Here are a few photos for you. All the photos were taken at about the same time so you don't get any sense of the progression over the day. There were about 75 buyers and 12 vendors because one dropped out. The day started robust with the vendors trading, selling and very much BSing amongst themselves. I was stoked to meet some of the folks from the forum right away. Lamental Jester was there early as was um, Billy. Doing it all by forum codename isn't going to be so successful for me. Jester is a very cool guy named Graham who had some of the most gorgeous HUGE sword mothers I have seen. Folks had started a bit of a bidding war over one of them until he traded it for a gargantuan piece of very ornate wood. I think it might have been Riley's originally that day or possibly Billy's. Remember, I am the new guy so all my attributions are worthless. I'm just trying to give a first hand account for your entertainment. =)
Event organizer Ron Sower aka FishLoverRon was a fabulous host showing folks where to park and even helping folks load in. The space was perfect for us and thank goodness the rain stayed in the sky. We had hazy gray but no rain the whole day. Ok, maybe the space wasn't perfect. Those stairs were inconvenient but for free, I was so not going to complain. The tennis court was actually pretty darn cool to hang out on though. Great job Ron and thanks! This event is totally to your credit. We all owe you a nod of thanks.
Pretty much right at opening, folks started arriving seeking totally awesome locally bred deals; which they found. As a vendor for the first time, it was very satisfying to here the thud, thud of car doors and lots of folks showing up and being excited. It makes getting up and packing the car early in the day and the drive totally worth it.
I saw incredible surface plants, carpet plants, mother plants, amazing shrimp, seiryu rocks, mammoth wood pieces and imported betta and shrimp nets. There were lots of really unique items like a red brain coral piece, canker Madrona aquarium wood, hand made light fixtures, some amazing tiger lillies that I saw too late, a great sump, and Gigi and I had organic Gigi's Wonderfood, of course, and organic exotic aquarium care leaves and barks and our shrimp t-shirts which were selling in 3XL like mad. Oh, and our raw honey from home on Vashon Island.
Folks really started filling in about 3pm and the vendors were clicking along and actually busy. G and I had been answering questions for awhile and I could tell we were not the only ones. I could see Tanya was answering a ton of questions too because she was directly across the space from me and she was busy for most of the afternoon like Gigi and I were.
I was stoked to meet fellow shrimp nerd Alex finally from Midway, Shawn (sp?) aka Madness, Wesley (who is fabulous to just chill and chat with), Nick the Elder, and many other forum folks who I was less successful in remembering their names. And I saw that Mike guy who is the Axolotyl expert. That guy is at every cool fish event.
Folks from the Portland club came up and that was awesome. The more we can pull our scenes together I think it will be better for all of us.
Ok, ok, I guess I kinda just stream of semiconscioused there. Here are a few pics so you can pull a vibe. Remember, this is only one moment and before we were busy!
If you have photos, post them too because they will have been shot at a different part of the day.
glad everyone had a blast!
: I do have to say he did like it.