Long Beach Cycle, Topping Events
Chris Kallas, Tom McGrath, and Richard Bonacci, buying and selling at Long Beach.
A photo from our original booth from 2007 to 2012. We always had lots of foot traffic back then; we still do. Folks would stop by and spend about 10-20 minutes looking over our inventory of small parts which can't be found elsewhere--not easily, at least. This is how we all got to know each other. And the '69 Ford was used as a storage locker for the day--if folks didn't want to lug heavy loads around, we'd keep on eye on things for them.
At the end of the day, a small group of us still gather around and review the day's findings. Invariably, the same question arises, "where did you find that!?" Then the conversation dovetails into technical issues. So we never stop learning from each other.
As Pat Moore of 45's Unlimited puts it, swap meets are like "hunting for treasure." And we find it in two forms: the parts on the ground and the expertise of those in the industry.
We love our business!