RELATED: Peter proud of swap meet success
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CAR parts and rocking horses, old petrol station signs and wireless radios - the Bendigo National Swap Meet has it all.
Sellers and siteholders started flowing into the Prince of Wales Showground on Friday to set up their stalls. One of those people was Paul McGuire - a regular at the Bendigo swap meet.
"(I am here) to get rid of stuff to keep my wife happy. If I make enough money I will take her to New Zealand for 10 days. I might leave her there. I will take her but didn't say I would bring her back," Mr McGuire said.
Mr McGuire said he had an old Shell petrol station sign which would fetch more than $2000.
"My wife bought it about 28 years ago and it's been sitting in the shed ever since."
Ethan Gribble, from Adelaide in South Australia, was helping out his grandparents at the swap.
He said he would sell two restored bikes from World War II worth more than $1000 each.
"My pop bought them off a guy just recently. The guy spent about 10 years restoring them. They are from World War II. The egg-shaped lights are painted black. Back in the day they used to be painted white but because of the planes coming over they had to make them black or they would get bombed," he said.
Robert Ryan was at the swap meet with a group of three friends from Sunbury, south of Bendigo.
(I am here) to get rid of stuff to keep my wife happy.
- Paul McGuire
He said the social side of the event was a major drawcard.
"I am here for the ride. It's a good weekend. We met a lot of people, you talk to a lot of people. A lot of people go to the other swap meets so you meet them there as well so you get to make friends with different ones. It's a bit of a circle, you just go round and meet people all the time. Sometimes the same ones, sometimes the old ones," he said.
Norm Baker, from Auto Tech Tools in Melbourne, will sell new tools at the swap meet. He has been before and said he had seen some interesting sights.
"Saw an old T-model Ford that used to get around here for years. They used to race chickens in it because it used to have a big chicken fence around the top of it," Mr Baker said.
The meet opens on Saturday at 6am and Sunday at 7am.