4funbikes

Hope to be off work Friday night at a reasonable enough hour to make the haul.

KonAaron Snake 

50 tubes for $50!

I think it can be worthile if you keep expectations reasonable.

Little Darwin

Well, no offers to help unload my car, so just like the items I am selling, the price is going down.

If any C&V person will definitely be going, I have reduced the requirement to get my spare arm band. Send me a PM, and I will give you my cell number. When you get there, give me a call, and as soon as I can get to the gate (without blowing off any potential customers) I will give you my spare wrist band for the low low price of free, with no obligation whatsoever. First PM by 5:00 pm today (eastern time) wins!

If nobody claims it here, I will probably give it away to a random attendee in the parking lot.

Citoyen du Monde

I would be more than happy to help you when I arrive. The only thing is that I was working until 4 AM today and don't know how well I will sleep tonight and therefore don't know when I will arrive. If you can accept that, I'm in (I do expect to be there for about 7-7:30, which is when I usually arrive)

lostarchitect 

I'm not gonna make it. Have fun everyone!

Little Darwin

I'll send a PM shortly with contact info.

Thanks!

4funbikes

Was able to make it up. Had a great time per usual.
I sold a few parts and a tandem.
Bought a complete and a frameset and a few parts.
I think coming out even is a success!
I had a nice complete Motobecane Grand Record out for what I thought was a more than reasonable price. It hardly got a look. People are terrified of French threading.

mainstreetexile 

Was your tandem a Motobecane too? I think I saw your Grand Record, looked great.. but I am terrified of french threading

Spent $25 on a technomic stem, a few seatposts, and an old wool jersey that I found out is too small for me. Failed to find some 7 speed thumbies that I was looking for.

Was looking at a heavily used Moulton, but at $1800, it was too rich for my blood. Saw a cool Hewitt (British builder) lady's frame from the 60s with nervex lugs and nice lug cap details.

Took a lot of willpower to pass on an extra large basket-case '84 Trek 400 frame + a few extras for cheap.

We didn't show up until late, noon or so. When we parked, there were a couple guys loading a lot of nice steel frames (saw a Bob Jackson track frame) and bikes into a van. I talked to them and they own a shop in Bushwick (Brooklyn) and they swept up a bunch of stuff to resell up that way.

Little Darwin

I had a 7 speed thumby, that sold pretty late in the event... Don't know ifit was what you were looking for.

My bikes weren't much, needed restoration. Other than a Panasonic Team that sold for $140 before we were open to the public, I pretty much gave away my other 2 complete bikes that sold. One bike I refused to sell for the $20 that was the only offer I got. I'll eat it before I sell a bike with a frame in nice shape with Cromo tubing for $20, even a mtb like the Trek 840. I will make it into a nice trail rider with a new chain, rear cluster, shifters and tires.

Sold quite a bit of my stock of parts, but some of the stuff I thought would have gone pretty well nobody even looked at. I will be posting some Shimano 600 rear derailleurs (a couple of different index capable variants) for sale here in the next week or two along with a couple of other things that might be of interest to members. Thanks to those of you who stopped by.

RobE30

I didn't make it out but a friend of mine picked up a nice bike for his fiance. Hopefully I can make it to the fall one

mainstreetexile 

I was looking for a matched thumb shifter pair, I wonder if I didn't make it to your booth. Is that Trek 840 one of the early Trek mtbs from the mid 80s? If so, I might be interested in it.

Little Darwin

I am not sure of the year.

Looking at vintage-trek, I must have remembered the model number wrong, but it is 8?? series (probably 820 or 830). I'll send a PM with some details in the next day or two. If it is an 820/830, it would be more late 80's or 1990 at the newest (based on colors for those models).

I'll send you a PM with some info.

kunsunoke 

Got there at 8:00AM; scored a low dollar outlay Colnago Super frame by 9:00AM.

The vintage market was a bit of a mixed bag this year, though. I was hoping to score some Italian parts to go with the Colnago, but that wasn't happening. Meh.

09box

This can be a good or bad place to pick some things up depending on what you are looking for. You will either get some good stuff cheap or just see a lot of overpriced stuff. I haven't gone in a few years but the best time to go was later in the day closer to the end. People are willing to take lower prices due to not wanting to take stuff home.

Little Darwin

Actually, I spent my day next to a seller who has been to every one of these for decades, so I was selling cheap from the "opening bell"

1) While it is counter-intuitive, the spring Velofest is usually more poorly attended than the fall.

2) Nice days bring out less buyers. The suspicion is that when the weather sucks, cyclists decide not to ride, and head to the velodrome instead.

I started the day not wanting to bring anything home, and I brought home about 1/2 of what I showed up with.

Kobe 

Guilty, I decided to go for a ride it was so nice. In a way I hope the fall swap meet weather is not as nice as it was on Saturday.

Little Darwin

When people asked me how I was doing, I responded in one of 2 general ways.

"Fine, and how about you?"

or

"The only way it could be better is if I was out riding.

pamaguahiker 

The event has suffered drastically in that last few years...regardless of weather. The attendance is poor by vendors and buyers. The boom years were in the late 90s and early 2000s. If you are giving stuff away...they'll visit. Otherwise..It is a mixed bag. The entire pit area was filled with vintage sellers. And I can tell you that we all felt that half the crowd doesn't even go down there...and there were some great items and deals.

Selling wasn't great but seeing old friends was the best part of the day. Sunny weather usually brings people cycling over to the velodrome. Rainy weather has never been a good turnout for the crowd. Been doing this for some years and everyone I talk to agrees that the event keeps dropping in participation. NYC had their big event this past weekend too...it definitely cut into the vendors and buyers crows.

mainstreetexile 

Damn, I guess I'm guilty of this. Not sure how I missed this, but somehow I didn't even realize there were sellers down in the pit.. We did a couple laps around the track and through the infield. We got there late though, some people were already packing up by noon or so when we arrived.

It seemed like there was a much lower turnout than even the last time I was there a few years ago, I was surprised how empty it looked.

I can see how the admission fee might deter casual bicyclists from attending as buyers. $8 / buyer kind of seems like a lot to me, even though it goes to support the velodrome. Then, when we bought our wristbands they asked us if we wanted to donate another $2 to the velodrome..

Little Darwin

I must admit that in past years I would have gone around to see what there was to buy... However, since I am trying to minimize, it would have been counter-productive.

Even with the shrinkage, I think it still an effective way to buy or sell at low prices.

It does seem slightly greedy to charge buyers and sellers... especially since they also make money on their concessions. I don't know how many times I heard the announcement for the 2015 beer mug for $20 (filled with beer) that would allow you to get refills at Friday races for the low price of something like $8. Really? If I pay $20 for a 24 ounce mug, and drag it around, they will let me refill it for the cost of a 12 pack? (I don't drink much beer, so I might be under-estimating the cost of beer, but it seems expensive to me).

But, I think I will have a booth again in the fall to continue my quest for minimization.

Since my stuff is vintage, do you think I should request a spot in the pit area since my stuff is vintage leaning?

4funbikes

I attend with mostly bargain stuff that I want to clean out. The best is my $5 or less bin. Otherwise yes you have to give things away and then someone will still come along and want ME to pay them to take MY stuff. That guy was a good negotiator.

I'm happy if I cover the booth/gas and get to be a big dork for the day.

pamaguahiker 

Like @funbikes , I admit when I go...the items I sell off are ones that I will often say to my wife. "What's it worth?" It's only worth what people are willing to pay. Some items I lose on, but this year...i looked at some items at the end and said...wow. I think I had this BB here for 2 other times now. Why? So i offered it for $1. Sometimes when the stuff is too low...you get a bizarre look and hesitation...why is it that low? Because I want to get rid of it. It's a good time to say...yea. I covered the trip to and from and my booth and got to spend a cool day with my wife. She jokes that she spends my profits in food and beer...which by the way...that could be just one beer at those prices! haha.

I use the event as a contact for my patches biz also. It works well to get some of my patches out there for people to enjoy, spread around and share with others, and It's fun. In the 90s, when I went down with our bike shop back then...Biker's High. I remember clearing out stock and leaving with major $. So it has changed immensely but I still enjoy the time spent down there. As a buyer, I agree with many above as well. I got with intentions to sell and not acquire sometimes. Well, last fall...the low turnout and a good day selling at our booth left me looking at the end of the day. Some great folks had a 80s holdsworth tandem that they didn't want to haul home and I ended up scoring the bike for $415 basically. A tandem from the 80s, Holdsworth Gemini in almost entirely original equipment with no damage...none! for that price. You can't go wrong with that!

Best year I ever had for buying was the one year, many years ago when they had a mid summer swap. Only time they ever did that and some dude showed up with 3 immaculate bicycles. all 3 were Bianchis. One was a 2000 Bianchi steel lugged cyclocross bike...last year they made it. It was loaded with great components and little use. I got it for $300 and I had a new wheelset at home so I ended up selling the wheelset that was on it for $200 while at the swap. He also have a road racing Bianchi, and a Time trial Bianchi. And if I could have swung it...i would have nabbed all three. He was consistent. 300 for each of them. The Time trial bike alone would have tipped a retail of over $1000 with the campy he had on it...but i really only wanted the cross bike. And I still have it!

mainstreetexile 

@pamaguahiker , just followed you on facebook to catch your updates. I have one of your Bob Jackson patches mounted on my desk a few inches from my monitor, and one of your Stronglight patches on my fridge. Wish I could've seen what your current inventory looked like to pick up a few more!

pamaguahiker 

Most of what I have is listed here on my FCO store
Embroidered patches / Falls Creek Outfitters

I have
Frejus headbadge design
Frejus logo design
Solida Peugeot Chainring
Solida Magistroni chainring
Solida Stronglight chainring
Olmo design
FCO cycling elk. glow in the dark elk with reflective yellow base
FCO cycling elk, glow in the dark elk with satin blue base
All are iron on designs.
Shoot me off a PM if interested in any of them. the cycling elks are $6 for the pair. Most of the others are at $4 each but ask me. I will include shipping, etc to get people some discounts. Too bad I didn't catch up with some of ya.