# Table at GCAS Swap Meet?



## Rob Tetrazona (Jun 21, 2005)

Does anybody have any interest in going in on a table at the GCAS swap meet in February? Supposedly the tables are going fast. 

I'll have fish to sell, but probably few plants. I think it's $25 a table. I'd be willing to split a table with a person or two and don't mind running the table most of the time. Maybe other SWOAPies could put a buck or two towards the table if you only have a few bags to unload? 

Any interest? I don't think I could justify getting a table on my own. If it's a prosperous day, I don't mind giving the club a few bucks. I say we make a decision soon.


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## endlerman (Jun 30, 2005)

*table*

Count me in ,Rob.

Wayne


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

If I plan properly, I should have some plants available. I may need to get some Vals, Watersprite, and other common plants for the table 

I guess you can count me in!


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## Troy McClure (Aug 3, 2005)

Jeez...I don't think I have anything common enough. Java fern might be the only thing...and I'm not giving that up!


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## Rob Tetrazona (Jun 21, 2005)

Since there seems to be enough interest, I'm going to reserve us a table now. If others want to sell some plants or stuff, we can figure out how to do it in this thread. 

Obviously, there isn't enough room for 10 people behind a table. Maybe people can just give us labeled bags with a price on them and we could divide the individual percentages of the total sales into the $25? Just an idea without much thought put into it. 

There is also only so much room on the table so we need to figure out a fair system for "window display" realestate. Small signs on the table would work. We could keep some bags on the table, some stuff behind the table, and whip them out on request (items for sale that is!  ).

Please chime in if you want to sell and try to think about quantities. If there is a lot of interest, we may need another table, but I'll try not to get too far ahead of ourselves.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

For those who are not aware, the GCAS Swap Meet is Saturday, February 7th from 10am until 2pm. I will be there and as usual can carpool other SWOAPE members from the Dayton area. We should be able to pay for the table with SWOAPE funds if the majority of folks are in agreement with this. It should not be a problem dropping $25 on a table rental fee 

As far as plant sales go, we can easily have a box of plants and just put out one or two bags of each type of plants on the table. That way we will have room for fish and dry goods if needed. As the plants sell, we can simply replace them with more. For tracking the plant sales, things that are not donated to SWOAPE should be labeled with the seller's name. We would have to track who sells what but that shouldn't be too difficult at least I don't think it will be.


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## Rob Tetrazona (Jun 21, 2005)

I have requested a table.

If we use SWOAPE funds that's fine, but I'd feel guilty since I have more fish to sell than plants, so I think I'd definitely be sending money back towards the club. "Ole Man Endler" may be in the same boat. 

Putting a variety of bags up on the table and replacing them from the stash as they are sold sounds like it will work. I've seen people bring buckets of fish and sell them like hotcakes without ever putting one bag of them on the table! We can just keep a notepad for a record of plant sales.

Does anybody know where to get pickle buckets w/ lids (or similar) besides restaurants?


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

Let's leave it up for group discussion on using SWOAPE funds to pay for the table. I don't see a problem with it as long as the club gets it's $25, or more, back. I'm sure there are some folks out there who have some dry goods like filters and what not thay want to get rid of. It doesn't have to be all about plants, we all need some fish or shrimp in our tanks too 

I believe both Jim and Allen can get 5g buckets. It would be best to call Jim so I will see if I can do that after Thanksgiving. I will send Allen an e-mail also.


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## 04cobratorchred (Oct 22, 2006)

I reserved a table for myself because i have a ton of dry goods and a couple big tanks i would like to get rid of. But i could donate a bag of angels or some plants if that would help.


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## TheLoachGuy (Oct 17, 2006)

I'll donate a few bucks towards helping the club get it's own table. I think it would be cool if we could get a banner to hang from the table identifying the club. Anyone good at photoshop?


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

A banner would be a great idea for the table. I wonder if the GCAS folks would get pissed about it  I think they already don't like us much given the problems with Tom Barr's talk last year. We may need to come up with some ideas and an information sheet/business card to keep at the table. Erik should have our website up and running by then also.

If we can get five folks together that want to sell a few things we can easily cover the expense of the table. By my count we have three people (me, Rob, and Wayne) who are interested in selling some stuff. Chris (Cincy Cichlids) may be interested in selling some plants by then if he gets his 125g up and running soon.


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## Rob Tetrazona (Jun 21, 2005)

MatPat said:


> A banner would be a great idea for the table. I wonder if the GCAS folks would get pissed about it  I think they already don't like us much given the problems with Tom Barr's talk last year. We may need to come up with some ideas and an information sheet/business card to keep at the table. Erik should have our website up and running by then also.


Yeah, I don't think a banner would be a good idea having said what Matt just said. Let's just sell our shiznit like the rest. It will still be fun!


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## Troy McClure (Aug 3, 2005)

I should have some shrimp and cherry barbs available for this, along with moss, ferns, and maybe a couple stem plants. I could even offer a DIY CO2 reactor...


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## t2000kw (Jul 29, 2006)

We/ve never been to a GCAS swap meet. 

Is it like a flea market for aquatic supplies, fish, and plants? 

Are the prices usually really good? 

What does it cost to get in?

Could someone point me to the directions to the swap meet? 

We might decide to go there if it sounds like it's worth the 4-hour round trip. 

Sorry for all of the questions, but I'm not a GCAS member and know nothing about the club/society.


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## MatPat (Mar 22, 2004)

t2000kw said:


> We/ve never been to a GCAS swap meet.
> 
> Is it like a flea market for aquatic supplies, fish, and plants?


Pretty much. It's just other hobbyists and maybe a few small vendors selling their unused equipment and extra fish (mostly) and plants (not too many at the last meet).



t2000kw said:


> Are the prices usually really good?


I guess that depends on the person selling  I got a couple of Aqua Clear mini filters last year for $1 each. That's hard to beat in my opinion.



t2000kw said:


> What does it cost to get in?


Free, at least it was last year.



t2000kw said:


> Could someone point me to the directions to the swap meet?


Here is the info for the Oasis Conference Center if you want to MapQuest it and/or call for directions:

Oasis Golf and Conference Center 
902 Loveland-Miamiville Road 
Loveland, OH 45140

513-583-8383



t2000kw said:


> We might decide to go there if it sounds like it's worth the 4-hour round trip.
> 
> Sorry for all of the questions, but I'm not a GCAS member and know nothing about the club/society.


No problem. If you need equipment or fish (mostly Cichlids of course) it may be worth your while to attend. Also, if you have anything to sell, SWOAPE is setting up a table thanks to Rob.


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## JRJ (Feb 9, 2005)

If I can avoid my usual, annual tank disaster, I'll donate some plants for SWOAPE.

-Russ


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## Rob Tetrazona (Jun 21, 2005)

The event is this weekend so I'd just like to share some thoughts:

1) Setup begins at 9:30AM & sales begin at 10AM. Since Wayne & I will be running the table, we'll probably be arriving together and the first SWOAPiEs there. This should give people the best idea of when to drop off bags.

2) Tables are chosen on a first come, first serve basis. Early bird gets the worm. 2'x6'.

3) I will have a sign up sheet for drop offs, so I know what plant(s) belongs to who or if it's a donation to the club and minimun price.

4) Write on the bag or label: Scientific Name, Common Name (if there is one), Growing Conditions, Your Name or handle, & Price. 

Example #1

Microsorum pteropus
Broad Leaf Java Fern
Low Light
Jack W.
$4

Example #2

Glossostigma elatinoides
High Light & CO2
HagenCajun
$5

The bags should sell themselves.

5) Donations are welcome, but not an obligation if you sell something. My original thought was to just divide each seller's cut into the total sales of the table to pay for a percentage of the table. Seems pretty fare. No matter which way we recoup the table money, Wayne and I will be paying about $10 each. 

6) This is the first time we've tried to do something like this, so we're not sure how well it will work out or if there will be room for a 3rd sales person to specifically "man the plants". Two people should be able to cover everything though. We're going to play things by ear for the most part, learn from it, and adjust for next year. 

7) Reply back to this thread so we can get an idea of who's bringing how many bags of plants. I'll be bringing about 10.


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## JRJ (Feb 9, 2005)

rwoehr said:


> Reply back to this thread so we can get an idea of who's bringing how many bags of plants. I'll be bringing about 10.


I'll bring some V. nana, cabomba, and maybe some crypts. for donation to the club.

-Russ


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## CincyCichlids (Oct 14, 2005)

Perhaps we should have a stack of short pamphlets that state:

Who we are,
That we Do NOT interfere with the GCAS (in a way we're a sibling club),
What we have to offer,
etc 
etc

What happened with the Greg Watson talk? I was there... I didn't recall seeing any tension?


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## t2000kw (Jul 29, 2006)

This was my first GCAS swap meet.

At first I was disappointed in the size of it--it seemed to be pretty small. 

But There was a lot of stuff in that room for sale. 

We picked up some Amazon swords from the SWOAPE table and another BIG one at another table. There were even bigger ones at another table that I might have got if I hadn't spent much of our money allotted for this event. 

We picked up a couple of light hoods for our 10 gallon tanks. One was free--the switch was broken, which I can fix. Even if the ballast is not working, I can get one for $5 or $6 at Lowe's since it is a starter type of hood. I can't find a non-starter ballast for another of our hoods so I might just find a starter socket in an old fixture and make it work with epoxy. THe other light hood had a double screw-in type of bulb socket. CF bulbs will work for this and they're reasonably priced now. 

I also am testing a Pro-Heat (non-digital) 350 watt heater I picked up for $1. Just $1! Of course, it was not guaranteed to work other than the fact that the heater element works and gets it hot. These use a separate temperature sensor and have a titanium body. It will be a good backup heater if it tests out OK on how well it regulates temperature. I'm testing it first in a 10 gallon quarantine tank that we're not using right now. It seems to overheat but I would expect that with such a large heater in such a small tank. It does have an internal adjustment potentiometer that I can set if I find that it doesn't have the right set point. But if it works OK in a larger tank I will have a good heater for a n even better price. The best thing is that it doesn't use a relay with contacts. It's entirely solid state, so no contacts to get burned! If this turns out to be a good heater, I know what brand I'll buy as my other heaters need replaced. For around $20, these would seem to be a good buy.

We also picked up some albino corydoras, 10 for $6. They're not big, but it's still a good price. We passed on the wild caught corys since their color wasn't what Melissa liked. The albinos look good against the dark gravel. 

Anyone else come up with some good buys?

And, how often do they have these swap meets?


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## Rob Tetrazona (Jun 21, 2005)

That was a fun swap meet and it was my first one as a seller. It was nice to see everybody that made it down here today. I ran into people I haven't seen/worked with in about 10 years and one of them was Renee's significant other. This year's meet was twice as big as last year's. It's an annual event. Lot's of good deals and a wide variety of live and dry goods. I was fortunate enough to not spend one dollar, but Shelly was not so lucky! She picked up a nice 46 gallon tank from Mark. Russ donated $21 dollars with of Vallisneria nana. Thanks Russ!


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## t2000kw (Jul 29, 2006)

Is there anything like it that any of you have been to in another (nearby) state or another part of this state?

I think an even bigger one might be worth traveling to.


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## duchessren (Sep 16, 2006)

I was not so fortunate as Rob not to spend a dollar. I spent several of those suckers... every one in my pocket actually. I walked out with 8 tens, 7 glass tops, 2 lights for my 2.5Gs, a glass top for my 20L, some cladophora algae balls... I think next time I will have to remind myself that justifying purchases is much easier when one brings things to sell. 

Spare a cucumber. Eat a pickle.


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## TheLoachGuy (Oct 17, 2006)

i couldnt make it. wife had to work and kids were sick.. yay!


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## t2000kw (Jul 29, 2006)

I didn't even think of looking for glass tops. Maybe next year.

We already spent more than we intended to spend there. It'll be a couple of weeks of vegetable soup for meals now.

Were the glass tops cheap?

As for justifying purchases by selling something, I used to do that at the Dayton Hamvention. I would set up a table and sell all of my old computer stuff. That would pay for the table, which also allowed me early entry into the Hara Arena to see things before the general public would see them. It gave me a rallying point for my friends, too, who would take a turn at watching the table every so often. Maybe next time I'll have something to sell.



duchessren said:


> I was not so fortunate as Rob not to spend a dollar. I spent several of those suckers... every one in my pocket actually. I walked out with 8 tens, 7 glass tops, 2 lights for my 2.5Gs, a glass top for my 20L, some cladophora algae balls... I think next time I will have to remind myself that justifying purchases is much easier when one brings things to sell.
> 
> Spare a cucumber. Eat a pickle.


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## duchessren (Sep 16, 2006)

:heh: I got 7 glass tops for ten gallon tanks. They were 7 for $20. I lucked out. I got a NIB glass top for my 20L for $8. I also got 8 ten gallon tanks for $25.


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## t2000kw (Jul 29, 2006)

duchessren said:


> :heh: I got 7 glass tops for ten gallon tanks. They were 7 for $20. I lucked out. I got a NIB glass top for my 20L for $8. I also got 8 ten gallon tanks for $25.


I should have looked for glass tops! We have some crude single piece ones for out 10 gallons but that's cheaper than having a shop cut the glass! I would like to find a couple more glass tops for our 55 gallon tanks and would be interested in some for our 29 gallons, too. The single piece of glass is not convenient to work with.

Does GCAS have a swap forum?


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