2011 Giant Auction

[pm]

This will be my first time attending  , when are the raffle prizes drawn?  I assume you must be present to win.  Is this correct?

[garnpet]

yes, you must be present to win.  They are drawn throughout the day.

[White Lightning]

Heads up Folks....

As of 2000hrs pre-registration is closed. Further registrations after 200hrs for OVAS members are charged 35% and 40% for any non-OVAS members.

Looking forward to seeing everyone at the auction!!!

[littlelil]

Lunch will be similar to last year

Hot Dogs(all beef this year)

Or Smoked meat on a Swiss triangle

$3 includes drink

Will lunch be available throughout the day or is it only at a set time? I didn't go last year so I am not sure how it went.....

[Nerine]

Lunch will be there till it runs out!! and there's a LOT of places to eat near by too...but Wayne is excellent at judging how much food and drink we'll need

[Rémi]

What time are the auctions thought to go till? I think I read 6 somewhere but I can't find that anymore.

*Got my answer on the volunteer topic. Around 5-6*.

[rockgarden]

Wonder what I am bringing.  Here's my front hallway at about midnight.

    http://www.megapixeltravel.com/2011/03/ottawa-aquarium-society-ovas-annual-giant-auction-2011/ 

Remember to bring money for raffle tickets!!!

[sas]

Ug I can see being late, darn snow, have to dig out the laneways again!

[drboeing]

Hooray!  I get to be the first to post and say thanks for another wonderful Giant Auction, as always a marvel of organisation!

We got some great fish, shrimp and plants this year, possibly going to have one fatality as one of the Rusty Cichlids Rob bought (of 3) is in pretty serious distress.    Not sure hell recover.

Thanks for such a great day, hopefully I see some of you before next years auction.

Mrs and Dr Boeing, AKA Karen and Rob.

[rockgarden]

For me an unbelievable success.  I came home with nothing! 

Because there were a great many great people buying raffle tickets, I was totally too busy to put my hand up!  That is really a good thing considering some of the items I have ended up with at past auctions! 

Thanks to everyone who put in lots of time behind the scenes and to all those who spent so much time keeping the event moving along so smoothly. Really appreciated.   Thanks, also, to all of the buyers and sellers who showed up with items and money considering the weather conditions this morning. Nice to see such spirited bidding on some of those coveted items.  Who would have guessed that shrimp could be such an exciting item  .

I will try to add photos to my blog later in the evening.  Need a rest first

Ron
www.megapixeltravel.com (the blog)

[bitterman]

Ug I can see being late, darn snow, have to dig out the laneways again!

Missed you Sue. Hope your safe.

Bruce

[ajm1961]

Seems like we finished at a record time! A lot of goodies to be had for sure - I managed to pick up a whole lot of plants, and some pumps and sponge filters.
Thanks to all that helped out, I had a great time!
Cheers!

[drboeing]

I thought about offering and should have, why cant we have hourly shifts on duties such as raffle ticket sales?

Sign me and Dr B up for shifts at that for next years auction.

Lost the fish who was in distress.   

[Nerine]

Sorry to hear you lost the fish My fry were in poor shape :\ there were too many of them in the little jar and they were all gasping at the surface...got them into fresh water...and hoping they will survive!!

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!! A special thank you to Irene, you are amazing! Caroline - awesome job! Joyce - Thanks for greeting people at the door and keeping track of items! Sylvia and Jenn - awesome job on cash Our wonderful auctioneers! Excellent work! Wayne for the great sandwiches Jessie's daughters for helping run the kitchen with John & Wayne, great job girls! Hope to have you again next year! All our runners - without you the auction wouldn't run as smooth as it did! I know i'm missing names, but I'm dead dead tired!! LOL THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU We finished in record time, and the room was very clean!

Sad to see some of our Montreal neighbours were not able to make it and a few other people who lived further out, but to those who did come in, thanks for braving the roads! (which were totally amazing tonight, made it home in 'record' time compared to this morning going to Ottawa!)

[cdylnicki]

I had such a great time today!

I have spent all evening planning my new shrimps (cherry & Bumbleboo), move into my 14 gallon nano (I realized I am missing one light & that the other light unit is broken).  The shrimps are all fluttering about in their temporary 5 gallon.  My plan is to set the CO2 unit (brand new Nutrafin Plant System for $7.00 at the auction) in the nano.

My Hammer coral is doing well.  Beautiful green colouring!  Both Diatom filtration units have all pieces & I am planning which tanks to place them with. 

I can't wait until next years auction!

[Fishnut]

I had a great time and the day just flew past!!  I managed to get my the #1 fish on my items list...Brachyraphis Roseni, despite everyone keeping me busy on cash.  It's not easy concentrating on making change and listening for items I want to bid on, so I was delighted to get them. 

I also managed to get a school of Xenophorus Couchianus!  I wasn't going to bid on them at first (the first 2 bags were selling a bit higher than I hoped to spend) but I absolutely love them!  Not only are they rare little fish but they fit in perfectly with the water parameters of my Sulawesi snail tank.  It's a 20 gallon with just snails in it...amazing snails, but there's not much movement, so I've been looking for something to swim around in there!

On top of that, I got a pair of Ilyodon Furcidens, a trio of girardinus falcatus and a couple of plants.  All the fish are in their new respective quarantine homes or species tanks and doing well.

There were a lot of people who bought a lot of different kinds of fish, so there are a lot of people out there with MTS.  Did anyone impulse buy?  At least one person did I think, because he came up to me and asked what kind of fish this Green Terror was .  Impulse buy!!!

I'm glad everyone looked like they had a great day.  I sure did!

[HappyGuppy]

For *years* I had been wanting to come to the yearly auction, but something always came up.  Also I never did come to the monthly meetings - long story, but in short usually I can't go.  Furthermore, my wife has generally now cared very much for this "hobby". 

Today I had a DELIGHTFUL TIME!!!  I enjoyed going, participating in the auction, and also interacting with some others.  It's nice to shake hands with people that typically are just some faceless nickname.  My kids had a good time, particularly my son who is now a "salt water" fish nut, was quite happy being there too.  Charlie got a picture of him holding his fish bowl that he got at the auction (cute, a kid with a new bowl... and a big smile).  Oh, if someone (Charlie?) could PM me a link to that photo I'd really appreciate it... or to the photo album as I'd enjoy looking through the pics of the day.

My wife, though still cool, has obviously warmed up to aquariums.  I think she's falling for the marine tank we've got going.  Having her come to the auction was a big step; now she she's that it's not just me who is crazy... there's lots of us!!!  She had a good time at the auction too.

I want to thank all the wonderful people who organized this marvelous event.  The whole thing went smoothly and was a smashing success.  The people with whom I've had the pleasure of interacting with were top notch - you're all great!  You should all be proud of yourselves, and know that you are much appreciated!

[Jeff1192]

Another amazingly well-run day by everyone involved. I can't believe how quickly they got through everything. There were some great deals to be had. I managed to pick up a pair of mega clown plecos, some shrimp and some plants.

Thanks to everyone involved in making the day a great success.

Jeff

[Sue]

Thanks to the OVAS Exec and all the volenteers for putting together another great auction yesterday!  Thanks also to the folks from Montreal, who braved the weather to drive to the auction bringing so many cool fish!  

[rockgarden]

Photos now in my blog.


Stayed up all night toiling (not really) so that I could get all of those smiling faces into my blog.  Now completed.

Find some of the days events chronicled here: http://www.megapixeltravel.com/2011/03/ottawa-aquarium-society-ovas-annual-giant-auction-2011/

Have a great day!

Ron