Don't Do A Swap Meet On Pay Day

gregski

Active Member
Mar 13, 2010
577
0
28
Sacramento, California
So last weekend I attended THE "ORIGINAL" RENO SWAP MEET Reno Swap Meet as in Reno Nevada, naturally this year it was held at Arco Arena (home of our semi pro basketball team called the Kings, lol) in Sacramento, California, go figure. But hey it was half a mile away from my house. It started at 6:00 friggen AM, I woke up at 6:30am and litterally walked down there since it's closer to walk then to drive, find a parking space, and then walk to it. At 6:00 am there were already droves of people there.

It was by far the biggest car swap meet I have ever been to, ok it was the first car swap meet I have ever been to, but it was still the biggest. Some shoppers were equipped better than others. The brown beards brough red radio flyer waggons, the gray beards brought red radio flyer waggons with beer coolers on them, me the no beard brought a tank top, no hat, and sun glasses.

PRICES:
It was really cool to see that you can still buy things for reasonable prices, like a set of headers for $20 bucks, a four barrell stock 289/302 intake manifold with a carb spacer for $20 bucks, stock 289 exhaust manifolds $15 bucks, a Holley 1850 four barrell carb for $10 bucks, a mechanic long sleeve button up shirt for $5 bucks (hey I gotta look the part), alternator brackets $5 bucks each (don't get me started on brackets), Carter four barrell carburetor FREE, sun burn PRICELESS.

PROTOCOL:
Sellers were hella cool, if you asked them a question and they didn't know the answer they told you up front, they really did not push you to buy anything, and they didn't want you to walk away having bought a part they knew would not fit your make and model.

You could hear guys on two way radios going "... I have a MOPAR guy right here, where you at Bill, he is interested in the ..." too cool!

Then there were the mandatory "Selling This As A Set Guys". Ok, don't get me wrong, I thought I knew what a set was, a pair of valve covers is a set, you wanna sell them as a set, a pair of headers is a set, you don't wanna break them up. But how in the world is a pair of chrome valve covers, an aluminum intake, and a pair of rusty headers all a set. This guy had a buyer for the valve covers offering 2/3 of the price of the entire "set" just for the valve covers, and the seller would not break up the "set" LOL. Needless to say the dude wasn't selling any of his crap, but he could have, big time.

TIPS:
Don't buy heavy stuff from the first vendor you see, like cast iron 289 exhaust manifolds, or cast iron intake manifold, or both, and then have to carry it for the rest of the day (6 hours) I'm just sayin'.

Start at the back row (if you can find the back row) and work your way back towards the entrance/exit, as you carry all the heavy crap.

Offer the guy half of what he is asking, you can always pay full price if you feel like it, but it doesn't hurt to try. A lot of guys out there did not wanna hull the stuff back to their garages, they were selling things at rock bottom prices.

See a dude selling cool stuff but you don't need it then and there, or can't afford it, exchange contact information with them, who knows you may shoot them a call 6 months later and pick it up then.

CONCLUSION:
I was there for over 6 hours and I saw half of the stuff there, I did not laddy da, I moved from table to table, did not go through bins, and I still did not take it all in. It was too big, good complaint to have. They had whole cars for sell there, and boats, and pictures of the cars they did not bring but wanted to sell. Admission was $6 bucks, and I don't know what others paid for parking, eventually I snuck in through the "Here To Pick Up Big And Heavy *****" entrance in the back, LOL. Wish you were there, maybe you were!

You can't see the swap meet for the trees in the pictures below so take that one shot of the alley times 50 !!!

Rent or rusty parts, rent or rusty parts ? ...

http://www.renoswapmeet.com/RENOSwapApp2009-2.pdf

SwapMeet1.jpg


SwapMeet2.jpg


SwapMeet3.jpg


SwapMeet4.jpg
 
  • Sponsors (?)