Fish Garage Sale

[DMBillies]

Hey guys,

I've heard a few people throw around the idea of having a reef/fish related garage sale as a kind of event for the club. For one, it will allow some people to get rid of stuff they aren't using, pick up stuff they need for cheap, and basically redistribute junk around the club (in a trash to treasure kind of way).

I know I personally have a few things I can part ways with, so I figured I'd start up this thread to get a little bit more serious discussion going about it.

What I am thinking is to have the sale open to reef club members around 9:00am or something. Then, advertise the sale for 10:30 or 11:00 on craigslist and in the local paper. Reef members get there early, buy what they want, and the rest can be sold to whoever shows up from the community (as I assume not everything would be bought up by other reef crazies). I don't think this is underhanded... it's keeping it in the family.

We would need someone/somewhere willing to host and a date. I am not against hosting (I'm in a neighborhood down by the Nashville Zoo and not far from the Critter) but I have an admittedly fairly small front yard and house (although the back is pretty big and could be opened up as well). I guess all that depends on how many people are really interested and how much stuff everyone has.

I'm thinking about ways to get our LFS's involved with this in ways that might be beneficial to them and let us make this a well advertised, larger event for bringing new people into the hobby... ideas for that would be appreciated.

Anyway, just wanted to get the ideas rolling.

 

[MVlk]

That would be pretty cool. I'd be all for it. I'd offer my house, but my property is all house and no yard. Also, I live in Mt. Juliet and it seems most reefers live in Murfeesboro.

 

[AcuraCl1]

I like this idea.

 

[josh_tn]

I also think this is a very cool idea. One thing to consider that I have noticed from past garage sales is that no matter what time you advertise it to start, there will be a lot of people show up early to try and get first pick at stuff. So we might need some other way to give club members the first shot at items.

 

[MVlk]

Seems like many of our members have their own guns... that could keep the riff-raff away :uzi:

 

[DMBillies]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=14950251#post14950251 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by josh_tn
I also think this is a very cool idea. One thing to consider that I have noticed from past garage sales is that no matter what time you advertise it to start, there will be a lot of people show up early to try and get first pick at stuff. So we might need some other way to give club members the first shot at items.

I know from regular yard sales that this is the case... the fact is, I don't really know what you do about it. Aside from literally kicking people out, which would be really hard to justify if there's a bunch of people already around shopping.

I just think that if you make the sale opening time long enough after the time we tell the rest of the club, there would be a minimal amount of "competition." In the end, if your goal is to get rid of your junk... it doesn't really matter. And... if you really need something that you think someone has then you make sure you are the early bird or that you just arrange before hand.

This is the same thing we run into every year with the swap...

My only personal rules are that I don't get out of bed early for people knocking to buy my junk and I don't sell a single thing until I have everything laid out that I am selling or until the time listed on advertisements (if you want to early bird to get something, you can get it, but you have to wait until I am set-up to sell the rest of my stuff).

 

[NeveSSL]

Brian, isn't your back yard fenced in?

Brandon

 

[DMBillies]

True that...

 

[james3370]

maybe people could post what they are bringing & "reserve" stuff that others post.....like the frag swap

i know i have a little 1.5" flex pvc & quite a bit of 1/2" that i could get rid of.....not to mention a bunch of random pvc fittings :mad2:

 

[DMBillies]

James - I'm not against people pre-selling but one of the reasons I enjoy swaps (and something like this) is that I don't have to do the work of keeping track of, finding, and exchanging things with people... but to each their own.


Mostly this was intended as just a little planning meeting to gauge interest, fish for the best weekend, and hopefully find someone with a nice big yard and a decent location who is willing to host.

 

[james3370]

i was just giving a suggestion on the part about members getting 1st shot at something.......

could also think about doing it at a local park or something of the sorts if somebody hosting was a problem

 

[Mnemic]

This is a good idea, even I have a few items laying around of no use to me at this point that would be nice to get rid of, but I'm just too lazy to try and actually sell it.

One of my coworkers is one of those hardcore YArd/Garage Salers that gets up at 4am to scope out the various offerings before they "open" soto speak.

 

[DMBillies]

The park seems like a great idea actually. I'm in Centennial just about every other day. That would obviously be a pretty central location with plenty of parking and space. I'll have to look into it and see what the cost would be (if any) and when I might be able to reserve something like the big pavilion in the back or maybe a specific area (like the front lawn).

I'd still like to see a bit more interest in selling things if we are going to do something like that.

 

[andywe]

If your going to do it in a park, maybe get some folks from ETRC or at least offer the opportunity. This could also be used as a good catalyst for a membership drive too. Have member hours the first say 2 hours, then general public. Early birds want in, they join the club

Members would have to show their card or receipt to purchase early.

 

[NeveSSL]

Thats a good idea. If all goes well, I will be going to Knoxville to negotiate my salary anyway. :lol:

That's a great idea on the early birds and joining the club.

Brandon

 

[DMBillies]

There are two ways we can really go with this:

1) Throw our junk in a yard and sell it to each other and anyone else who we can attract with a couple of cheap/free advertisements in the community. Don't sweat details like early birds and don't worry about memberships above and beyond letting people know that the event is being hosted by MTRC and that a really cool club does exist in the area.

The only important thing here is having enough people with enough stuff that it is even worth doing. I still need to go through some stuff, but at maximum I'll have a couple of decent sized boxes of stuff and a tub full of dry rock... in other words, I wasn't throwing this out there just because I have a moving van full of stuff I could sell off.

2) Make a bigger event (possibly making selling our "junk" an aside motivation for having the event) and do more to attract new potential reefers, other clubs' members, and make a big deal out of it (sponsors, etc.). We've thrown ideas around in this vein as well. Something like an aquascaping competition, a basic tutorial on setting up a reef tank with a tank give away at the end, simply having a few of the more experienced members (or panels of members) do a series of talks directed at beginners ending with a Q&A session.

Given my time constraints I can easily plan option 1 but not option 2. Basically, if I have to do any more than find a place to host it, list an ad on craigslist and the tennessean, and show up... then someone else is going to have to take the reigns.

 

[NeveSSL]

As long as CJ can't enter the aquascaping competition, I'm all for it! :lol:

Brandon

 

[whowadat]

Hey guys, what about the flea market at the Fairgrounds ? I'm sure they would have some spaces together that are open, plus you might get a few newbies interested which is always good too.

 

[supertech99]

anymore traction on this?