SWAP MEET SET FOR TUESDAY RUN.

Byline: Mary Schubert Daily News Staff Writer

Don't know where to go to get 5,000 basketball cards of NBA players past and present, or where to find garage sale-style merchandise during the week? Try the Saugus Speedway Swap Meet, now open Tuesdays.

There aren't nearly as many vendors hawking their wares as on busy Sundays, and the merchandise leans toward the secondhand variety because, swap meet officials point out, the Tuesday edition is meant as a flea market. But admission is free and there just might be a bargain lurking among the items displayed on folding tables and placed on tarps spread on the asphalt parking lot.

The speedway has hosted swap meets for more than 30 years, but until recently it was a weekend affair. In December, the event expanded to Tuesdays, said Terri Burbank, general manager of the swap meet.

``I would say we probably average somewhere between 30 to 50 vendors, as compared to 500 vendors on Sundays,'' Burbank said.

``It's quaint and cozy, (with) free entry for shoppers. Vendor spaces are just $10,'' Burbank said. ``It's real informal.''

Merchandise for sale ranges from knickknacks and old board games to new sporting goods. Because of the rainstorm that began Monday night and continued through the pre-dawn hours, there were only a handful of sellers Tuesday and the number of buyers was limited to a trickle.

``There were four times as many people here last week,'' said Bob Groves, a Palmdale merchant who was selling old coins and an assortment of cosmetics, old dishes and assorted trinkets. ``This is a bad week because of the weather.''

Groves' selection of pennies dates to 1894, and his locked case also includes a dozen silver dollars from 1883 to 1922.

Sellers load up vans, station wagons and trucks with merchandise that they ferry from one community swap meet to the next.

Bob Cranshaw often makes the circuit between swap meets at the Ventura County Fairgrounds, the Rose Bowl and on the old municipal airport grounds in San Fernando. ``This is my hobby,'' he said. ``My main business is window cleaning.''

Cranshaw, a Santa Clarita resident, said he buys items from estate auctions and those held by storage companies when customers don't pay the rent on their storage lockers. He then sells the contents at swap meets.

Among the items spread across Cranshaw's display tables was a box of 5,000 basketball cards spanning 1985 to 1996, with an asking price of $30.

``During the winter months, when my (window-cleaning) business is slow, this is what I do,'' Cranshaw said as a long Southern Pacific freight train rumbled past the speedway and cars sped along Soledad Canyon Road.

``We're one of the oldest and most established Sunday swap meets in California,'' Burbank said. The weekend edition takes up 20 acres of the speedway grounds vs. three acres for Tuesday.

Tuesday hours are 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Beginning on April 17, the swap meet also will open Friday nights. ``Hop'n Swap is going to be a swap meet under the lights, on the race track, complete with entertainment, dancing, beer, socializing and a full food menu,'' Burbank noted.

Every week through August, Hop'n Swap will feature a different style of musical entertainment, ranging from oldies to country western to reggae, she added.

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PHOTO In an expansion from Sunday-only hours, sellers will be displaying their wares from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Tuesdays at the Saugus Swap Meet.

Shaun Dyer/Special to the Daily News