am interested in. The Internet is good but a live swap meet is better, IMO.

EDIT; I wrote"you guys" but you know what I mean.

[john walker's workshop]

being an old car nut, i used to go to any and all swap meets that were within a reasonable distance. now it's down to just a couple of local ones. there just isn't anything there. i went to pomona several years ago and bought nothing other than a hamburger. mustang and camaro stuff by the truckload though. i'm into 40s and early 50s cads and buicks, as well as 911, and the only place i get anything good now is ebay. sucks.

[pwd72s]

I miss the social aspects of the live meets more than the parts...the face to face chats with other gearheads.

[mb911]

I plan on going to hershey next year with our business. If nothing else its a fun time and maybe we will sell enough to pay for the trip and for sure get our name out there. Ebay sucks for our business so swaps and word of mouth do best by us along with pelican have our products in there online mag and a few others mostly you have to be out there. But yes swaps are down. There is no place in wisconsin that has any swaps for p cars

[TRE Cup]

Even Ventura Auto Fest was lighter on sellers this year. We didn't sell this year since our expenditures of hauling, set up, refilling the shelves upon return did not meet income selling. I suppose if you are just trying to blow the stuff out at any price and like to socialize, then it has its appeal. But e bay and the net (especially this site included) expose parts far better than most swap meets.
I like to reminice about the days where one could walk away with a healthy amount of $$ from meets, but that falls into the same category as a Apple Lisa computer and cassette tapes.
Technology marches on

[goat]

I attended the swap meet in Sacramento on Sunday yesteday. The local PCA was also part of the hosting they did a great job for the social aspect. BUT! sellers, I could count on one hand how many were there. not good.

[kqw]

Originally posted by mb911
I plan on going to hershey next year with our business. If nothing else its a fun time and maybe we will sell enough to pay for the trip and for sure get our name out there.

Good luck....

Hershey USED to be the place to be in the early spring however, the past few years the weather has seriously hindered the turnout. Not many folks are willing to slosh around the PA turnpike
to get there just to have a miseable time trying to stay dry and warm.

Vendors are taking a big chance on attendance as that Friday before the meet, folks are still undecided because of the weather forecast.

Swap meets used to be a great adventure. You could find parts both new and used for a price lower that going to a store. Not so anymore.

Then the food concessions (I'll never understand it) charge exorbitant prices for simple foods. Not that folks cannot afford the price but there is a principal here. Yes, make a profit but $4.50 for a hot dog and a bun and $2.50 for a small bottle of water is not my idea of swap meet prices.

Oh well....as was said earlier....times are a changeing....

[TWork]

Having attended a number of VW swap meets back in the day, and just attended the local meet put on by Silver Star on Sunday, I think there's a convergence of a number of things here that just makes selling parts via the internet much easier. Digital cameras are cheap, broadband is fairly widely available, discussion boards for folks with very, very specific internets are plentiful, and there are places like eBay and tools like PayPal.

Sellers can now with very little effort "market" their parts to their target audience with almost no cost (including shipping which is typically borne by the buyer in internet transactions). In contrast to the typical swap meet, a buyer on the internet can "see" what he's buying and get clarity as to what the part fits, any available history, etc.

As for the Silver Star meet yesterday, attendance overall (by show cars and vendors) was extremely light. I think in this case there just wasn't adequate marketing of the meet. For example, the Silver Star site, I don't think, was ever updated to reflect that there'd actually be a swap meet.

Just my 2 cents...

T.

[BoogieOnSkis]

Silverstar was yesterday? My Dad and I were planning to go to that one. In fact, I've been watching their website for more details on a weekly basis, and it STILL says "Information on the upcoming 2005 Porsche car show and swap meet will be posted here soon, please check back with us."

Silverstar has no one to blame for poor attendance but themselves.

[}{arlequin]

different way of thinking affects swap meets...

I'm sure if used to be that if you needed a certain part, you grabbed it when you saw it and moved on to another stand. Now certain parts are universally known to be desirable, therefore when someone sees a set of H1's for $400 or 15x7 fuchs at $100 each, they buy them whether they need them or not, thus taking out the "possibility of a deal" from a swap meet. It's sad b/c it's the very concept that a swap meet is supposed to promote....

[Jim Garfield]

I was disappointed at the size of the Parade swap meet, I thought that it was going to be spring swap size. Somehow I still managed to spend $500 though.

The internet has definitely taken a toll, but it can't replace the face to face interaction and great people that you meet.

[efhughes3]

Even ebay sucks now days. You really have to look for the good stuff. Do a search for Recaro, and you get about 500 cell phone holders shaped like a seat. Or Fuchs, there are about 25 entries for replicas. It used to be, I could punch up "Porsche 911" under parts and scroll thru the stuff, now it's mostly new junk.

[Biff]

Were in a disposable society now, in general we as a group are odd....meaning the general populace want new, new cars, new houses, new everything! Not old cars that need constant attention and TLC. I think that "we" the number of restoration guys are down and so the downward spiral of used parts and hence the effect on swap meets. You have to admit that with the fast pace of today that it leaves little time to weld in new suspension pans, re-bushing suspension systems, rebuilding engines, rebuilding this that and the other!

[TRE Cup]

it takes a real commitment to keep older cars going. You definitely have to love the particular model to spend the kind of dosh some of you have on your cars. we appreciate the personality these cars have and unfortunately like biff says, we are the oddities compared to the trends. certain parts will always be in demand while others will spiral to junk/recycle status
oh well...

Still doing our part to keep the world more beautiful; one early Porsche at a time...

[jim72911t]

Ben,
If your goal with going to Hershey is to get your name out there, then by all means, go for it. Hand out lots of flyers/brochures, shake a bunch of hands, and introduce yourself to as many people as possible.

If you are going there to make a profit, there are probably better ways. As an example, you undoubtedly get much more exposure for your product on this BB.

I used to go to any swap meet within a 600 mile radius to promote my products. Problem was, I rarely covered my travel expenses. If I was lucky, I would sell a few products at little or no profit just to cover what I spent in gas getting there. The other problem was that I usually ended up buying more than I sold. ('72T, these things happen )

That being said, I still enjoy the occasional swap meet, if for no other reason to meet fellow P-car nuts and look at some nice cars.

Jim

[Todd Simpson]

Man, lots of interesting thoughts in here.

While the internet has driven down prices of many things, in the case of Pcar parts it seems it's driven them up. To Jack's point the exposure is so much larger.

[Wayne 962]

I agree. eBay has killed Pomona. Most of the junk out there (especially in the American section) is new stuff, or tools, etc. The used parts business there is dead and/or dying.

That said, eBay is a great place to find hard-to-find stuff that you could never find anywhere else!

-Wayne