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A2 Swap - My review and suggestions


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  1. #11
    MizTanks - Reefkeeper
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    Jamie
    Awards Photo of the Month - October 2012 Photo of the Month Post and Reply Award - Winner of the first PAR Contest. Monthly Giveaway Winner

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    Quote Originally Posted by rarelyseriousb View Post
    Man that is a good Idea.
    Have every vendor donate to the school. Way cool idea and a way to introduce the world of SW keeping while at the same time learning about our oceans
    There's nothing like being a Reefer! www.upmmas.com

  2. #12
    jimsflies - Reefkeeper
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    Yeah, not sure how easy an active school would be to rent. If we could find some old high school turned community center, that might work. But Food service becomes more of an effort and no more bar.

    The lansing club does the classroom tank thing...let me tell you, it's not as easy as it sounds to give reef tanks to schools....

  3. #13
    sdavis43 - Reefkeeper
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    [QUOTE=jimsflies;90615]Yeah, not sure how easy an active school would be to rent. If we could find some old high school turned community center, that might work. But Food service becomes more of an effort and no more bar.

    dont let bryan here that (no more bar)

  4. #14
    XSiVE - Reefkeeper
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    Im with jim on the schools and tanks thing.. they cant maintain them like they should be able to, its a nice gesture but in the end it rarely works out.

    Keep up the ideas though, the swap can still get better and the more ideas we have the more options to improve we have!

  5. #15
    MUCHO REEF - Reefkeeper CR Member
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    Michigan
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    Great to see you again Jim, Bob, Brian and Todd, long time for sure. Glad we finally met Sir Patrick. Nice talking with the two reefers near the food window. Good luck to all.

    Mucho
    Please stop fragging your frags.......you'll eventually do more damage than good. Just let them grow.

  6. #16
    weasel - Reefkeeper CR Member
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    Oct 2010
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    Big Rapids, Michigan
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    I'll throw my 2 cents in as a new member. I had a great time! This was my 2nd swap ever, and yes it was a bit crowded, but for those of us with little access to coral selections, decent prices, and friendly information it was wonderfull! More name tags would have been great, but we didn't bother either. More visible signs on some of the tables would have helped when we were looking for someone, but couldn't see a sign due to the crowd in front of it. Maybe even just numbers on a pole of some sort that goes with a map (loved the map by the way!).

    The raffle was terrific as far as all the stuff and sheer number of corals. Being able to pick our prize was really nice. The one my husband and I won is great and doing well. We were so excited when we saw how much was being given away! We felt we had a real chance to win. I hadn't realized when I bought the tickets that they were being seperated by dry goods, or coral, so that was a little unclear. My husband had thought it was for dry goods only and passed it by the first time.

    More space and somewhere to sit, eat, rest and visit with everyone would have been nice, but in the thrill of the hunt would have been neglected till much later anyway. We really liked having the drinks and food right there and at such fair prices. After all I'd rather buy another coral than eat, but my husband doesn't alway agree.

    All in all, we had a super time! It was well worth the 3 hour drive each way. And I still can't help stopping to look in our tank each time I pass to admire the new additions. We can't wait for the next one! Thanks so much guys for all the hard work.

  7. #17
    jimsflies - Reefkeeper
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    It was great to have you there! Glad you liked it.

    I'm already gearing up for the big one in January. That hall has more space (probably double) our layout always has a few tables to sit and catch a break too. But I'm not going to lie...it is crowded as well.

    Honestly as one of the guys putting these together, having a few comments about the crowd is a compliment. IMO it's a good problem to have.

    Providing extra tables for people that didn't buy tables to set up gets to be a sticky situation as well. Not sure how the Ohio swaps deal with them...but seems like some guys may just bring in a ton of stuff and camp out, thus avoiding the expense of a "real" table?

  8. #18
    tazzy695 - Reefkeeper CR Member
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    I agree with the extra table issue but would be nice to at least have some benches or something for people to sit down during the raffle or when getting tired as some of us are old or just plain injured with bad knees and whatnot

    other then that great swap first time to this one so I figure it all went well but I would split up at least the dry goods in the raffle so you could select what items you could put your tickets in for like they do at the Lansing swap
    I have been reefing from 08-2007 till 5-2011

    reef tanks are like wifes you have to give them some attention every now and then

  9. #19
    CR Member
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    Quote Originally Posted by jimsflies View Post
    Providing extra tables for people that didn't buy tables to set up gets to be a sticky situation as well. Not sure how the Ohio swaps deal with them...but seems like some guys may just bring in a ton of stuff and camp out, thus avoiding the expense of a "real" table?
    That's funny that the guy switched them - but now that you mentioned what you did it made sense in the beginning

    It is tough with the tables thing. The guys bringing a ton of stuff don't camp out. What I've seen happen is various levels, basically if you're setting up a tank, you pay one rate (these are usually all called vendors), and those who just want space another rate (usually cheaper because they aren't using electricity, etc.). Any number of levels could work, except if you had too many. Honestly, this was the first swap that I didn't buy a table partly because I didn't want to pay the same amount to have a spot to park my stuff as the guy who has a huge set-up going with lights and everything else. Also, I only had a few things, so I figured there would be first-come, first-serve type tables to park. Usually other swaps have first come type tables. Again, not a criticism at all - I know space was an issue - these are just suggestions.

  10. #20
    jimsflies - Reefkeeper
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    I think we have seen quite an evolution of the swaps here in Michigan. I have only missed one or two swaps in 8 years. When I first started going to them, they were in someone's basement with a cooler on the ground in front of us...lighting was poor to non-existent. Almost all corals were pre-sold on forum threads. Not a single person had a tank setup that I can recall in the early days...except maybe the host of the swap had his personal tank that we all would gather around to admire.

    Then we went through a period of LFS's hosting frag swaps. These were busy and packed...still selling was bags out of coolers, all the pre-sales were on swap threads.

    Now we have moved into an era were the reef clubs are hosting the swaps. The first couple years I helped with the Lansing swap we kept track of who needed power and put them near outlets...but never charged more. In the past couple years nearly everyone brings a tank to display their corals. I have seen a dramatic decrease in post count in the what are you bringing threads. I think primarily because their is less emphasis on the pre-sale and more on the sale at the swap.

    I guess the point being is there seems to be so few hobbyists now that don't want power, it doesn't make sense to have a separate area or track it. I can only think of two tables yesterday that didn't plug in...Seaside Treasures (selling mostly inverts) and Salt Creep (selling his cool feeding sticks).

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