A Personal Review of the day...

From last auctions report............

Next auction is going to be this big ! - And it was.

We forgot to mention on the day but the auction has now been going 10 years. From our first charity donation of £49 we have now started topping £700 each auction. It's really great to help charities out with these auctions. The spirit of fishkeepers I think in the room is amazing & something I personally have noticed grow from seperate camps of BKA or BLA in dark corners of the room to a real coming together. Cichlid keepers are also starting to get into the swing of things.
Let's break down the barriers of fishkeeping & try breeding some different fish.

Putting this page together on the evening of the auction whilst things are still fresh. Wow, this was the biggest auction so far. Look at the figures in the box below.
The obvious gripe this year was the viewing rack which was hopelessly overwhelmed with viewers. To be honest we were taken aback at the large turnout & also the amount of fish brought in. I hope those attending can give us a little slack & see we coped really well under this pressure. The rack though really does need a redesign & rebuild for December. I think this rack has paved the way in a lot of auctions & certainly has done more than it was designed for.

The BCA didn't get their auction organised which was a real shame as they missed out on a great opportunity to promote the association. Some BCA breeders did a lot of work in bringing some nice fish to auction.
Over the years we have had many last minute let downs & always bounce back stronger. We used the extension for stands & to relieve space pressure in the main room. This worked well along with the new layout of chairs & tables giving the room a more spacy feel despite the extra amount of people in the room.
The problem with the summer auction is you really need the back doors open. It gets really stuffy if we close it up. Unfortunately the 'non payers' crept in & some even passed the entry auction cards to mates to use in bidding. Personally this disgusts me as many people put a lot of work into the day & the odd few ducking out of a £2 entry charge leaves me cold.
Obviously next June we will have to find a way to tighten this up. The December do is more secure with only one door entrance. Tim & Dave did a great job here last auction.

The amount of fish waiting to be sold after the third (or was it fourth) rack was a little disturbing & it was obvious if we continued to stock the rack the auction would have gone on 'til 8 pm & most people would have dwindled away. The decision was taken to abandon the rack & sell out of boxes on the stage. Although this is not the way we like to do things it was obvious something radical had to be done. This proved the right move as virtually everyone stayed until the end & still gave good money for the lots to the end. It was still about 6pm before we got through all the lots following a mammoth 3 hour continual auction session at the end.

A few breeders were entering more than 3 lots of the same fish. Probably my fault for not stressing this on the webpage but this will be rectified next auction with maybe entry checks on the day with lots submitted. on more than 3 lots of the same fish really clogs & extends the auction.

Tyrone in Italy sent in some really nice Nothobranchius species eggs. He asked me to pay his BKA subs with any money raised & a surplus was raised which was put into the charity pot.
Some years ago we had a massive donation from overseas breeders with Killie eggs which made a lot of money for charity. If overseas breeders want to send in Killie eggs to pay for subs in the BKA or BLA I would be pleased to hear from you.

Not many cameras around this year but I was kindly sent a few pics............

Dave, Alan & Trevor auctioning
Photo by phone camera courtesy Dave Lee

Alan Green at the mic.
Photo by phone camera courtesy Dave Lee

Some Figures...

Total raised for charity was £745·93 which is about £150 up on last June. Over the past 3 years the pattern has shown a bigger donation in December so the amount we donated is running along a steadily increasing curve despite the recession.
A target of £1000 is looking a real possibility in future auctions.

Attendance was well over a hundred. I never did get chance to do an exact count but I consider at least 150 not far off the mark. The club steward said their were 180 seats in the room & I didn't see any empty so the count may have been more.

A total of 38 breeders booked lots into the auction which was a record for previous auctions.

A total of 717 lots of fish & eggs went under the hammer which was also a record amount for the auctions.

The raffle raised a total of £80.

Some Double Figure Lots...

Some Thanks...

I would like to thank the following for putting in a lot of time & hard work on the day. This auction was particularly stressful due to the high number of lots we auctioned. I think everyone deserves a huge thank you from myself & all those attending. Without these people the auction just wouldn't work -

Dave & Linda MacAllister - Populating the rack & moving them onto the auction bench. This is hard tiring work. Dave also pitched in with help auctioning.
Roy & Pam Bryan. Also Mike Boot - Financial control. This is the heart of a successful auction & they did a fantastic job. It's a high pressure job especially as we were going through lots really fast. We were selling at one point with 4 auctioneers - to keep up with this pace of selling takes some doing. Well done !!
Trevor Williams, Alan Green & Dave MacAllister - Auctioneers. This was a mammoth effort by these guys to get through over 700 lots. Even with the microphone/PA it took it out of both voices & eventually brain function towards the end. It's amazing how even the more common fish can become a strain to read off the bag after a long auction like this.
Pete Riley & Jack Holmes - For organising the raffle again. They raised £80 which all went into the charity kitty.
Dick Cox - For providing the computer & projection equipment for Alan's talk.
The Runners - This is hard work running up & down the room all day. We really kept these guys moving all day with some rapid selling. This is hard, tiring work. Well done lads. I'm sure their were some tired legs on Monday morning.

I would like to thank Tony of Worcester Aquatic Centre for donating a number of brand new heater/stats. Most were sold at £10. A couple didn't sell but these are in store for the next auction. All this is donated straight to charity.
Tyrone Genade in Italy sent in a lot of interesting annual eggs which all sold. Thanks Tyrone - It's appreciated.

The girls in the kitchen deserve a thank you along with the bar staff & of course the Lodge Park Residents Association for allowing us to use the room & facilities free of charge.
The lads putting up & taking down the marquee also deserve a big thank you.

Last but not least I wish to thank everyone for coming & supporting the auction & especially the breeders for entering fish to auction. Without breeders the auction wouldn't take place.