Mini-auction: Thanks and any ideas?

[garnpet]

I would just like to thank everyone who participated in any way, shape or form in our mini-auctions this season;  from people who brought in items to sell or donate, the auctioneers, to any of the helpers.

Also at this time I would like to solicit any ideas that people have to make the auctions better for next year.  The one item on my list for next year, is to perhaps have a reduction in the number of auctions as I felt the last couple of the season lacked a bit of energy and purpose - perhaps a bit of auction fatigue.

[FocusFin]

Also at this time I would like to solicit any ideas that people have to make the auctions better for next year.  The one item on my list for next year, is to perhaps have a reduction in the number of auctions as I felt the last couple of the season lacked a bit of energy and purpose - perhaps a bit of auction fatigue.

I am not an authority, having only attended a couple of meetings/auctions but I will admit that after sitting for a couple of hours I'm wanting to bolt once the auctions starts but I stick around out of respect for the Exec., even though I'm not buying anything - I'm usually in the market for saltwater items.

One idea might be to have quarterly auctions (apart from the meetings) on a Saturday where the only item on the agenda is the auction, that way if it takes longer people won't be as inclined to cut out early. Two hours every couple of months instead. There are a lot of big ticket items on the saltwater side being sold in the classifieds that might make their way into the auctions if there was a larger audience. As it is now, the saltwater stuff usually only shows up at the giant auction.

I realize that four months in between auctions might be too long for those people in freshwater who are looking to pick up different varieties of plants etc. but perhaps there's a middle ground somewhere.

Just a thought.

[markw]

The issue with the mini-auctions and the participation has recently been tied into the attendance at the meetings. We are trying to attract more existing and new members to the meetings by offering value-added member services that will hopefully then make the auctions a more viable event. The more attendees, then hopefully more interest in the auction items, and then down the road maybe more interesting items being brought to be auctioned. I think if we get some decent attendance, we'll see some better auctions!

[FocusFin]

The issue with the mini-auctions and the participation has recently been tied into the attendance at the meetings. We are trying to attract more existing and new members to the meetings by offering value-added member services that will hopefully then make the auctions a more viable event. The more attendees, then hopefully more interest in the auction items, and then down the road maybe more interesting items being brought to be auctioned. I think if we get some decent attendance, we'll see some better auctions!

Understood. The only problem I can see is that with higher attendance comes a larger number of items so instead of the auction running for say 30 to 45 minutes it may run 60 to 90 minutes which on top of a full meeting could be rough on us old folks.

[markw]

Understood. The only problem I can see is that with higher attendance comes a larger number of items so instead of the auction running for say 30 to 45 minutes it may run 60 to 90 minutes which on top of a full meeting could be rough on us old folks.

Maybe so, but I hope not. My experience with other clubs has been that if we get the numbers up, the quality of the auction goods goes way up and the numbers don't. I absolutely agree that sitting through long auctions just to be respectful can be painful. The auctions are void of quality fish and the reason is, not enough buyers to justify the work involved. I sure don't want to give away fish that are worth much more because no one was there to bid on them. Lets focus on attracting more people to the meetings. We are always open to suggestions so please throw them out there, and we will try and adapt new features.

[Fishnut]

I went to a giant auction for one of the aquarium clubs in the GTA...Durham Region I think.  Anyways, they don't start the biddding off at $2, they start the bidding slightly below what the fish/plant/item is worth.  These are the guys who have been in the fish business for decades and know what they're looking at value wise.  If nobody bids, then they start lowering the price until someone bids.  Funny how when they did that and a few people put up their hands, the item went for around what the auctioneer originally started at.   The first item up for bid was a couple of black angels that were about the size of an oreo cookie.  They sold for $40.  Killies that are not easy to find were selling for close to that and I heard some other final prices (I wasn't paying too much attention) as high as $70!! 

I realize that there is more money in the GTA but I think people have become too accustomed to getting things for cheep prices in our auctions and are simply unwilling to pay the price for something good.  For example, someone last night walked away with FLAME MOSS for $2!!!   Try finding that stuff in LFS's.  Even people from Toronto pay a pretty penny for rare moss.  I saw it somewhere in my Toronto LFS tour and it was more than $10.  My husband and I decided that we needed to grow some of the fancy moss and bring it to this Durham giant auction next year!  Perhaps if people were getting decent value for their items, more interesting stuff would find it's way to the auctions, which would result in more interest in the auctions.

I have no idea how to turn that around without making the minimum bid for anything that's not junk higher than $2.

[markw]

I could not agree more with these comments! I've lived all over Canada and been a member of clubs in Montreal, Calgary, Toronto and here. It's shocking to see the disparity in what people see as value here. The  auctions shouldn't be an event that everyone is proud of what they"stole" at a bargain price. It should be an opportunity to benefit from all the members and what they specialize in, whether its fish, plants or other unique items. Like you said Fishnut, at other auctions vendors are happy to bring quality fish and plants, not only to make money but to share them with others. If we can slowly evolve how attendees perceive the auction and encourage the quality items to be auctioned then we might see some changes. We have members who raise some great fish and we never see them any longer at the auctions, probably because they know that they won't get anywhere near the value of what its worth.

[caro]

I wanted to come to the auction to see all the goodies but I had a conflicting schedule.  I'm new to this hobby (only 1.5 months) and I happened to stumble on the OVAS forum web pages a couple of weeks ago when searching for an answer to a particular question.  Up until then I did not know of local clubs.  How do new members usually find out about the OVAS?  Seeing that a sponsor of the OVAS is Big Al's, is it possible to put up a notice there stating that there is an aquarium club at ovas.ca?

[garnpet]

I went to a giant auction for one of the aquarium clubs in the GTA...Durham Region I think.  Anyways, they don't start the biddding off at $2, they start the bidding slightly below what the fish/plant/item is worth.  These are the guys who have been in the fish business for decades and know what they're looking at value wise.  If nobody bids, then they start lowering the price until someone bids.  Funny how when they did that and a few people put up their hands, the item went for around what the auctioneer originally started at.  

This is an interesting idea...

[zima]

I went to a giant auction for one of the aquarium clubs in the GTA...Durham Region I think.  Anyways, they don't start the biddding off at $2, they start the bidding slightly below what the fish/plant/item is worth.  These are the guys who have been in the fish business for decades and know what they're looking at value wise.  If nobody bids, then they start lowering the price until someone bids.  Funny how when they did that and a few people put up their hands, the item went for around what the auctioneer originally started at.  

I find this to be an interesting idea as well. My immediate reaction is "... I wish...". However, like Mark has mentioned, I feel like the quality and the fair prices at the mini-auctions will improve with attendance. Once we re-generate a fair bit of interest among members and non-members to attend meetings, the quality and the prices of items should improve. I've attended all but one meeting and mini-auction, and I can say that probably less than 20% of attendees at each meeting are not the usual suspects. The rest is the exec and the usual few keeners. Given this perspective, is it surprising that flame moss hardly sells for $2? Most of the usual attendees probably have the darn moss!

I think the presentations were absolutely fantastic this season (cheers Errol!). It is a shame most of members are missing it. Perhaps we could either discuss here or open a separate discussion on ideas to bring folks back into meetings? For instance, I loved the reminder email that was sent prior to the last meeting. Surely there are other ways to reach out..

[Sue]

I've posted this before, so I'm just cut & pasting my old post, down below.  :

On the link below there's a video FAAS put together to help (fish) clubs put together a swap meet. There maybe something on there you can use. Swap meets can be a fun alternative to always holding auctions.

http://www.faas.info/presos_practices/swap_meet.html