RE: [GSAS-board] Plant Auctopsy 2006

[welenofsky@comcast.net]

I started advertising on Craig's List three weeks in advance! This brought a lot of people into the general auction last year. I am sure less serious aquatic plant keepers may have other things on their minds on Valentine's Day. Girlfriends, spouses and partners might take offense to their sweethearts delight on this day. My suggestion would be to make sure we don't have auctions on special days and holidays again.

 

Susan

 

> -------------- Original message -------------- 
> From: "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 
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