Oh boy, here I am a complete NOOB and already making suggestions... If a swap meet were set up as an 'event' , for example--Saturday, between 1 and 5, it may be a draw for the event. Every so often, a guy comes up with a great idea for an accessory and makes a high quality product. He does it part time and then life gets in the way and he stops making them. But, they show up at swap meets.
Pretty much every activity, event, party, etc at MOTD was someone or some group saying "Hey, let do..." Some has stuck, some hasn't. Set one up, we'll make sure the word gets out. Send snooter a note asking when the ballfield is free. I'll add that it may be a bit late for this year.
Oh you'll survive... Don't forget to add in any parts you may break, wear out, or have damaged while there... in the last 8 years, I've - Lost an alternator on the Dragon (it had spun out its last watt) and limped back to Fontana, where the fine folks at Hendricks Mini from Charlotte same-day'd an R53 alternator to me (not cheap) for a late night/early morning install, made it home and that thing's still spinning... - Speaking of spinning, blew out (as in BOOM) 3 tires (2 Mini, one trailer) when an out of control piece of spinning heavy metal the size of a refrigerator door appeared in my lane, trucks to my right and a wall to my left, all I could do was take it down the right side and go buy a set of tires... - Inner right-side ball joint went all loosey-goosey, replaced, re-aligned in the parking lot, off we go... - Blew out two Monro strut bearings (PLEASE do NOT buy awful Monro strut bearings!), they weren't TOO bad so I limped home... - Melted the bottom of my shifter box due to a poorly-designed exhaust, my own fault, it sounded great but held too much heat in the front resonator (don't put a high - density spiral muffler under the shifter!), live and learn... replaced with race exhaust (thanks Chad!), sounded like an F1 car for several dragon runs, then all 600 miles home... which as tiring... NOW.. My Mini has >100k miles on it, and at the time was modified pretty well, and the parts that wore out were either defective (Monro and my home-designed exhaust), somewhat old (alternator at 70k), or damaged by road debris (tires), and I tow a small trailer, so some of that is "normal wear" and to be expected. Just inconvenient that it happened in rural NC, but very convenient that the nation's 3-4 best Mini wrenches are all clustered within 125 yards of each other! You SHOULD, however, budget for at least a set of front brakes if you're going to be running pretty hard, and possibly 1/2 a set of front tires, again, depending on how far you drive and how hard you run. And that's all at the speed limit (or so), driving safely and never obnoxiously!
We bantered about it in the past. Even tried a collectible swap one year and pretty much no one showed at all. Several inherent issues as I see it. And don't get me wrong, not trying to kill the idea and I'll be happy to add it to the schedule next year, but here's my take. You need folks to bring stuff. Most folks are leery about schlepping a bunch of items up (especially larger ones) knowing they may be taking them home with them. Most folks don't want to park there butt behind a table for several hours hoping that one buyer will come along and then miss out on all the other fun. I think Ways Swap table works really well. You bring your item leave it with Way. Folks can smooze it any time during the day, you don't have to mess up your schedule and then you pick up your money when and if it sells. With that said, if someone wants to host one, get a hold of me in October and we can put in on the schedule for 2016 :biggrin5: