FACE IT: We now live in a day and age where the computer and the Internet have seriously altered the human experience.

BRING YOUR WALLET: You could practically start your racing career with the hardware available for sale at Curt LeDucs High Performance Swap Meet. Alan Pfluegers CORR Chevy, race ready and complete with a Kroyer engine, was available for a paltry $110,000.

This guy had two nice buggies for sale, a Jimco Class 1-2/1600 and a Foddrill Class 12 car that had never even been raced. Wanna bet it did not have a brand new price tag?

And we're not just talking about porn, either. E-mail is replacing the phone call, You Tube is replacing the boob tube, and a never-ending spate of commercial Websites have made it easier and easier to point and click our way to our next purchase without ever having to come face-to-face with another person.

Unfinished or underfinanced projects, such as this Ford pre-runner, are always abundant at swap meets. The sellers loss is always the buyers gain.

The success of sites such as eBay and CraigsList is likewise quickly driving the automotive swap meet into extinction. Once a way of life for high-performance vehicle enthusiasts of all walks, swap meets offer a real, visceral trading post where buyers and sellers can come together to trade new and used vehicles and parts. Human interaction is a necessary and welcome part of the process, as savvy bargain hunters have the ability to save hundreds of dollars by coming early, staying late, inspecting the merchandise firsthand and then haggling for stuff that is probably already selling for pennies on the dollar.

Midwest racer Scott Douglas made the trek from Wisconsin to attend the LeDuc swap. Douglas had a few of his Pro Power-built 2007 Ford race motors for sale at fair prices.

Veteran off-road star Curt LeDuc has been doing his part to keep the swap-meet experience alive for the off-road community for the past nine years by hosting Curt LeDuc's High Performance Swap Meet every March. This year's event at the Morongo Casino in Cabazon, California, near Palm Springs, continued the tradition by bringing about 300 vendors together with nearly 3000 shoppers in a classic example of old-school networking. The caliber of equipment was as diverse as the people buying and selling it, but it was all off-road oriented, making it a convenient flea market for everyone from the pre-runner crowd to wannabe racers to those looking to step up in class.

This complete Tube Works rear end with Outlaw brakes went for $2000.

"This really started because I would get so many calls from kids who would say, 'Hey, do you have any shocks that you took off?' or 'Do you have any extra seats?' or whatever," LeDuc says. "I just tried to do it the first few times for the buyers and not really for the sellers. It took me awhile to figure out the formula so I could pay for the insurance and the port-a-potties and the food vendors, but now we are headed toward our 10th year. In three or four hours, something like $300,000 or $400,000 can change hands."

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For LeDuc, it's still a way to give back to the sport that has been so good to him. "I don't do this for the guy who came and sold $5000 worth of stuff and is now going to spend that money at Kartek. It's still for those kids, and every time I see one walking out with a pair of shocks or a radiator or a set of tires, I know that stuff is going to be on his truck somewhere out in the desert next weekend. That's what makes me smile, and that's why I do it."

LeDuc has toyed with the idea of having two swap meets per year, but for now, Casino Morongo is the place to be in March 2009 if you're looking to buy, sell or trade your off-road wares to the best target audience on the planet, hardcore off-road fans.