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As a Porsche lover this event is a must to attend! The Central PA Region of the Porsche Club of America brings its world-famous Porsche-Only Swap Meet to Hershey, Pennsylvania, every April. For years, my wife Sheryl and I have wanted to attend this meet. I have seen it advertised in Panorama as being “without exaggeration the largest event of its kind on the planet. It typically brings nearly 650 vendors, around 1,000 Porsches, and over 6,000 visitors together in Hershey every year”. In addition to the swap meet, they offer a People’s Choice Concours plus a Porsche Corall for a great opportunity to see an amazing cross section of Porsches finest.
The timing was perfect as we were planning on launching Sheryl’s Automotive Personal Art business, YourAutoMementos.com so why not kill two birds with one stone and attend the event as a vendor. The preparation and planning process involved buying a Vendor tent, assembling the displays, packing the artwork and getting ourselves the 800km to the show. All the stuff wouldn’t fit into the Boxster S, but luckily ...
the Odyssey had lots of space.
We arrived Friday eveningto make sure we would be ready at the gates when they opened Saturday morning at 6:30 am. It seemed much earlier than our DE days! The event was extremely well organized and after going through at least 6 checkpoints we found our booth location in the huge parking lot beside Hershey stadium. They expect 1,000 Porsches to attend but if 2,000 showed up there would still be lots of space for everyone.
As with any swap meet (or garage sale for that matter) there were many “early birds” dashing about to make sure they had the best selection. These folks are on a mission! By about 7:30 am the Porsches really started to roll in. They were from all over, many coming in groups. The 968 and 914 guys all seem to travel together. We saw a few Ontario license plates, one or two Quebec plates but most were from the surrounding ten or so states. The Porsches keep rolling in until about 11 am when it seems the maximum number have arrived, judging by the length of the line ups for the washroom anyway.
If you are looking for Porsche parts to buy or just ponder over, this is the place. I have been to lots of car swap meets before, but never one like this where virtually every vendor has something for my car. It takes forever just to walk up one row, let alone all of them! I cannot remember seeing this many Porsche parts in one place ever. Given the longevity of our favourite marque most of the parts were about 20 years old or older, but some stretched back to the very early cars. I was surprised to see so many 356 parts on display but I guess if you got ‘em this is the place to sell ‘em. Most of the parts were not of the pristine condition you see at California swap meets but generally Porsche parts (at least those made since the mid 70’s) stand up well to the elements even in the North East, but you already knew that! There was lots of sheet metal on display as well as wheels and tires. Lots of interior components from cars that became dedicated DE or race cars. Mechanical parts were not very plentiful, I guess because of their long service life. Prices in general were lower than I expected, especially for us Canadians due to our dollar being at par ( for the moment, anyway). As with any swap meet the prices started out high in the morning, but what remained one half hour before closing was available on a “make an offer” basis. When I bought my ’08 987S, I sourced a spare tire, jack and toolkit from a wrecker in Oaklahoma in “as new” condition for $300 plus shipping. There was a vendor at this swap meet that had three spare tire sets for $175 each, none sold by the end of the day. In fact the general buzz among the vendors was that lots of people were looking but few were doing any real buying. Large established Porsche aftermarket parts dealers like Rennline seemed to be very busy. They were offering 25% off on all parts at the swap meet and with our dollars strength and no shipping these prices were a bargain.
I was expecting to see more cars in the Concours area. I estimate there were about 60-70 cars in total entered, but the quality of the cars made up for the quantity. They were gorgeous! Everything from some really early 356’s to a brand new Panamera, which was guaranteed a third place as there were only three cars in its class. The Panamera’s owner was taking some heat as the car wasn’t even properly cleaned for the event, too new to bother, I guess. The restored cars were gorgeous and meticulously prepared as always. Personally, I love to check out the survivors. The ones that have been lovingly cared for over the years and although they have a light patina from very careful use, are carefully preserved and not restored because they are “only original once”. Many gorgeous vehicles standout in my mind, see the pictures for some of my favourites.
A modern Carrera GT appeared, in all it’s glory, shortly after lunch and was given a prime parking spot adjacent to the concours cars. The owner put on a bit of a show for the 25 or so enthusiasts that flocked to the car by revving that beautiful engine. What a sound! It’s always great to see one of these magnificent cars. The car had a permanent crowd of 10-15 people around it the whole time it was there.
Did anything unusual happen at this event? You bet, I sighted a beautiful old Lamborghini Islero from the early 60’s in the parking lot!
A great day and a great event, a dream event for every Porsche lover. Maybe you think an artist would feel out of place at an event like this, amidst the used parts etc. Not at all! Porsche people are great wherever they meet! We had lots of interest in Sheryls truly-unique Personal Art for Automotive enthusiasts, the only problem was keeping me in our booth! There was just too much to see! We look forward to meeting you at another PCA event soon.