BELTON — Several vendors said Saturday was a good day but things slowed down Sunday for the Little Valley Auto Swap at the Bell County Expo Center in Belton.
Josh Morton, an employee of Restore Automotive USA in Houston, said his company did well
“We sell our extra stuff at swap meets,” he said. “Our trash is someone else’s treasure. We sold quite a bit of stuff, upwards of $10,000.”
His son Tyler, 10, brought toys, figurines and micro machines, Morton said. Two weeks ago at the Houston Autorama the boy sold about $700 in toys, he said.
Morton showed a 1971 electric car that he swapped two motorcycles for this weekend.
“We’re going to use it to go around at the swap meets,” he said.
Perry Hayden of Kempner said he’s been coming to the swap meet since about the 1990s.
“We all mess with cars, hotrods,” he said. “We bring parts, cars, signs, toys, motors. We did pretty good yesterday. We do a lot of networking with the other guys.”
Trey and Shelah Morton of Cisco, who brought vintage hotrod parts, were packing up Sunday afternoon.
“It was a good turnout yesterday,” he said. “A lot of people got out. The crowd was down a little bit from last year.
“I’m a second-generation junkie,” he said. “We horse trade around and get extra stuff. This is the original recycling. We’ve been doing this for years — pulling parts off of one car to make another one better.”
Matt Kellogg, owner of GK Grafix and Signs of Belton, said this was his first time at the swap meet. He did fairly well, he said, and hopes to return next year.
Tracy Store of Killeen minded the store while her husband, George, was away.
“We were showing a 1967 Chevelle, but he took it back home,” she said. “We got offers, but not what we were asking for it. We like to talk to people about it. It’s almost as good as money. Really, all it would need is a paint job for it to be an actual show car.”
Everything the Stores had in their main display was car-related, she said, except for two bicycles and an ATV. Her husband is retired and restores vehicles for a hobby.
“You always wind up with a lot of spare parts,” she said.
She does art work and piggy-backs this on the parts enterprise, she said. On the back wall, she had about 10 wooden ornaments representative of American flags of the past.
“I like to incorporate bullets, horseshoes and rusty stars when I can,” she said.
She’s been doing the flags and other artwork for about five years, she said, and has sold her work in the Salado art shows.
“I also have them on permanent display at the Killeen Convention and Civic Center,” she said.
Bob Gay of Florence said he and his wife, Cindy, have been to the meet many times. He always brings carburetors, intakes and rags. A bag of 100 surgical towels costs $30, he said.
David Heil of Fort Worth displayed car-related art work. He said he sold two drawings and three photographs.
“This is my first time down here,” he said. “I’ve done other shows. I’ll be back. It’s a good place to exhibit art work.”
