PENNSYLVANIA. What is and what was, Carlisle through the eyes of Stefan Blautzik. Every year since I can remember I’ve been up at Carlisle with Chris bringing home car parts and sand paper. However over the years I’ve noticed change. by Stefan Blautzik.
In my 20 year life time I can proudly say I’ve made it to almost every one. From a full fair ground filled with just car parts, hundreds of cars for sale, and reasonable prices neither the seller nor the buyer could disagree upon.
Too a fair ground that’s looming with old red necks shaking their heads and saying “you should have seen this place in the 80’s”.
This fall Carlisle I was accompanied by one of our good friends from Sweden. I started to ask myself the question why do all these Swedes and other Europeans travel this far to look at all this over priced junk?
“Junk” sorry I mean projects…. ;) Well anyway just asking that question I bet all of my European readers are jumping out of their seats saying “WHY?! Carlisle is the gold mine for everything American with wheels”. Well one mans rust might be your gold…However if you’ve never been to a Carlisle swap meet recently I think you should know what your traveling for.
For those of you who don’t know what Carlisle used to be I’ll tell you. Carlisle, a 100 acre lot sparkling in the sun with beautiful muscle cars that rolled over the hills of Pennsylvania, genuine good parts for every car between the 50’s through the 70’s everywhere you looked, it was truly car heaven no matter if you were a Ford , Chevy, or Mopar fanatic.
Shit Carrol Shelby, and Steve McQueen stood by the door and high fived you while you were on your way in!…Okay well that last part wasn’t true but regardless Carlisle was the place to be.
Yet from my perspective I really don’t see it that way anymore.
Why? Well I blame it on TV shows mainly. I mean come on I remember being a kid and the only TV show that everyone watched was monster garage and for my older readers Dukes of Hazard.
But within the last 10 years I’ve seen maybe 50 plus different Tv shows come and go, everything from Auctions to How to flip a car. So what do you get when you have millions of people watching a 66 Mustang fastback crossing the auction block and hammering down for 60,000 dollars?
Inflated prices on every mustang. This is the same for every car or antique. I really wish I could have an inventory sheet on the amount of antiques brought into Carlisle and Hersey before Pawn Stars and American Pickers came on TV. I’d be willing to bet those numbers doubled!
Walk trough Carlisle with Stefan.
(Music’s not Krantz&Krantz but close. It´s Ellen Kay Band and she started out in Krantz&Krantz . Ellen Kay is the daughter of the family band Krantz&Krantz. This is her own great band. :0) /editor.)
On behalf of all Swedes up in Carlisle or anywhere in the US trying to find a deal I’d like to thank whoever that guy is who keeps buying Cadillac’s off of gas monkey garage. That man alone has raised everyone’s prices up in Carlisle and Hersey.
I’ve scene sellers as soon as they find out your Swedish or European try to raise prices just because they know you guys have deep pockets and are here to buy. So on behalf of everyone that’s had that pulled on them you know whom to thank!
So what are you guys really traveling for? Heck, What is it that keeps me and Chris coming back every year? Well we go up there to buy paint, maybe drop off a pair of bumpers to get chromed, but honestly the reason we keep going back is because it’s become a sort of tradition.
Don’t get me wrong we’re still walking every aisle looking for parts for our latest builds, still looking and digging for a deal. Sometimes we find what were looking for but most of the time we don’t. And to us it really doesn’t matter because we still had the time of our lives walking amongst cars and car people.
That alone will keep me coming back year after year. Now for every gear head around the world, I still encourage you guys to come check out their events because you never know what you’ll find and at the very least you’ll make new friends and see things you’ve never seen before.
Stefan and Chris are the guys behind 3 Crowns Custom that you can follow here on Worldkustom and also on FB.
