Bendigo Swapmeet

[monte34]

I made the annual pilgrimage to Bendigo last weekend to waste my own time in the fruitless search for "bike stuff" and as usual came away empty handed. All I got was a boot lid for an R Series Valiant and I don't even own one!
There was a Rickman frame to suit a Zundapp, with tank and triples but at $800 it wasn't even in the haggle range so home we went
How did anyone else fare, or are these big swapmeets coming to the end of their use-by date.

[frostype400]

I went best part of the trip was calling in to my nana's and getting feed up with cakes etc etc I got a pe tank for $10 so I was happy was looking for some ford stuff didn't find anything I wanted though.

Apparently on the saturday the traders got to have a look over everything and buy and sell before the public got in any way.

[mick25]

I think ebay is killing off the swapmeets :'( I went to one last weekend gulgong nsw a 4hr drive and it was on sunday not saturday as i throught
But i had a look saturday arvo not much there........

[frostype400]

People know what things are worth nowadays too.

Was worth a look any way I was tempted by a few things but there wasn't a heap of bike stuff there.

[Nathan S]

Apparently there's a bike swap meet there in a few weeks - maybe that kept a lot of the bike-focussed sellers away?

Mate from work who's into old road bikes was similarly disappointed...

[EBT]

I lived in Bendigo in the 90's and there use to be a lot of bike stuff there then, but at the time I was not into restoring bikes I was more looking for car parts and the Bendigo Swap meet was big, not sure if it still is though?

[LWC82PE]

Yep ebay has killed the swapmeets. A lot easier to just list your stuff on there. A lot of people just think ' oh i can get it off ebay or the net' so dont bother going to swapmeets and gradually sellers stop comming to swapmeets. People usually ask for more for good/rare parts at swapmeets too. Ive seen TT500 swing arms sell at swap meets for 3 times what they go for on ebay. A lot of people dont like weeding their way through tonnes of car and hose junk to get to the bike stuff too.

[pancho]

I went to the [Warragamba] 'Dam Fine' swap meet on Saturday 13th Nov.+Sun. Same thing. This year it was at Luddenham show ground, heaps of room, but not a lot to see. I think the organisers were a bit ambitious in opening up on Friday afternoon and running Sat.& Sunday..Not much bike stuff to see and very little interesting car bits. One of the stall holders selling tools etc said he would be going to Blacktown markets on the Sunday which is his usual haunt. It seems that ebay has had a big impact on swap meets and wreckers yards. Possibly the only way to run a good swap meet is in combination with a car and bike show plus music. [Country of course.]  Yee haaa pancho.

[miniwheels]

Bendigo has always been crap for bike stuff for as long as I can remember especially the last few years now that the general public can't get in on Fridays unless you have a stall, if there was anything good it was snapped up between the stall holders on the Friday before the gates open to the public on Saturday morning, there was an old saying at Bendigo swapmeet years ago "someone had to die before you could get a stall spot there" , these days no problem if your a seller, Ballarat is allot better but thats going the same way as Bendigo :'( that was a 3 day swapmeet now its down to 2 days

[D project]

Lot of the stuff is overpriced for what it is. All just seems to be rusty ford and holden parts now. But I suppose if you delved into it deeper and looked through every stall there may be some hidden gems! But who can be bothered when the world of ebay is out there. There was a 83RM500 project /basket that someone snapped up.Only ended up with my usual cheep T shirts!

[Tim754]

Bendigo has always been a mess to look around and has totally reached it's use by date for motorcycle parts and pieces. "Openly" letting the stall holders and traders have a day to pick the bones before the paying customers are allowed in is bullshit too. All this from a bloke that lives only 40 kilometers from Bendigo. Tim754

[frostype400]

Yeah I wasn't to happy when I heard the stall holders and traders got to look over everything first I drove a 400km round trip and only got 1 thing at the swapmeet probably wasn't worth the time going there I wish I spotted the rm500..

[monte34]

Stall holders have always been able to have a look around on the setting up day. At Bendigo the organisers were supposed to stop any transactions taking place but I don't think I've ever heard of anyone being kicked out or losing their site over it. You would be pretty dumb to get caught anyway so all the goodies get snapped up with a wink and a nod. Ballarat used to be good too 20 years ago, now its just a social event and the same rubbish year after year.
The problem at Ballarat is the sheer size of the place, it literally takes all day to walk all around it so you have to be lucky and be in the right place at the right time.

[SPANISH ARMADA]

you can be lucky sometimes i was this weekend went to swapmeet came away with vb250 engine with ignition/kicker $160 rear wheel for vr $50