What's up with the auctions recently?

[SCMurphy]

John, that was a really small auction this month, we only had 53 bags. I don't see how you could say that took too long.

The thing I saw was right out of the gate, no one seemed interested in participating in the auction. When no one is bidding, that slows things down. In fact people were busy talking while Jim and Chris were trying to get things going. Some of you might have noticed my mentioning that, "the Auction has started."

We have already limited the number of bags someone can bring just by limiting the number of bags to one per species per person. Cutting it down to fewer bags per person isn't going to help much.

I am pretty sure that it is just the summer effect and the next well attended meeting will have a more lively auction. People will start paying more attention to indoor activities soon enough.

[ddavila06]

I am pretty sure that it is just the summer effect and the next well attended meeting will have a more lively auction. People will start paying more attention to indoor activities soon enough."

i agree with the above, but limiting the number of bags each person bring "might" help some too. honestly, after i started sorting everything i had like 12 bags of different things to bring, like 3 or 4 donations and a bunch of other stuff. i too like to help in the low bidding ones by giving up my buck to Dave just to keep things going and like Chris W. said "if we are interested but unsure if it will make it, just try it!!" i try a lot, everybody probably knows that by now.... just my opinion. once it kools off, we are going to start thinking what the heck can i do now! is cold outsidee....!!!! etc etc...

[John G]

John, that was a really small auction this month, we only had 53 bags. I don't see how you could say that took too long."

I more or less agree. I wasn't speaking of this auction so much as the auctions as a whole for the last year or so.

I also agree with you (and Chris) that "no one seemed interested in participating." In general I think people can lose interst if they go on too long, and also, as I said, because there is stuff that few people are interested in.

If people in general are happy with the auctions in general, then that is fine with me. But if people are not happy and are losing interest then I think we would be foolish not to try to find ways to make them more attractive to the membership.

[Cristy Keister]

That, and I'm going on month 6 of unemployment. That'll put a cramp in spending.

Blaise

Yes, unemployment definitely does have an affect. But I also feel like I'm not as interested in the aquariums in the summer as in winter time. The excitement and greedy collectoritis will come back!

[krisw]

See, this year with October coming up at my place, I half to be interested in my aquariums for fear of being embarrassed in front of my fellow GWAPA members.

In all seriousness, John I do agree that if any member has suggestions on how to improve our meetings, regardless of the summer doldrums, I welcome those suggestions.

[Mark F.]

As a newbie who's only been to two acutions, I didn't feel that they've been to long - I can only imagine what they'll be like when more members show up, and real bidding wars start going down! Yikes!

As for the original issue of this forum (light bidding, not time-dragging), it's certainly worked out nice for me: with my daughter going into college, and my wife looking for a new job, the steals I've scored at auctions have been exactly what I've needed to get back into the hobby! A coupla bucks for four robust stems of Rotala sp. 'Araguaia'?!?! Talk about a buyer's market!

And therein may lie the crux of what's really going on (besides the apparently typical summer lull): the economy may be effecting people's spending habits - we are in a recession, after all. Things are tight for everybody, even people with secure careers; with more than one GWAPA member currently unemployed, we may just have to wait this one out.
In the mean-time, I cast my vote for keeping the starting bids on common species at a buck, two or three bucks for "rarities", at least temporarily - as Eugen mentioned, he's happy to let his trimmings go for free, if that's what it takes to keep them out of the compost heap. Starting bids at $5 may just increase the length of the auctions, as it may force the auctioneers to back-pedal on the price (and having a rule against dropping the opening bid may result in more things not getting sold at all). If bidding wars start picking up in the fall, we can always start things higher then.

I'm not saying that the board shouldn't consider all of the recent suggestions for improvement; I'm just saying that they shouldn't feel pressured to take immediate action. There's obviously a lot of variables to consider, and that takes time - and patience. There's plenty of evidence to suggest that the problem may just correct itself over time.

Unfortunately, I will be out of town during the September meeting ... but I hope to make it to Kris's house in October - and promise to actively bid again if I do show up!

[Judi]

I can't speak for what's going on with other people, but these are the reasons I may not be an active bidder some months:

Sometimes I feel the need to sit on my hands and work with a scape for awhile, resist the urge to buy new stuff and rip out something to make room or try to shoehorn it in somewhere.

Some months I've already spent too much money on my other geeky hobbies and am trying to exert some self control.

Other times I just know I'm going to have no free time to work on my tanks, and don't want to buy plants just to let them die (I mean, it's one thing to try to grow a plant and then kill it, but entirely another thing to kill a plant by leaving it floating in a bucket for too long. When I do that it just makes me feel stupid ).

I've got two tanks I'm planning to totally rescape this fall, though, so I may be buying more plants soon.

As for the concern that people won't bring plants to club auctions if they go for such low prices, again I can't speak for anyone else. But when I have trimmings (and manage to time it for a meeting), I will still bring them even if I don't expect to get much for them. Sure, it's nice to make a few bucks to help defray the costs of the hobby, but that's not my primary concern. I just hate to see them go to waste. Sometimes I have held back not because I'm miffed that I'm not getting big bucks, but because it seems that there is a real glut of certain plants and I'm trying to do my part to keep the auctions from being too long.

(I love the auctions, though, even when I'm not planning to buy much and even when they are long!)

[Aaron]

Many other clubs just have a plant swap during their meetings. Members bring their trimmings and set them on a big table and they try to share with each other as best they can.

Perhaps we could limit the number of items a person can bring to auction and encourage a plant swap apart from the auction to speed things up?

[krisw]

Aaron, do you know how the other clubs handle the swap? Can someone who didn't bring plants, pickup plants at the swap table? Can someone bring duckweed, and pickup Trident fern?

[chris_todd]

Many other clubs just have a plant swap during their meetings. Members bring their trimmings and set them on a big table and they try to share with each other as best they can.

Perhaps we could limit the number of items a person can bring to auction and encourage a plant swap apart from the auction to speed things up?

Now that sounds like a fun and interesting idea! Or at least something worth trying...