We were pleasantly surprised that people were out, spending money and having a good time.

I don’t know how the car corral did, it seemed that there was not much activity out there, many cars went back out on the rigs they came in on.

Still a problem, long areas of vacant spots, vendors vehicles filling spots, and flea market crap.   No serious swap meet vendor wants to walk passed numerous booths filled with tow vehicles, fishing poles, neon beer sign people, empty spots, metal decorative foo-foo signs, jewelry peddlers, blue goo and sham wow guys.   Those vendors need to be relegated to their own area, not amongst the auto swappers.  I understand that the promoter is trying to find anyone to fill spots, and the swap meet, period.  But as a shopper, I do not want to walk through all that crap to find what I am looking for. 

Promoter, take a page out of the Portland Swap Meet play book and designate areas for trinket and BS vendors, do not make car part vendors wander through all that crap.  It would make the swap meet a much stronger event.  They do not call it Hot August Nights for nothing, and people do not want to wander through row after row polluted with crap.  If they want to wander through the trinket vendors, fine, but they do want to wander through a bunch of crap to potentially find their items.

We rolled into Arco Arena about 5:30pm on Saturday evening.  We were met with a polite young lady who helped us with our entry and we were advised to go around the corner and “be patient.”  Oh, this is not going to be good.  We drive up to ridiculously long lines of parked vehicles, folks out wandering around, and it is hot out, so tempers are a bit short.  We sat there until after 8:00pm waiting to get in.  I did get to pay $2 for a can of Pepsi.  (Did these people take a page from the early Mopars At The Strip playbook?)  It was not the way to start a show. 

The interesting part of this swap is that you can have your spaces all down a line parking space style, or you can have them in two row blocks, which made for a sort of Tetris thing going on.   Neat idea, which does not work because people are squabbling, rearranging, trying to work things out.  Your swap spaces go in rows, not blocks, which is typical of most swap meets and would end that BS/confusion.

The following morning is no better.  Vendors can get in at 5am, so we are there just before 5.  LONG lines of people waiting to get in.  No signs or information directing anyone anywhere.  In another lane, vehicles are whipping right in, passing the long, non-moving lines.   Mrs. CJ watched this as the line we were stuck in did not move at all before she popped a gasket and marched up to see what the hell was going on.   The non-moving line was for people that did not buy in the day before, poor bastards. but we had sat through that hell last night, we wanted in.  So she started directing traffic to get us in the show to get our booth ready. 

That early start time may seem like a good idea, but it is still frickin’ dark that early.  We stumbled around the booth before the light finally came up and we could really get going. 

And although this was our first year, I had heard that concessions were an issue here and this year was no exception.  At about 11:30am, the one concession on our end of the show had warm bottled water and Diet Pepsi to drink and that was it.  And about a 30 minute wait in line for the priviledge for paying up for that.   An older gentleman stumbled into our booth, sweating and pale, fortunately I could give him some cold bottled water before he had medical problems. 

We sold a few things, some MoPar people came through the booth and were happy to see some D-C-P parts, a few were kind enough to at least buy a hat to support our attendance even if we did not have parts they needed. 

It was alot of crap for a one day show, that is for sure.

Tom received a call last night from one of the promoters of the event held at the Livestock Events Center in conjunction with Hot August Nights.   This person stated that the business license requirement for those selling used items (such as used car parts) had been waived for the swap meet this year, not sure what future holds. 

There are still spaces available, would we like to attend?

This sounds like scrambling to put a show together to us.   I suspect the swap meet is going to look sparse this year, which of course will disappoint those that come looking for what they want and need.  Who wants to pay admission to walk past a bunch of trinket vendors?  You can get that downtown. 

Hopefully they will try to group the swap together if the showing is going to be thin.  Last year, you had to walk past many unoccupied spots to get from space to space.   Not only does this not afford much shade, it sucks to walk around a half empty parking lot.

Part of me wants to support the swap, it has been good to us.  But another part thinks someone is behind the demise of this event, and it is a shame that it has come to this.

But the Pawn Star guys were scheduled to be there, love that show!  So we went.

Aspects of the show went back to its humble beginnings.

On set up day, the bathrooms were locked, the maintenance people from the Strip at Las Vegas were painting the floors.  Really?  Hundreds of people are here setting up for a show and a handful of porta-potties are utilized instead of using the regular restrooms.   I understand this probably is not the promoters problem, but if I were in charge of this event, those bathrooms would have been open.  

Fortunately, we brought our own food and drinks again because I did not see any food vendors ready to go on set up day.

The issue of RVs and generators in the swap meet still looms.   We were supposed to be in the swap meet next to a RV with a big generator and many gas cans, which is typically not a good sign for those on the exhaust side.   The gentleman in charge of the swap meet took pity on us and moved us down a few spaces away from the RV.  We appreciated that because that guys generator ran all weekend. 

The general consensus was that everything was down this year acrossed the board.   Attendance was down, entries were down, vendors were down.  Everyone we talked to in the Manufacturer’s Midway said sales were down again this year.   Some people that had cars in the sale corral did not get one call.  We heard nothing sold at the auction again this year. 

Being in the swap meet, we are accustomed to doing some negotiating, comes with the territory.   But something unusual happened this year.   Low offers, really low.  Half price offers, even some 30% of asking price offers on our parts.   A little bit insulting, to be sure.   We know you can “buy it on ebay” - and be my guest.   We drag the stuff there so you can touch it, see what you are paying for, and not pay shipping.    Guess these offers come with the state of the economy.  We’ll take it home rather than give it away, thanks.

As usual, the show cars were top notch.    The survivor tent had some very nice cars and there were some real beauties in the show.   That part of the show never disappoints. 

A few other items:  There was some hype about an announcement that was going to “turn the Mopar world on its ear” and other such grand standing.   Turns out this huge annoucement was about the 2011 Mopars at the Strip giveaway car.   So profound, I cannot remember what it is now.   The 1967 Imperial from Pawn Stars was there, but we never saw any of the Pawn Star stars at the show.   Somebody said that Rick was there for a few minutes, but that was it.   Rats, I wanted my picture taken with Chumlee.

Some other positives:  No ridiculous, clueless people with clipboards, we got in and out quickly (some previous years have had insufferable lines).  and no one got hit by a car that we heard about. 

Still plenty of speculation in the MoPar community on whether this show will be around next year.   After these past couple rough years, I can understand that this event may be on thin ice.   To command the kind of prices that are charged for entries, spaces and admission, this show it going to have to step up if it expects to reach top notch status.Â

We set out from Klamath Falls to head south for Las Vegas and Mopars at the Strip.  No problem, run this route every year since the show started.

Not this year.

Just after we crossed into the state of Nevada, we saw a significant law enforcement presence, all having the big rigs pulled over.   Does not happen every day, but we figured they must be doing some big hauler enforcement operation.   We were very shortly followed for a bit by one of Nevada’s finest and quickly determined that we were the next to be in their cross hairs.   Hey, we have a Dodge 2500 pickup, an enclosed trailer, we have been warned that we were going to get popped for a drug dog test running around these parts eventually.   Perhaps today is our lucky day to have the drug dog check us out.  I hope the dog likes car parts, because that is what we have.

The fine officer saunters up to our vehicle and asks how we are doing.   Well, we were fine until a few minutes ago,  but we’ll still be fine after you have the dog search us.  Mr. NHP:  “What’s in the trailer?”  Us:  “Car parts.”  Mr. NHP:  “Where ya headed?”  Us:  “Las Vegas for a car show.”  Next question.  “Have you ever been pulled over for a commercial vehicle infraction?”  HUH?  Um, no.  **cue panic setting in**  

Mr. NHP:  Can I see your license, insurance card, log book, medical card, fire extinguisher, safety triangles, trip permit, partridge in a pear tree…..

Us:  Um, huh?  We don’t have all that. 

Mr. NHP:  Step out of the pickup sir. 

Us.  **Oh shit**

Turns out, since Mr. NHP determines that our 2002 Dodge 2500 is 8,800 pounds (not on its best day) and the trailer is 7,000 pounds (OK, that could happen), that we are over the 10,000 pounds total weight and we are a commercial vehicle.  We have the audicity to badge the trailer with our website, apparently a telltale sign we are a commercial vehicle.  Mr. NHP wants to see the VIN on the trailer, OK, no problem.  No breakaway device, another issue. 

Mr. NHP rattles off a laundry list of things we are out of compliance on.  Fabulous.  Of course he is quoting the price of the tickets were are about to receive.  Even better.

Mr. NHP started off a bit harsh, but came back with just a medical card infraction.  God bless him.  But he told us to get a trip permit (about $40 - $50), a log book (about $3 at any truck stop), and to get a medical card to dismiss the citation.   Mr. NHP then said that the state of Nevada was going broke and wanted commercial vehicles to help with the government coffers.  Great.

We went to a truck stop we knew and Darlene started cruising the store for log books.   She couldn’t find them, so she asked one of the staff.  The lady said “I’ve been off for a few days, but you are the third person to ask me for a log book today.  Tell me what is going on!”  So Darlene told her what happened, she looked at our set-up sitting at the fuel pumps and laughed.   So, we bought a log book.

Mr. NHP gave us a print out of how to get a trip permit.  Darlene called the number and it seems you cannot get a trip permit in person, you have to buy it in advance.  But there is no nechanism outside of the state of Nevada to buy it in advance except to use an outside vendor.  Really?  This makes perfect sense to me, NOT. 

The real deal on the trip permit is that the vendor of NV trip permits is going to charge you about $40 to get it, plus 15 cents a mile for every mile you travel in Nevada.   So, in our case, we were going to go about 950 miles, plus their fees, and we were looking at about $175 for this trip permit.   So much for the $40 - $50 that Mr. NHP quoted on how much this was going to cost.  The trip permit vendor was not even sure how one could be issued one, she did not know how to get one to someone that didn’t have a DOT number (which is something Mr. NHP mentioned that we were supposed to have.) 

We were trying to be on the up and up, but I guess the right answer is that you are taking your junk for a ride.

Other folks speculated that there were other things underway, but there was a fair amount of speculation.

Darlene fired off an email to the source, John Sweeney, who operates the Reno Swap Meet, now held for one day at Arco Arena in Sacramento, the Saturday before the Western Pacific Events Reno Swap Meet.

John answered the email promptly that of course he is still holding the event in Sacramento.  He is catering to private venders and not so much the corporate entities.  Reports from attendees is that this event has been very well run and continues to get bigger.  With all the challenges with the business license situation at the HAN swap meet, reduced attendance, and the fair amount of empty booths at Reno, we have been considering attending this swap meet.  The allure of a one day, no drama show is compelling.

So, back to the new event in Tahoe.  In doing a bit of research, it would seem that Western Pacific, who operates the Reno HAN swap meet, is adding a swap in Tahoe the weekend before the Reno swap.

Supposedly, a letter is going to come out to previous years vendors outlining what is happening with the county and the business license for people selling used items (like used car parts).   I am thinking the promoters are offering this alternative swap meet in California, which will not require the business license, in attempt to lure vendors down to the venue.

I wonder if it will catch on in Tahoe (and the promoters can suss out the business license situation) or will people continue to migrate to the Sacramento event.

But we came, we saw, we left. 

Since then, we have be berated by regular attendees that said we must have just caught this on and off year, and that we needed to give it another go.

Well, Turlock Swap Meet January 2010 was the second try.

We had good intentions of leaving Klamath Falls at around 8:00.  As life would have it, we didn’t leave until a bit later than that.  Then Mrs. CJ had to make a few pit stops and we were further delayed.  Hitting Sacramento traffic between 3:00 pm and 7:00 pm is typically going to be something you would rather not encounter, and this Friday at around 3:15 pm is no exception.  SLOW, SLOW, SLOW.  Anyway, we picked our way through and on to Turlock!

We got to the Stansislaus (or something like that) County Fairgrounds around 5:00 pm.   That gave us an hour to mad dash around the swap meet to spot something, anything, before dark.  Going into the swap meet, I told Mrs. CJ that we were not:

A) Buying anything heavy

B) Buying any bell housings

C) Buying any 4 speeds

We have plenty of that.  Really.

OK, 10 minutes into my disertation about what was off the buy list, I came across a bell housing.  So much for my stinkin’ rules on buying, the price was right.  Mrs. CJ rolled her eyes.

There are lights, but everything was pretty much shutting down, and we decided to go check in at the Turlock Inn for the night.  (Pizza Guys make some good pizza!)

We set out around 6:30 am to get a spot in line for the 7:00 am start.  For some reason, there are only a couple entry points, all with long lines and we could not find a place to park near the show.   I started to break out in a brief panic that I now had my truck around the site, long lines were forming, the gates were going to open soon, there was no parking and I was not in a line.  Mrs.  CJ dropped me off near a gate and took the truck back to the hotel.   (She rocks)  I got in shortly after the gates opened and the hunt began.

There was more MoPar stuff than our previous visit.  Nice surprise.  However, $475 for ‘Cuda doors.   Heck, I have given away better doors.   A piece of a beat 70 Challenger grille for $150.   OK.  That sort of thing was common, where the prices were high enough that I couldn’t make an offer. 

The show is small enough that if you move along, you can walk it in one day.  But for a MoPar guy, you really have to do the slow walk and dig amongst a bunch of stuff to find that one prize part you may need.   From my perspective, it is really a swap for people into the pre-60 parts, there seems to be a ton of that vintage stuff.  Not that there is anything wrong with that.

 

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Some history:

Last year, the promoter of the event changed.  The former promoter began a one day swap meet in Sacramento the weekend before the Reno swap meet.   Although we skipped last year (mainly due to this change, we wanted to miss the inaugaral growing pains), reports from those that attended were positive.

Fast forward to this year.  Months before the event, the registration packet for the Hot August Nights swap meep arrived, nothing unusual there.  Later, another letter came in stating that if vendors were selling certain items, a temporary vendor work permit would be required.  If this work permit was not obtained, that vendor would not be permitted on the grounds.  This would require a visit to a Waschoe County government office, fingerprinting and background check.  The work permit costs $65, and is good for 5 years. 

A call to the promoter, Western Pacific events, more specifically Bob Davies, were positive.  He stated that the county had not firmed up the requirements for the work permit yet and the county was not going to enforce the work permit requirement this year.  So, we went forward with attending the event.

We arrived on the set up day, Wednesday, to no lines and no issue with getting in without the work permit.  At the check in booth, no one even mentioned the work permit until I brought it up and I was assured that there was no concerns.

We came in Thursday morning bright and early to discover that there was a bunch of empty booths.   This is typically well attended by vendors with few empty booths.  I thought maybe since this promoter is cracking down on the “flea market” aspect of this event and enforcing the auto related only, this kept some of the vendor space vacant. 

Wandering around and chatting with other vendors and attendees, I heard some common concerns.  The vast majority stated that they were not going to continue attending the Reno Hot August Nights swap meet if the work permit was required.  Not only does Waschoe County receive tax revenue from the vendors, sales were slow, attendance at the event was down, and most felt although it is not a significant sum, this is just one more way to get into our pockets.  Others were against the work permit on principal.   This event is the only selling many vendors do in Waschoe County and it seems a bit frivilous to require a work permit for a once a year event. 

On Friday morning, a young lady with a clip board and a master list of vendors came through and wanted to see my work permit.   I advised Ms. Clip Board that I did not have one and was told by the promoter that one would not be required.   She asked who the owner of the space was and I told her.  She asked if he had a work permit and I again said no.   I stated that we did not want to make a special trip to Reno to get fingerprinted and the background check done.  She said that Waschoe County left the office open extended hours to accomodate vendors and the Davies’ (the promoters) had that information.  I told Ms. Clip Board that if they had that information, they did not pass it along to the vendors.  She made a mark by Tom’s name and I asked her what was going to happen.  Ms. Clip Board said this was a survey and she did not know what course of action would be taken.  We politely argued a bit more, I stated that we might not attend next year, opting for the Sacramento swap meet if this was an ongoing issue and she went on her way.   We were in the first row she visited, and word of this “survey” spread quickly.

As Ms. Clip Board made her rounds, the rumors started swirling amongst the vendors.  Would someone come through later and issue citations?  Would citations arrive in the mail?  Was this indeed just an information gathering survey?  Unlikely, in my estimation.  I cannot imagine a county entity sending someone out if there was not a revenue generating motive. 

Being one who likes to go to the source, I marched up to the information booth at the swap meet.  There I asked what the results of the “survey” were going to be.  I got a fair amount of blank stares and people looking at each other.  After an awkward moment, a woman said “I don’t know.”  We discussed that they had been fighting the county on this work permit to no avail.   I stated that we didn’t have a problem with the background check, we are not worried about getting our fingerprints taken (mine are already on file due to history in law enforcement work), it just seemed to be another revenue generator for the county when revenues were down for the vendors.  I was preaching to the choir here, this was not the promoters idea, it was Waschoe County, so I stated that we may just have to skip this event next year and go to the Sacramento show.  I turned off and marched back to the booth.

Later,  we noticed it.  Vendors were packing up their wares and bugging out.   By Friday night, about half the booths were empty, despite having one more day, a typically lucrative day, to sell.

Will this be the death nell of the Hot August Nights Swap Meet?  I think so.  With a well attended one day swap meet without the logistical hassles only 100 miles and one week earlier, I suspect a good portion of the vendors will move to that event.  With a shortage of vendors, there will be little reason to spend $8 to attend the swap meet for Hot August Nights.

Really, it is a shame too.  With the promoter enforcing the automotive only aspect, which I feel is a good move, and doing what it takes to make this event a well-oiled machine for the vendors, this could be a top notch event.  But, in typical government fashion, they will mire this event with bureaucracy and screw up a good thing.

 

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We have been packing the trailer today, getting ready to blast off for Hot August Nights 2009 in Reno, Nevada.  This should be an interesting year, hopefully the state of our great country will not deter people from coming out to this event.

If you are a car person and have not been to HAN, GO!  It is a great event, Reno/Sparks basically turns into a giant car show.   Check out there website here:  http://www.hotaugustnights.net/

There are the “sanctioned” events, but there are a ton of unofficial break out events as well.  There is a cool little Mopar show in the A&W parking lot that attracts some top notch cars.

Of course, we are in the swap meet area again this year, in our usual spots A25 - 27, the A row is the one along the brick wall.  Stop by and tell Darlene you read this blog and she will probably give you at hat or a screaming deal on some parts.

I spotted this car, a 1968 Dart, in a field by our local U-Pull-It yard.  68 Dart, white body, phoney aluminum Centerline wheels, monster tach mounted to the bottom of the dash. Left front fender, door, bumper, were all wiped off of it.  Eyed this car for a year before beating on the door of the trailer it sat behind.  Wrong time of year to beat on the door, a bad winter here in Oregon, 2 feet of snow on the car, 3 on the ground.  I was met with a happy face at the door of the trailer.  NOTE:  70 Chevelle with 454 emblems on a real cowl hood 20 feet from the Dart.  The lady at the door says that the Dart does not belong to her, but a male friend of hers does own it.  She also says the Chevelle belongs to a neighbor and people have been shot at for looking at it uninvited.  Come to find out, the Chevelle is definately not for sale (not that I would keep a GM anyway) but the Dart was for sale if the guy’s son wanted to part with it.

The guy calls me a week later, says the kid wants $500 for the Dart.  I said I am game at this point, can I go look at it without getting shot at?  A week or so later, I checked out the Dart, only a foot of snow left on the ground, about 6 inches on the car.  Called the guy back and agreed to buy it.  In my initial up close inspection, I found that it was a real V-8 car, minus motor and trans.  It was all there (including the green interior).  A few phone calls later between me and the guy, the dad/owner, then I finally heard the real story on the car.

Dad had purchased the Dart for the son (obviously a dumb high school kid) the kid blew up the original 273 immediately.  Dad builds him a 318 to replace the 273.  The kids drives the Dart for 6 more months, graduates high school, and moves to Chico, CA for college.  While on a late night kid fest with his buddies, loses control of the car in some sort of cornering manuver and wipes off the aforementioned parts off of it.  Dad, still back in Oregon, is pissed off about it.  Dad goes and retrieves the Dart from Chico, back to Oregon, jerks the fresh 318 and auto trans out of it, and stashes the Dart at the aforementioned trailer ladies house.

More to follow…¼/p>