March 27th marketed the 25th annual All British Car Swap Meet & Autojumble: the weather was brisk but clear with some 53 vendors occupying 72 spaces in hopes of selling their wares to the 423 shoppers that prowled the aisles between 8am and 2pm.

Chicagoland MG Club booth featured membership applications and various regalia for sale.

Jim Evans shared a little history. “When this event was first proposed to (then) club management it was rejected as not being a worthwhile club sponsored event. Having seen the success of the combined Buick-Olds-Pontiac swap meet it seemed like a sure winner to me. So I rented the DuPage County Fairgrounds site myself and licked my own stamps to spread the word to likely buyers & sellers. With an initial attendance of 31 vendors in 32 spaces with 550 shoppers, the event was an immediate winner and $1,530 was turned over to the club. This event has never lost club money and has, in fact, contributed about $59,000 to the club treasury over the years.”

John Twist of University Motors, Ltd was on hand to answer questions regarding British motor cars.

“Our Swap Meet quickly gained in popularity with increasing counts of vendors and shoppers for many years. We began to attract “big name” vendors such as Little British Car Co and Triple-C Accessories. Also, powder coaters, polish guys, tool vendors and more. In 2000, we expanded into the third building and continued to see popularity improve over the next 14 years. This year we confined ourselves to one building since the annex building of past years was cordoned off for COVID equipment. With this configuration, vendor space capacity is about 70 - it was a real challenge to make room for this years’ vendor count".





“The Swap Meet lost our traditional 3rd Sunday in February date in 2014 and we have bounced around on the Fairgrounds calendar since then, possibly losing some customers due to new dates. Some popular vendors such as Little British Car Co and Triple-C have exited the business and no longer attend. Some of our repeat vendors have moved away and some have passed away. We have had significant site rental increases, some of which we have passed on to our customers.”

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