RE: [GSAS-board] Plant Auctopsy 2006

["Hess, Clay A" <clay.a.hess@boeing.com>]

Erik,

I might mention that the lower numbers could be due to the Valentines
Day schedule. I am fortunate in that my spouse was very understanding
about this.  If we had planned dinner out for Vday I can see where I
would not have made the auction this year.

Clay 

-----Original Message-----
From: Erik Olson [mailto:erik@thekrib.com] 
Sent: Wednesday, February 15, 2006 9:59 AM
To: gsas-board@thekrib.com
Cc: pwallace@u.washington.edu
Subject: [GSAS-board] Plant Auctopsy 2006

Here are the numbers for comparison with previous years:

                2006    2005    2004    2003    2002    2001    2000

bidders 28      39      43      30      34      39      38
lots            267     242     322     264     259     231     260
gross $ 1195    1299    1636    1327    1180    1624    1479
splits $        146     194     453     265     150     403     413

As you can see, the number of bidders was way down, and the income is
lower than, but kinda similar to previous years.  I suspect we'll make a
similar amount as we did last year, which is not really the point of the
auction anyway... it's more to get the plants out to people!

Now in terms of speed, the team SMOKED, averaging a stunning 3 items per
minute.  You can see we sold the 2nd highest number of lots ever, and
did it in probably the shortest time ever (90 minutes).  The auctioneers
kept moving, the computer folks kept things from getting backed up, and
the runners were there to pick it all up.  I really liked the new table
arrangement with the single row for computer folks sitting in the DMZ
instead of against the wall in previous years.  It also helped that Paul
was able to check folks in and out on the fourth laptop -- kept the
three ops free to work on bids.  Similarly, having the bogwood sales
done like a silent auction with fixed price really moved things along. 
Checkout worked smoothly as well.

OK, criticism:  ENOUGH ALREADY WITH THE BOGWOOD.  PLEASE.  I actually
had some used bogwood from an ex-member that I didn't even bother
bringing to sell because of the bogwood mania.

Maybe for next year we could have a "dollar table" for simple stem
plants for pre-auction sale in place of the bogwood table.  But I think
we were fast enough on those that it doesn't matter.  Maybe for some
items in the general auction, though?

Other criticism: I don't think the event was advertised to the members
online at all until last weekend, and there was very little external
advertising to bring in non-members or members of other clubs (like
Portland).  You can see that this is the lowest member splits we've ever
done, so it seemed even as though our own member sellers were "tired" or
something.  It might do well to consider a bit more for the general
auction & the next plant auction.

It would also have been nice if Bob had not had to do so much of the
work, getting the plants, bringing the scale, carting everything in on
his own. 
A couple of the members told me "Oh, *I* have a laptop I could have
brought in".  I thought I posted that on the general list, but only Deb
replied.  It was very lucky that Paul Winchester brought his, since my
last-minute-scramble laptop didn't work.

Anyway, smooth event.  Hope the general goes this well!

   - Erik



--
Erik Olson
erik at thekrib dot com
_______________________________________________
GSAS-board mailing list
GSAS-board@thekrib.com
http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-board

_______________________________________________
GSAS-board mailing list
GSAS-board@thekrib.com
http://lists.thekrib.com/mailman/listinfo/gsas-board