Golden West College Swap Meet in Huntington, Beach California is an outdoor flea market that features a mix of individual sellers who throw tarps on the ground and roll out the family belongings, or commercial sellers who bring leather goods and tooled belts from Mexico, sell produce, dollies, binoculars, boots, laundry soap, jewelry, watches, drill bits, CDs, sodas...you name it. You never know exactly what you'll find at the swap meet, in fact.

In the spring of 1979, 100 vendors turned out to sell stuff at this new weekend venture. Today the weekly Saturday and Sunday Swap Meets features as many as 680 vendor spaces per day. Quality control is a concept you don't really think about at Swap Meets. What-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWYG) not only applies to web building and the Internet, but to swap meets, as well. It's your job to inspect, examine and decide on the spot if you're getting a fair deal on something with equal or less guarantee than a garage sale. In the past, the swap meets have routinely searched and confiscated goods that are knock-offs or copies of trademark items.  In Huntington Beach at the Golden West College Swap Meet, police previously arrested two people and seized an estimated $180,000 worth of counterfeit purses, watches, sunglasses, movies and music discs in 2005.

Counterfeit Oakley sunglasses, fake Louis Vuitton purses and counterfeit Omega watches were among the items found at Golden West College's extremely successful weekly market. If a price seems low on a designer item that you'd pay hundreds of dollars to buy at nearby South Coast Plaza shopping mall in neighboring Costa Mesa or on Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, then chances are that it may not be the authentic product. 

What to look for at a swap meet?  If you are book collector, try the swap meet for some books that you cannot find elsewhere. When you see a bookseller, discuss your needs. Many of the sellers go to garage sales and auctions to acquire the collectibles they can resell for profit at a swap meet.

For shoe strings, socks, backpacks, toy dolls, tools, t-shirts, hats and foods and fruits, check out the swap meet on your next visit to Huntington Beach or other California cities where these indoor or outdoor flea markets are held.

Other Swap Meets include:

Cypress College

Irvine Valley College

Golden West College

Orange County Market Place

(Fairgrounds)

Orange Coast College

Santa Fe Springs Drive-In
 

Swap Meet Movie video clip of Huntington Beach  Golden West College (not recommended for dial up Internet service)