Visited on Saturday, just one day. Saw the booth, met a board member, thoght the booth was cool, there were some issues of prices not known and I was not fond of the Silent auction concept.
This has been addressed. Members came by and donated frags the morning of Seamax. There was no time to label these corals in fact I didn't even know they were in there until someone asked for a price. In the future we will have measure in place to remedy this.
Visited on Saturday. I too was not fond of how the Silent Auction was being done.
Ideas for furture Silent Auctions: A box where people put there higest bid on a slip and then into the box. That way no one knows who bid what until the end. I know silent auctions can be done either way, but I think not knowing who bid what would be of more benefit and draw more bids in.
Sure you get more bids...but all for the minimum bid because no one knows where the bid is at....then you have to go through EVERY bid of EVERY item to find the bod that was put in first....if they wrote a time. Google silent auction and you will find the format is exactly what was in place. A piece of paper with the item and a minimum bid where people write in the max bid in order one below the other.
What day did you come?:
Sat. 10-noon
What did you like about the PSAS booth?:
Looked fun, wish I could have stayed more.
What didn't you like about the PSAS booth?:
The silent auction pieces didn't seem to be labeled well. The tank looked good, but some sellers had very slick setups for their coral.
Any other thoughts/suggestions?:
Make 100% sure I have no other family obligations so I can stay longer and BS with everyone.
The tank was a donation/loaner from the Seamax crew. Every club had the same tank in place. I know this because I put the tanks on every clubs tables during setup Friday at noon. All corals that were in the silent auction thread (thus planned for) had a bid sheet with minimum bid, buy it now and an excel table for your name, bid and contact number.
I'm not a member of your group. I meant to stop over and say hi from the PNWMAS but I was in a coral and raffle zone! I also wanted to mention there's a little typo in the first line under your title (hint should be Seamax). It kind of changes the whole concept.:attention:
Oops well that is just embarrassing....
On a side note: I don't think you have to worry about a silent auction in the future. The entire BOD spent a lot of time and effort to get the corals in from a wholesaler at trans-ship cost. Not only did we get the corals in at midnight on a work night and then go through acclimation/dipping until almost 3 in the morning we then photographed, had to arrange transportation to the event, and prepare the bid sheets. I only mention this because I was told from a couple members that our prices were too high. Well I tell you what there was a coral in particular that stands out that was buy it now for 50$. I was told this was too high. If you walked to the next aisle over a vendor had the same coral, of same size and color for almost $150. If you don;t believe that the prices were right I'll bring your the tranship paperwork. In fact some corals were still at a loss for the price.
So in short, A lot of work went into the auction, feedback was poor, people are cheap, and I personally will not be doing it again.
