northeast contingent...

[ryoken]

anyone been going to the swap meet at Englishtown recently? particularly the fall show?

not sure if i ever went to the fall one, and haven't been to the spring one in prolly 15, 20 yr's....

 

[swettysblazer]

@rcfatcat

 

[Comatose Camel]

anyone been going to the swap meet at Englishtown recently? particularly the fall show?

not sure if i ever went to the fall one, and haven't been to the spring one in prolly 15, 20 yr's....

In my opinion Paul, the Englishtown swap-meet has been pretty lame for the last handful of years now. I find that the majority of the sellers are emotionally attached to their stuff and charge way too much.

For years I have been going early Saturday mornings during both spring and fall to beat the crowds (and the heat) to hopefully find some squarebody stuff but to no avail, I always get skunked.

I find that this swap-meet has evolved into a place where people go to sell their dirt bikes and quads and feature very little in the form of automobile parts.

I'm going to continue going twice a year (or however often the new owners of the track want the swap-meet) for the subject matter, exercise and well you know, "buy this bolt, get a free beer."

 

[ryoken]

thanks man... yeah, i should have specified what i was getting after... I'm really not interested in parts shopping, at all.. at one time, i was scouring it for chevelle parts and such.. but these days, my ch*t is so custom it's rare i'm looking for that kind of stuff.... not even sure how much cruisin around I'd get in...

I was more interested in if it still gets a ton of people, and if the car show stuff is pretty much the same..... I'm thinking of bringing my rig and hanging out for the day on like saturday... I've never done that.... do that dirt side of the track parking deal.. maybe do a bit of strolling around for anything goofy that catches my eye... but if it's gonna be lame, i don't wanna go thru the trouble...

 

[KirsL]

None of the swap meets that I've been to are anything like they were years ago. I've been to englishtwon, Carlisle, and the turkey rod run in Daytona. While neat to go to, the Internet has pretty much killed what they were years back.

 

[ryoken]

the Internet has pretty much killed what they were years back.

hadn't even thought of that....

 

[diesel4me]

I went to Englishtown once ,probably back in the late 90's..place was incredible,HUGE was an understatement...we walked around for at least 6 hours (after driving from 3 am till 9 am to get there !),and still saw maybe half of the goods for sale..

I used to go to all the swap meets around my area--my older brother and I used to sell stuff at one in Amherst NH every last Sunday of the month from April to October--that place had been around 40+ years ,then the land owner passed away and the place shut down for 2 years,the heirs wanted to sell the land for condo's but were shot down by the town,and the owners will stated it was "to remain as it was" for a certain number of years--they re-opened the swap meet,but by then,one other one held at New England Dragway had taken over most of the dealers and customers..I think my last time at Amherst was at least 15 years ago now..

I used to go to Stafford Springs Raceway and Thompson Speedway in CT to their swap meets too,but its been a long time since I last went to either place,most recently was Thompson,probably 5 years ago..

I noticed the swap meets seemed to be slowly drying up as the years went by,the internet and the fact many aftermarket parts can be had now that were never available back then killed off a lot of it..
I started seeing more motorcycle,quads and small engine related stuff being sold than car parts towards the end of my jaunts to those places--I'm to the point now I cant even make a lap around those race tracks,never mind haul any parts back to my vehicle..

The lone "big" swap meet closest to my town in Mansfield MA held at the Xfinity center (formerly "Great Woods") is no more--the owners and the hot rod club in charge of holding it decided to retire,and no one seemed interested in keeping it going--also the 2 day weekend affair had been an irritant to nearby residents,when the "dealers" would hold wild parties and camp out there,they drank,smoked pot,and generally got very rowdy,did burnouts and rode quads around all night ,which led to arrests and that probably helped to put an end to it...which sucks,because I have got many good deals there in the past,without having to travel 100+ miles..

 

[ryoken]

yeah, i went for yr's to the spring show, it was always a packed house.... I may bring the rig to the fall show and hang just to do something different....

 

[KirsL]

yeah, i went for yr's to the spring show, it was always a packed house.... I may bring the rig to the fall show and hang just to do something different....

That would be cool. They still draw a decent crowd. But like Bob was saying what's there for sale is a lot different.

I mostly go just cause and to get things like zip ties and wire loom and such in large quantities cheap. Can luck out with used tools sometimes too.

 

[ryoken]

yeah, that's kinda what i'm looking to do.. a bit of browsing.. and hang at the rig and drink a few rocks......

I'm just kind of curious to see how much attention the rig receives compared to all the "show cars" on the track... I certainly don't care if it wins anything... just to put it out there for peeps to check out something different.. maybe give a few some ideas for their own stuff....