Star Lite Swap (Tacoma, WA)

First time to this swap. Just went to check it out, not sell. Though did my usual trunk full of stuff to try and sell to vendors.
First off, as talked about it another thread, I always feel awkward trying to sell to sellers. Has been profitable for me but just have s hard time approaching them.

Not here! Everyone was SO approachable! Totally a "swap" meet, not flea market.
More on that later, here is the review...

Held in old drive-in. Year around indoor, sesonal outdoor.
Very high Latino demographic. Lots of festival clothing, cowboy boots, tack goods and amazing home cooked food.  Extremly high volume of stolen goods. (not the Latino stalls, just in general)
Many stalls selling only things you would expect people to leave in their car. (like one stall was only CD's in car cases and cell phone car chargers ...100's of them!$
Lots of car stereo's, lawn and garden tools....
Also s lot of personal hygien (expensive hair products and teeth whitening stuff)....anything that can be shoplifter.

Then there is 150ish stalls of normal yard sale types. 

Seemed to be the focas. Few furniture makers. One antique guy. Several jewelry, both cheap and/or handmade to nice stuff. Lots of tools.

Not a single stall looked to be a storage auction outlet. But I'd say a good 75% were professional flea marketers.

Would defiantly use this one to move goods. Seemed every stall had the same style of wares so gee stalls that were different got some heavy traffic and were selling.

As far as myself....
Picked up some coin sets at a decent price for my nephew. Paid $3 for all three mints of the 1943 steel penny. Not so good but he would NOT come down.

Traded some some rocks for some rock hammers and hand picks. Two useful and two old rusted, worn handles things that look good on display next to rocks.

Sunglass lady had $5 bin and in it I found a pair of 'like new' Jimmy Choo's which sell for $279.99 new. And a pair of Nike in case with four diff lenses that sells for $200.

Sold baggy full of misc jewely pieces (low end pearls off string, costume stuff, broken stuff) to a jewelry maker for $10 and a ring to give to the girl that drove my ass that far, little token thank you.

Few other things like that.

Everyone was so cool with swapping, bartering and buying.....
I'll be going to this one a lot.

I'm jealous!  We used to have the Puget Park Drive In Swap Meet up in Everett, but they shut it down a couple of years ago and tore it all down and built a medical center.  A few other's have tried to get a swap meet going, but so far, none have had the success that place had. 

The Tulalip Tribes have a promising venue that reopens May 5th.  It's a huge venue, and was starting to draw some big crowds toward the end of last year.  Hopefully this year it will pick up even more.

I set up at the star lite once. Biggest complaint is the city makes you get a Garage Sale permit before you can rent a space. It was free but a pain. I did okay not super but fair. Lot of Mexicans there and lot of cheap people. I had several tubs of new with tags clothes and was asking $2 an item. Sold only 2 of them got offered $1 an item on some of them. Heck the price tags were still on them and they were in the $20 to $30 range.  Sold a ton of $1 items and a few $2. Was hard to sell $5 items and no one looked at anything over $10 except I sold a 3/4 size Violin for $100 my only real good sale. I miss the old Midway drive in swap meet that was a great one and very close to home set up a lot there always did pretty good. The Muckleshoots were supposed to be trying to set up a swap meet in Auburn at the drive in but that seems to not have materialized.

I noticed the "cheap" factor. And translates into everyone asks way high, guess they know they are gonna have to haggle.

I miss Midway too.
Use to live on the other side of the valley so hit it up all the time.
Now im way north.  Been told there is one in Monroe but haven't checked into it.

I've mostly done Fremont, Ballard....those small ones that are more Farmers Markets than fleas.

Alias, you give new meaning to the term "one-armed bandit!!"   

Gotta stay busy!
I've gone thru every season of every series on HBO and Showtime.
My "big event" of the day now is reruns of GunSmoke at 1pm! lol
And Rockford Files. D*mn good show....
I think since the invention of DVR, this is my first time since that I've watch an episode of my favorite tv show when it's first aired. Usually DVR and watch when I get a chance.

Plus you really have to stay on top of things when it's your only source of income.
Not that I'm making much but $20 here, $10 there....adds up. Anything to reduce the spending of my savings.