Chicasha pre war swap meet 2019

[Daniel Butler]

Understand in shock this is last year 2019 for the pre war meet true?

[pont35cpe]

Next year 2020 will be the last..

[Terry Bond]

Strange how quite things have been, even on the usually active Model T forum.  

Terry

[pont35cpe]

2 hours ago, Terry Bond said:

Strange how quite things have been, even on the usually active Model T forum.  

Terry

Probably nothing to say, it had the smallest amount of vendors in my 25+yrs of going. I got there at 7:45am and was headed home at 10:15. I did find a correct set of beauty/trim rings for my `36 artillery wheels and a rear RH tail light, I considered it a success, many a years I came home with nothing.

[Marty Roth]

Having attended on-and-off since the early 1990s, I generally look forward to the Chickasha, Oklahoma Pre-War Swap Meet.

 

I shopped all available vendors in the traditional Thursday Parking Lot pre-meet opportunity-

a few were already set up inside the two buildings early for the Friday Meet-

Then shopped all available vendors on Friday, both indoors and both outside areas.

Saturday has become a complete bust as vendors use the morning to packup and leave as early as possible

 

It appeared that fewer than half of the available spaces were occupied this year, and many of those had lesser amounts of parts than in prior years.

 

Visiting with friends, and especially the Pre-War Buick folks was certainly the high spot of an otherwise unexciting week

Edited March 17, 2019 by Marty Roth (see edit history)

[motoringicons]

I used to go to Chickasha on a regular basis until about 10 years ago. At one time, the meet attracted people from all over the USA including a large group from the west coast as well as European countries, Australia, New Zealand, etc. In the beginning, lots of great treasures were hauled out of Chickasha.

 

Chickasha started off as a strong event about 20 years ago, but it slowly winded down.

 

Unless you live near by, getting to Chickasha requires a journey. Even by airplane. It's just not close to anything or anywhere. And it is certainly not a destination city. (If you've been there, you get what I am saying!)

 

Once you travel the distance to get there, the swap meet is basically just a day and half affair. It's a long way to travel for such a short event. It really suffers from the vendors hurrying to get there and then hurrying to leave asap.

 

I think something as specific as a prewar swap needs to be in a better area-meaning an area that is closer to larger populations of car collectors-in order to be successful. I understand that after 2020, another person will take over Chickasha and move it to a more "desirable" area. Hopefully somewhere that is more centrally located.

 

The Bakersfield HCCA/MTFCA  prewar swap meet in California is still going strong. It is certainly a better location and is surrounded by large populations of early car collectors.

Edited March 18, 2019 by motoringicons (see edit history)

[TexRiv_63]

I discovered Chickasha about 10 years ago when I bought my first prewar car. I was fortunate that it is close by (I live in North Texas) and I loved the fact that it was small and easy to cover in a day. I also loved that it was rich with prewar goodies and that its limitation was well enforced to keep out the non-car crap. I always found good deals and seldom came home empty, including this past Friday. I was disappointed to see the decline in both vendors and attendees the past few years and this year the change was shocking. I hope someone does take it over and continues it without ruining it.

[sam r]

I have attached a message I ran to Terry Wiegand of the Buick club. We invite participation / input from everyone willing to throw in their 2 cents worth to help us steer Pate into taking up some of the slack left from Chickasha's demise after next year.

 

hours ago

Terry

As you can see from my last email, I'm getting an early start for the 2020 Pate Swap Meet expanding our prewar area. With the demise of the Chickasha prewar meet, Pate will be a reasonable transition for many of us in the prewar end of the antique car hobby.

We need feedback from prewar vendors, telling us what all we can do to accommodate them other than setting up a marked off area for prewar. We plan on having Pate automated just after the 2020 meet. Several members from Pate's workforce will approach every vendor this year and get their email address along with a list of what that vendor primarily sells.

As soon as the information can be assembled into a data base, we will contact everyone we see currently selling prewar parts or cars and invite them to move to the prewar area. We may attempt this with several other specialized groups such as motorcycles, tractors (and stationary engines)  and other specialties.

We can have a couple ez up canopies set up this year and something much larger for next year. I just got off the phone with our coordinator getting permission to send this post. He told me that he will provide a 50x100 tent for the 2020 meet if enough vendors from our prewar and manufacturers midway areas request covered spaces. 

While Pate can't duplicate the close together atmosphere of Chickasha, we will strive to do our best to host the prewar groups that will participate with us.

For those of you not already familiar with Pate, please pull up (pateswapmeet.com)  and scroll down to the video. You will see what we consider a well laid out meet. Please look thru the webpage for area hotels and the services Pate provides it's vendors and guests.

Thanks

Sam Romeo 

 

We're open to suggestions or criticism, don't be bashful!

Thanks

Sam