West Wind El Rancho Swap Meet

Maybe I’m biased because I grew up loving garage sales and flea markets.
The El Rancho Swap Meet is like a mini-​vacation for me every time I wonder through those gates. The best day to go is Sunday when most of the vendors are participating. The cost is .75 per person on that day.
Parking is self serve in any spot and you just walk over to the swap meet. Right away you are greeted with favorite, loud and often boisterous music of the people selling as well as aromas of fresh Carne Asada on the grill from street trucks. My kid’s personal favorite — the mechanical bull is also a regular next to the food booths.
Wander past this and you will find several token booths full of pre-​packaged items made overseas selling for way too much, ie; socks, cheap shoes and phone cases selling for $ 25.00 (you can get the same ones on-​line for $ 5.00). We always walk past these now and go to the good stuff.
The «good stuff» are all of the booths ran by folks who scavenge around at yard sales or purchase storage units at auction and then bring it here to sell for profit. There are no limits to what you can find on good days. Tons of tools, books, antiques, décor, and more. We have found game systems, guitars, lawn mowers, furniture etc., etc., etc.,!!!
Some days are hit and miss and some days are a solid gold mine. Every time I go we have a blast and spend around 2 hours just walking around hunting for treasures. They have pretty clean bathrooms and if you get thirsty they have regular water/​soda inside the snack booth.
I can’t give it 5 stars because I’ve never been to another one so I can’t compare.
Oh yeah — last minute tip — don’t go until 10:00 or 11:00. If you go at 8:30 or 9:00 half the vendors are not there yet. I think they like to sleep in.

3.5
The inner dork in me loves these kind of flea markets, where people’s trash are spread out all over and you get to peruse people’s discarded lives like you are strolling through a museum. All you middle-​class people who are afraid to wander in? Pfffft. The more trash to treasures I can find. My best bargain was a few years ago when someone was selling 3 used red Flyer pull wagons for only $ 35 each. Bought one for a friend and I should have bought one for me too. It’s been two years and I still cry thinking about it. Come early before it gets too hot.

I have lived in Reno since 1995 but never made it to the swap meet. I had planned to many times, but this was my first actual visit. My mission was to get fireplace tools for our new place! First, it was only 50 cents a piece for my husband and I to get in. They did not charge me for my 12 year old son or two terrorist toddlers. That was nice, a buck is ok to pay to look around. There was a lot of junk ofcourse, a lot of socks! LOL I do not think I have ever seen so many socks. Anway, I scored a rubber cover for my BlackBerry for $ 6, that was a deal. Then I come across a couple of good ol boys that looked like they would rather be hunting… but what did they have… fireplace tools! Nice set, OBVIOUSLY by the very pretty style, one of their wives picked them out. I ask them what they want… only $ 5! Score, babe, give me $ 5! Put them in the bottom of my grande double stroller and off we go. There were some really good deals on area rugs… the really huge ones for only $ 100 and they were some of the same brands they sell at the Home Depot and Lowes. If you are in need of tools there were tons of sellers with tools and carpentry materials… I am guessing a lot of out of work construction workers. I really did not see much furniture and really not a lot of kids stuff other than cheap made in Tiwan toys. I was on the hunt for some of the Little Tikes and Step 2 outdoor play items. No luck there. I was not brave enough to try the food, I had restroom issues. There was some sort of band playing. Food stands and so on. We got my toddlers some Dora bubbles for $ 1 a pack and I had my fireplace tools. That was all we got. I will be going back for some of the area rugs when we have caught up from moving, they were a good deal. It had been raining all week, so maybe next time more vendors. All in all, I will go back. I will leave the 12 year old at home though! hahaha
If you want to take the time to look through a bunch of nothing to find your treasure, then this is the place to go. Only 50 cents, cant beat it.

After living in Reno/​Sparks for 13 years, I finally broke down and visited the El Rancho Flea Market, located @ the Sparks El Rancho Drive-​In location. I hadn’t been to a flea market in nearly 20 years, the last one being in L.A. most likely. Between the neighborhood and the swap meet itself, El Rancho almost felt like East L.A. to me. While this will scare many people off, I found it to be a nostalgic blast from the past. That said, this is probably the smallest flea market I’ve ever been to, much smaller than any swap meet in Cali – there were MAYBE 50 stands/​vendors at most when we visited today. Once summer comes, there’ll probably be more selection – also I heard that Sunday is bigger than Saturday.
Smaller scale means lower admission – 50 cents on Saturday, 75 cents Sunday! The sign said kids under 4 are free, but they didn’t charge me to bring in my 10 year old son… major cheapskate bonus points already…
As with most swap meets/​flea markets, you have to browse through lots of useless junk to find the actual deals. This ain’t Beverly Hills, so if the sight of dusty useless junk, or dusty useless people offends you, I wouldn’t recommend it. If you’re willing to dig and look around awhile, you can find some decent bargains.
I found an uncut DVD of American Psycho, like new condition, for $ 4. I also found a CD by the old punk band Flipper for $ 2. My son bought an old PS1 game for $ 5. They have LOTS of used and new video games here, I even saw some original Nintendo cartridges and a shitload of controllers, including what looked to be a couple of original Atari joysticks. You can haggle with most of these guys too, which is really cool. Just take a minute to check your discs for scratches (and that they’re not bootlegs) and you’re good to go.
So I have a VERY old boom box that refuses to play any burned CD’s, and sometimes even store-​bought CD’s because the laser is wearing out. Yes, I know I’m archaic by not being Mr. Ipod (yet) but I still like buying CD’s because I like to have the original packaging, liner notes, etc. (Records are even better, heh heh). After spotting a fairly clean but old-​looking Aiwa that the lady is asking $ 35 for (NO WAY), and glancing at a couple pretty beat-​up looking boxes that looked they were from the late 80’s, I came across a very clean TEAC «Micro Hi-​Fi» CD/​CD-​R/​MP3 compatible system with detachable speakers. It looks like it’s in pretty good shape, but it’s wrapped up in a shitload of shrinkwrap, probably so someone more gullible will think that it’s actually brand new. Looks clean though, no scratches and it looks like it actually might be from the last decade or so. The guy wanted $ 25 for it. I asked him if I could test it out, but he said the stand didn’t have any power. Hmmm (at this point I’m looking at the extension cords nearby, planning my next move). Another guy walks up and asks about a laptop. Vendor: «It doesn’t work.» Guy: «Well, what if I want to buy it anyway? It might not cost that much to fix.» I’m thinking, OK, the guy just told you it doesn’t work. Why the hell would you want to take the chance, and do I want to gamble on the stereo? So the guy offers $ 35 for the laptop, which the vendor gladly accepted. I offer $ 20 for the stereo, the vendor is resisting, «no man, it works, you can bring it back if it doesn’t, I’m here every week.» YEAH heard that before buddy. Me: «If I can’t test it now, I’ll take a chance on it and give you $ 20, no more.» Vendor (looking at his wife, speaking to her in Spanish): «All right, she says it’s OK.» HELL YEAH sweet ass little system for $ 20. Hopefully it works.
I then go and grab a couple $ 1.50 tacos from the taco truck parked near the snack bar/​Mexican karaōke area and watch an interesting Mexican karaōke battle. Killer tacos, great hot sauce. A taco truck with no sign or business info probably isn’t the safest bet, but this is a day of flea market risk, my friends, and the tacos are sitting well. I’d rather go for the truck (the busy one, not the dead one parked 50 feet away that NO ONE is eating at… bad sign) than the snack bar, which is advertising 5 tacos for $ 5. Drive-​in snack bar tacos… it’s a day of risk, not of attempted suicide.
After looking at some really rude, stupid T-​shirts that were $ 5 apiece and deciding that I’m not hyphy/​retarded enough to wear one, we leave. At home I hook up the system and it works! One minor flaw, the tray won’t eject automatically, so you have to manually open the top to put the CD in… but this may be fixable, the speakers sound good too and are actually louder than my old speakers. I looked the same model up on e-​bay, some guy wants $ 75 for it, says «CD door needs to be opened manually, otherwise works fine.» HA! Take that E-​Bay! I’m rockin’ Flea-​Bay!
Next time I’m gonna pick up some produce. Some of it was expensive, but those strawberries were the prettiest I’ve seen in awhile…

could be way better but only 50 cents a person they have a close bathroom and fruit and veggies a bit pricey could be cause I live in valley I can get oinions 8lbs for $ 1 and oranges $ 1 per 5 lb. I could just be spoiled. I could go on and on