Swap meet, garage sales galore this weekend

Paint cans and line markers in hand, a small army of volunteers dotted the Adair County Fairgrounds over the weekend getting ready for an event that will bring hundreds of people to Greenfield this weekend.

The Greenfield Swap Meet is in its second year this year of local control. It will open at sunrise Friday and last through Sunday.

The organization Early Wheels of Iowa oversaw the swap meet for many years. Due to fewer and fewer members available to them for help putting the event on, they handed over the reins to the swap meet to a group of local people in Greenfield who wanted to ensure it stays here.

“We’re really excited for swap meet weekend to be here, not so much leading up to it,” said Jimmie Schultz with a laugh. He serves as vice president of the committee. “Things are going smoothly so far.”

Bridgett Harter said last Friday about 20 people were out on the fairgrounds getting it ready for the swap meet. Many cohorts of people were marking lines for the vendor plots. There are over 1,200 of them to keep track of. Having a map to keep track of it all for volunteers was a must.

“I think we have approximately 30 to 35 on our members list, but some of them couldn’t be here today due to work and other issues,” Harter said.

Taking local control of the swap meet upon Early Wheels’ desire to back out was a no-brainer, said the Greenfield Swap Meet Committee’s President, Alvin Havens.

“It came down to, in my feeling, it’s a good thing for the community,” Havens said. “It brings in a lot of people and a lot of moolah. We felt it needed to keep going.

“Early Wheels said when they came here [30-some] years ago that their average age was 67. The last year they did it it was 81. They basically aged out,” Havens added. “We want to get young people involved so that when we age out, it still goes to somebody.”

At its height, volunteers think there were upward of 1,800 vendor sites available at the Greenfield Swap Meet.

Havens said he feels younger people are taking an interest in events like the swap meet and the endless categories of items they have to offer.

“It started off as car parts, but I think now we really are converting to more of a flea market and it being that if you want it and look hard enough, you can probably find it,” Harter said.

Havens explained that over time, the Greenfield Swap Meet Committee would like to transition their event to be more like the well-known What Cheer Flea Market. It has car parts, housewares, knick knacks, holiday decorations, t-shirts, neon signs and more.

Vendors for Greenfield’s event pay $30 for outdoor spaces and $20 for indoor spaces. No setup is available before Friday and organizers say it is a mad dash for vendors to setup when the gates do open. Food and drink are available on the grounds.

The swap meet is open 8 a.m.-5 p.m. Friday and Saturday and Sunday from 8 a.m. until mid-afternoon.

In conjunction with the swap meet will be a long list of garage sales in Greenfield.

Everything went well for the Greenfield Swap Meet, other than the weather.

“We’ve cracked down on the rules a little bit and we will do that again this year. We made a few people unhappy and made a lot of people happy because we were cracking down,” Havens said. “As far as learning it, layout is one of the biggest things. There are different areas with a little different size plots. You have to have a map and have to read it.”

The Greenfield Swap Meet Committee welcomes more local involvement moving forward from either individuals or groups.

“We want to encourage younger and younger people. I don’t care if we get into high school if they want to help,” Havens said. “The more volunteers we get the easier it’s gonna be. It’s very rewarding to see it happen.”

“It’s like distance families that you see once a year. A lot of them want to visit,” Schultz said.