I'd like to see if we could use this forum for posting on what's going on at swap meets and auctions this year. I was at Pate for 5 days this last weekend and saw a lot. This is one of the largest in the country and one of the first ones of the year. I met folks from South Dakota, Pennsylvania, California, North Carolina, Minnesota and Tennesee........ACES 1 was there too! I try and keep up with the market, what's the latest and greatest, what's selling and for how much. This is the place where I can talk to a lot of dealers, buyers and sellers and get brought up to speed on things.

I sold my 68 El Camino there. I took a week's vacation to detail it out and fix every little thing. A guy bought it at 11:00 PM in the pitch dark with nothing but a Bic lighter to look at it. Loaded it on a trailer and drove off with his young daughter and a 4 month old baby in a 77 flat-bed Ford PU at midnight. Pate is crazy! I'm happy I sold it, but it PISSED ME OFF! I wasted my time! Watch out...there's one crazy dude out there.......loaded with Ben Franklins!

If you were there, give us your take on your experience at Pate.

So here goes - what I observed:

Every year, there's some gadget or fad that ends up selling like crazy. 2005 - Two years ago it was the Orange County Chopper/Scwinn bicycles. I bought one for $100 and sold it $300 in < 5 minutes!

2006 -Last year, it was something simple - water. The vendors were all charging $2 for a bottle of water. The official rules of the meet prohibit sales of any food or drink by anyone without a permit. The people had enough and rebelled with about 40% of privateers selling water for $.50 to $1 No hassles from the authorities either.

2007- never would have guessed it when I saw them. Visors with fake spiked gray hair on the top. Yep! Everyone had to have one. The lady who brought 200 of them sold out in a day at $10 a piece. She was scrambling to get 300 more there on Friday. people were re-selling for $25! C r A z Y!

(2) 67 138 cars with non matching #'s that were pretty nice and could be had for 20K - Encouraging. Priced well, affordable and are market strong.

(2) Early El Caminos priced @ 30K. New territory for Elkys. The 67 was once owned by Chuck Nixon, one of our own. VERY nice #'s matching car. Don't know if it sold, but there was A LOT of interest in it. A lot!

(3) Pricing on classic cars continues to rise, although selling prices were further from the asking price as far as I know.

(4) There are ALWAYS deals on cars! You have to have $ in hand and be there before it's off-loaded. Saw a RARE 66 Pontiac 2+2 421 tri power, 4 speed, #'s matching car go QUICK! Needed a full resto, but a nice start.

(5) The effects of B-J are with us. It's hard looking at a 69 Camaro that's wavy all over, fresh acrylic enamal, 350/350 drum brakes, 10 bolt and nothing special and the owner has it priced at 25K. One guy told him, "You're supposed to do the body work BEFORE you paint it!

(6) Cars rapidly increasing in value:

>EARLY SIXTIES GM CARS
>77 - 80 TRANS AMS & Z-28'S IN GREAT CONDITION
>NICE 55 & 57 Chevys (they have been down in value the past few years)
>58-59 ANYTHING
>MOPARS ARE SELLING LIKE HAMBUGERS at any and all prices. 5 years ago, nobody was selling them.
>BUICK TURBOS
>82 - 83 X-28's - indy pace cars, H.O.'s >>>>ONLY VERY NICE EXAMPLES<<<<<
>Good project cars under 2K


(7) Cars that are losing value:

>Corvettes, 73 - up
>Anything painted PASTEL

(8) What's NOT selling:

>Small Hondas CT-70's, XR-75's & 70's Schwinn bicycles. OCC bicycles
>Junk
>$7 sandwiches & $5 Lemonade
>used late model parts
>Stuff you think will sell right away!

(9) WHAT'S SELLING WELL:

> Repop parts - ALL the vendors were extremely busy. Especially muscle car stuff. Not so much the antique and early Hot Rod stuff.
>$1 bottles of water
>Tools
>Auto body/ paint supplies (I spent a bunch, but saved up to 60%!!!!!)
>Stuff you think nobody will buy
>Anything with a free beer (we advertised and did well this way. Had fun too!)

(10) MISC.

If you want a good deal, get there when everybody is un-loading, have cash and a good wagon. Walk fast and pay attention!

You CAN bargain with vendors.

More cars are bought on their trailer coming in than during the next two days.

When a large cash infusion hits the car corral, there's a domino effect. Most privateers want to come home in a new ride with Franklins stuffed in their pockets. Dealers don't want to haul those cars back home. Saturday afternoons and evenings are business time. Everyone has seen everything available and are ready to hit on something.

Sunday afternoons can be a great time to cut a deal. If you see something overpriced, you may be able to snatch it late in the day.

Walked Pate Fri. afternoon and Sat. morning. Looking to buy but thought most stuff was overpriced as represented. My thought :
1. The 2 lemans blue 69 autos overpriced at $28500 . Getting harder to get these done at that money. Both went home I guess.
2. The bench seat marina blue 67 close but it was painted without removing front/rear glass. What else was hidden. Bench seat cars are definitely soft.
3.The black 67 was nice but the owner refused to soften while I was there. It was priced for the guy hunting his dream car.
4. How about the blueish/black 67 with blue interior from Nacodoches. Nice project well on its way but owner owned a restoration shop and did not remove old outside window fuzzies to paint it. That spoke volumes.

For me it was just the same ole same ole but I was just looking for something to buy. Everything was too high as represented or built so poorly it had too many problems for me. Buyers are becoming more educated and will not pay a premium for just anything. I am glad to see that good cars are not carrying tthe marginal ones now. This site can take a lot of that credit.

Sorry I missed you. Where to next?

I'd like to see if we could use this forum for posting on what's going on at swap meets and auctions this year.

Nice report :thumbsup:

(5) The effects of B-J are with us. It's hard looking at a 69 Camaro that's wavy all over, fresh acrylic enamal, 350/350 drum brakes, 10 bolt and nothing special and the owner has it priced at 25K. One guy told him, "You're supposed to do the body work BEFORE you paint it!




I have to 2nd that one. I ran into the same situation over the last year looking for my A-body convertible. I lost track of how many "done and expensive cars" I looked at that needed complete restoration.

Good report, Jimmy. Ditto on pretty much everrything you said. I wasn't looking or anything special, and came home with only a couple of items. One of 'em is an old steel tractor seat taht had been blasted, and painted black with flames. Thought I'd bolt it to an old swivel bar stool I have... It'll make a pretty cool shop stool.

I was only there on Friday and walked about 2/3 of the meet before it was time to go home. The dogs were barkin' pretty good by then anyway.

Ostensibly, I was there to meet with Tom Doty, our show director for Chevell-abration (we have to try reconfigure the show field because of soem minor construction at the Park), and to help him work on his '65 2dr wagon. I was ready for a weekend off, but Tom ended up workin' me like a rented mule anyway. Saturday was devoted to working on the wagon, then we went out to the swap meet early on Sunday for one last pass, thinking some of the guys wo9uld want to sell rather tahn rep[ack and haul stuff home.

Evidently, everyone muust have had a successful weekend of selling, because on Sunday morning the swap meet was practically deserted, and those that were still there were packing it in. We did manage to pick up a few things that we needed to move the work forward on the wagon (POR-15, sound deadener/insulation and bumper bolts), but for the most part Sunday was a bust. Too bad, cuz I was really hopin' to pick up on some good deals.

Oh, one thing I have noticed at the TX swap meets (been to Ft Worth, Decatur, and now Pate) is that there is a lot more petrobilia there than anywhere else in the country. I've also noticed that the asking prices seem to be considerably higher as well. Maybe the higher asking prices translate to fewer sales and consequenlty more inventory. I did spot a super nice set of Texaco "block" letters, like the kind on the outside of the gas station, for $900/set. The porcelain was good and the letters themselves had minimum corrosion, and even had the original mounting bar intact. Good thing I flew in and had no place to bring 'em home with me. Last time I ddi that was at the Ft Worth swap meet, and ended up having to make a driving trip down to pick up the petrobilia I bought there. 'Course, it just happened that the driving trip occurred the same weekend as Decatur, so I went home with a full Tahoe.

Had a great time at Pate, Jimmy. Did we get a chance to talk? I had a lot of folks that came up and said hi, and got to visit with a lot of folks with spaces taht were selling stuff. My wife is always amazed at how my feet get tired at the swap meets, but my mouth never seems to. Next time any of y'all see me, be sure to come up and introduce yourselves.

Chuck, when I saw you, you were kinda busy and so was I, but I did shout out to ya and you did the same. Friday was the busiest day by far! I spoke with you at Decatur and by phone in January about the Texas tour idea.

Sundays at Pate are sparse as more than half leave on Saturday. If you get there Wednesday, you're more than ready to leave by Saturday, unless you have feet of steel.

Since I sold my El Camino Friday night, I needed a ride home and left early Saturday. Good thing too! On the way home, my buddy and I found a killer deal on a 30 Model A sedan! It's in his driveway this week.........

Petrobilia - Learn a new word everyday! Yeah, there's lots of pump collectors and decorators round these parts. It's oll country, ya know.

I have a friend that's building a COMPLETE 1949 Texaco station. He bought the entire station with all the porcelin panels, original garage doors, pumps, oil racks, signs and lift. It's in downtown Granbury and can't wait to hang out there when it's done.

great report guys! better reading here than in a magazine!! I was in Dallas last year on business and decided to stay an extra day to experience the Pate Swap meet. I ended up with sore legs also. I tried to smuggle home a can of POR 15 because it was such a great buy but our friends from TSA confiscated it out of my checked luggage before I got on the airplane. See you at Chevell-abration in a few weeks - make sure you pick a good place for the 72's while reconfiguring the show field.

Jimmy P.....I use to LOVE to go to PATE. I told a story about what happened one time when I showed up with my 67 Mustang.......but the mods will insult me,shame me, and delete my comments if I tell you.

Lets just say I had fun.:hurray: :hurray: :D :D :D

Chuck, when I saw you, you were kinda busy and so was I, but I did shout out to ya and you did the same. Friday was the busiest day by far! I spoke with you at Decatur and by phone in January about the Texas tour idea.

Sundays at Pate are sparse as more than half leave on Saturday. If you get there Wednesday, you're more than ready to leave by Saturday, unless you have feet of steel.

Since I sold my El Camino Friday night, I needed a ride home and left early Saturday. Good thing too! On the way home, my buddy and I found a killer deal on a 30 Model A sedan! It's in his driveway this week.........

Petrobilia - Learn a new word everyday! Yeah, there's lots of pump collectors and decorators round these parts. It's oll country, ya know.

I have a friend that's building a COMPLETE 1949 Texaco station. He bought the entire station with all the porcelin panels, original garage doors, pumps, oil racks, signs and lift. It's in downtown Granbury and can't wait to hang out there when it's done.

Jimmy, I missed this one, is he the guy downtown....or wasn't that one changed into a cool burger joint. Wifey and me stopped there many times on the bike. I LOVE Granbury

You C A N ' T N O T tell the story now! Come on! Ramba lamb!

The station is not on the square, but behind the train station, across from Granbury Welding just north of the square by the RR tracks.

This was my second swap meet and I took my 6 year old son. I bought a Chevelle several months back wanted a few minor parts. My input is simple.. we were just looking at a vendor's table as we walked bye. The vendor yelled out to my son, "Hey kid look in that bucket and get you one." He had new Hot Wheel cars and gave my son one for free. That little simple act may have changed the way my son views American Muscle. I know he talked about that car for the rest of the day.

Oh yea, I thought prices were pretty stiff on parts and car prices listed stiff but $$$$ talks. Frankly, I could't believe the poor condition of several cars offered in the car corral. That said there were some nicely finished cars. Did anybody see the $85K purple Dodge/Chrysler? Described as rare but finished poorly.:sad:

This was my second swap meet and I took my 6 year old son. I bought a Chevelle several months back wanted a few minor parts. My input is simple.. we were just looking at a vendor's table as we walked bye. The vendor yelled out to my son, "Hey kid look in that bucket and get you one." He had new Hot Wheel cars and gave my son one for free. That little simple act may have changed the way my son views American Muscle. I know he talked about that car for the rest of the day.

Oh yea, I thought prices were pretty stiff on parts and car prices listed stiff but $$$$ talks. Frankly, I could't believe the poor condition of several cars offered in the car corral. That said there were some nicely finished cars. Did anybody see the $85K purple Dodge/Chrysler? Described as rare but finished poorly.:sad:

That just goes to show that the meet isn't always about the parts, the cars and the money, it's about people and making memories. I look forward to it every year to spend time with my friends, see old friends and make new ones.

That purple Challenger had a fiberglass hood, which are known to not fit well, but that one had a 1" gap in the center. The red one, a 70 440 R/T was very nice, but priced at ~ 85K. I think some people just want a good parking place and want to show off their car. For $40 they can do that.