PVAS auction Apr 2 Fairfax, VA

First topic message reminder :

Hey all, Who's up for a USAFB VA Chapter road trip? It was brought to my attention at the board meeting yesterday that there is a BIG auction Apr 2 in Fairfax, VA. It is an all day auction that starts at 10:00am hosted by Potomac Valley Aquarium Society. So far we have a couple members interested in going, if you are interested you can contact me or go to www.pvas.com for further details.

JB

Hope yall have a blast. Ill have to get you some money to spend for me Bill LOL.

So who all is coming? And am I the only female? :) I got permission from the bank as long as we don't park in the close spots

I would be going if every fish event didnt happen on my weekend of being on call.

No ben = no trouble :) j/k make that money!

Yall have a safe trip and get some cool stuff.

You have JB and Bill there will be plenty of trouble. There will just be less fun without me haha.

Kin.. we are not male/female.. we are fish freaks!.... we're looking at taking two vehicles cuz.. A.. one of the treker's has got a line on some "steals" in that neck of the woods and B. I might run out and check out the fish rescue site... and C. It might turn into a long day and some might want to shorten the trip beyond what others might consider acceptable... It's going to be my first trip to a fish auction so I might be one of the first ones to bail!.. (I seriously doubt it though)))).. But I do think it's possible I may exhaust my budget long before the auction is over!... dang.. it's getting close!.. 1000 fish lots up for auction!..
Bill

I have a box of hostess cinnamon coffee cakes to take on the road.

WOO-HOO, cinnamon coffee cakes!!! Kin's ridin with me.

JB.. you'll be late in arriving at the assembly point and you might.. just might end up with crumbs!.. Bil l

Ok whoever has me riding with them... I bought a fishy magazine to look at during the trip! Yay!

Don't show it to Bill or he will find something else he likes and spend more money at the auction.

I don't get it...

So how did it go? Did Bill spend every dime LOL.

I dunno what bill and them bought. But I got 11 pink convict juvies for $3 and a reptile water bowl for $1. I think I fell asleep through part of it... I was having fun watching the bidding!

I admit I exceeded my budget but did walk away with some good deals.
Purchase list:
5 silver angels @ .50 cent piece size... (body only).. at $12.00
2 DD angels @ sliver dollar size 16.00 (my splurge)
5 German Blue Rams 1 " to 2" 4.75 per fish.
More freaking plants than I have room for but one or two deals that stood out was a bag of Blassi Cypts. 10 plants for 7.00.
Val 8 plants for 3.00

What I missed out on and regret after gettting back from the auction and going on Aquabid was the Apisto's. One guy (suspected dealer) from NC bought every lot of Apisto's that came up. He was getting them on average of less than $5.00 per fish. Now i see he was getting them cheap compared to Aqua..

Other observations. If you wanted plants, there was enough Java Fern to have carpeted the auditorium!.. Anubis seemed to be pretty plentiful and going for about 5.00 for a good size specimen.

If you wanted Pleco's and Cory's, you'd have had a field day!.. Every variety, every size.

Tanks: If you had room in the house and transport, you could have walked away with enough to set up a retail outlet!.. One beauty that stands out, a 55 gal, light wood trim, double 55 g stand, wood trimmed hood/light, big filter of some type: went for the grand price of $45.00.

I did pick up a 10 g with hinged glass top for $3.00... was just way too cheap and good for an Iso tank, or hospital tank.

I made my "wish-list" the day before the auction. At that time there were about 700 lots going up on the block.. throughout the day, stuff was still coming in. Plus there were more than a few vendors selling out of the back of their vehicles before the auction. I heard lot numbers approaching 1,100 and possibly higher than that.

The auction went pretty well with 4 different auctioneers taking turns .. It started out really slow on each item but someone must have stuck a stick up their backside cuz after a couple of hours, the pace began to fly!..

They could have done better with the food vendor.. Cold hotdogs but the price was only a buck per dog so ....

The two guy's I went with sat thru the whole day until one guy just had to buy something and ended up with 4 (4" Jewels).. the other guy is a species only guy and there wasn't one fish he wanted.

One final disappointment.. only one discus came to the auction and he was definately a bit stressed out.

Would I go again?.. U bet.
Bill
p.s. I spent $10.00 on raffle tickets and won two door prizes!

Sounds like you all did well. Congratz on the convict fry Kin. Bill I know where to go when I want to dive into the whole plant thing now lol.

Ben.. yea for plants, be sure and get a seat next to Strike at the May meeting. He could write a "How-to" book! Me? I'm still reading the "Plants for Dummies".. <grin>> Bill

One more P.S. Deadred was sitting next to me.. if you recall, he and I are going to engage in making drift-wood/slate auction items for the May meeting... I don't think DR was as hyped on the concept until we saw free floating driftwood coming up at the auction.. 25-45 bucks for a stick? I turned to him and asked if he had any locally collected specimens of that caliber and he said something in the order that what they were selling was basically cr@p!.. So.. save your pennies for the auction!.. (that's one incentive to get my butt in gear drilling the slate!).. Bill

LOL can't wait.

We are gonna have some good stuff lined up for the meeting, i cant wait its gonna be a lot of fun for sure

Good to hear Deadred.