Swap Meet a blast from the past

Dale Woodard

Lethbridge Herald

For Colin Donoghue, it’s as much a history lesson as it is a swap meet.

For the owner of Bentleys Antiques from Sundre, the Early Bird Swap Meet Friday and Saturday at the Lethbridge Exhibition was both as the vendor from just west of Cochrane set up shop with some items that were truly a blast from the past.

“I had four record players I brought and they all sold,” said Donoghue. “There was a portable 45 player from 1953 and another portable record player from 1958. I have a 1970 disc-o-tron, a portable, battery-operated 45 player.”

Those items were a topic of discussion and much interest, particularly from customers who weren’t around when those products were a hot item.

“Talking about the items is pretty cool when you do a little bit of research,” said Donoghue. “I like tinkering, so I would restore record players. You play them and kids, they don’t know what records are. It’s cool that they’ve made a real comeback.”

The COVID-19 pandemic affected this year’s Swap Meet numbers a bit, but antique shoppers still flocked to the venue to see what was up for grabs.

“Up until 2022 we’ve always been sold out,” said Swap Meet chair Mike Yakubowski. “That means we have around 440 car stalls and tables and about 220 vendors. Usually, I’m sold out by the first of January. But this year things are a little slower. We lost the west pavilion because Alberta Health is in there. So we had to downsize a bit. This year, I’m down to 330 tables and cars. But I have about 160 vendors.”

Yakubowski has been organizing the swap meet for seven years.

“It’s been something people want and enjoy. They enjoy coming out and visiting (and) getting parts for cars, antiques and collectibles that people have.”

Yakubowski said when he first started, the Swap Meet didn’t have much as far as collectibles.

“I got the west pavilion and put the cars in there,” he said. “I was looking for more vendors and that opened it up for antiques and collectibles and it has gone over very well.”

The Early Bird Swap Meet takes place annually in the second week of February.

“We had a lot of repeat (vendors),” said Yakubowski. “This year has been a little bit different and some of the older ones haven’t come back. I have roughly four tables of vendors who have canceled because they got COVID at the last minute. But this year I have approximately 50 per cent new. So it’s quite a big change.”

The vendors come from B.C. and all three prairie provinces.

“I have one gentleman as a vendor from The Pas, Manitoba,” said Yakubowski. “I have a couple who came in (Friday) Slave Lake. They just showed up and wanted a table. We have a lot of people from B.C. in the Kelowna and Penticton area.”

Though the province did away with the Restriction Exemption Program in the days leading up to the Early Bird Swap Meet, patrons were required to be masked.

“We’ve had very little trouble,” said Yakubowski. “We had a few people here that didn’t like wearing masks. But other than that, the vendors have been very good coming in and setting up. It went very smoothly (Friday) and (Saturday) has been very busy. At 10 a.m. we were pushing our limit (4,000 people).”

That boded well for the vendors.

“I’ve got vendors who have been leaving because they sold everything,” said Yakubowski, who looked ahead to the 2023 show.

“I’m hoping next year will be back to normal and if we can get more space, we should have more cars coming in.”

After Bentleys Antiques closed a few years ago, Donoghue has continued to clear out the products.

“We’ve had a really good sale, I think people are hungry to get out,” he said. “We have some car parts, some signs, oil cans and the bike sold.”

Due to the pandemic, the Early Bird Swap Meet is the first one in two years for himDonoghue.

Donoghue also hits the Collectors Club shows in Calgary and will head to Red Deer for another show at the end of April

“We’d do about three or four shows a year,” he said.

Donoghue said he’ll be back for next year’s Early Bird Swap Meet.

“Definitely, it’s been really good.”

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