Blast from the Past

[Ayelandgirl]

OK, I finally had a chance to through my pics and came across this shot from the 2003 YATFS auction:

http://tomsfish.net/new/upload/picture.php?albumid=1&pictureid=1

Most of us are in the original blue Tom's Place t-shirts. I think I remember some of the folks (help me out if I screw up, Tom!)
In the front row: (l-r) Neptune, Caiman(?), Amber (DJ); ???,
Nancy(?) - the one from Michigan. I'm in the second row behind Neptune.

[Tom]

Very good...got em all Aye!

And what a blast from the past...great shot. Thanks!

[Ayelandgirl]

Tom - who's sitting between Amber & Nancy??? (the lady with the brown sweater). She's the only one I can't remember.

[Tom]

Aye..I know it was a friend of DJ's who rode up with her, but I am ashamed to say I forget her name. Curses upon me. Maybe Amber will pop in and let us know!

[Tc2]

That's nothing Tom, I sat several rows behind Amber and I think her friend or sister (I forget - some timers disease ya know) for about 5 hours and didn't even notice her until the auction was over. Must have been concentrating on the fish and plants too much - yeah, that's the ticket. :o Every now and then there are some nice peices of driftwood at these auctions. Speaking of YATFS auctions, just a friendly reminder about March 16th in Lordstown Ohio.

[sev]

I was there, too. Good times! I think I was back with TC, or maybe at a back table looking at fish. Thanks for the memory, Aye!

[Tc2]

Nice to see you back sev - so how far is lordstown for you now? Might want to keep March 16th in mind.

[Tom]

LauraLeigh

Thats the name. She used to chat with us sometimes and post occasionally, but she lived in or near Charlottesville and rode up with Amber that year.

[Ayelandgirl]

That's her name! Yay! Thanks, Tom :)
Gee, I missed Tc & sev at that one??? How did that happen???

[Amber]

Hi, I haven't been in here in a while. Nice to see that pic, thanks, Aye!
Laura Leigh has gotten out of the fish business temporarily, but I've heard rumblings about another tank since her daughter moved out. :D
I got a flyer for the YATFS auction, but with the price of gas being what it is, I think I'm gonna stay closer to home. PVAS has an auction coming up on April 20; the last sale of theirs I went to was pretty good.
Hope everybody is well; I'm getting ready to find out if the new seal I put on my 55 is gonna hold water.

[Don D]

I still want to make a YATFS auction one day. Obviously this one wasnt it. LOL Amber has the idea though. The PVAS auction is usually a hell of an event. They also have their bi annual catfish only show coming up.

Ifin any of you want more info, let me know.

[Tc2]

I'd like more info Don. Can you add that to the calendar? And is that the Potomac Valley Aquarium Society?
By the way, I made the YATFS auction yesterday, lots of good fish this time, too expensive for me, but a better variety than in the past, even had 5 bags of black calvus - 3 per bag approximately 2 inches. Nice looking fish. Quite a few different loricarids (don't ask all the names, all I remember are bushynoses and regular and whiptails....but there were others with just L numbers), some wild bettas, different geophagus, cories, dojos, killies, shrimp, some eels (tiertrack) and the usual discus, angels and feeders ..... um .... sorry, africans, goldfish and guppies. An unusual number of plants and tanks and filters also. But, prices were high this time, people must have gotten their refund checks and blown them at the auction.

[Amber]

Calvus in Youngstown? :eek: Figures, since I didn't go this time.

Here's the info on the auction, and yeah, it's Potomac Valley Aquarium Society

http://www.pvas.com/auctions.php

Sunday, April 20, 2008 10:00
Marshall Road Elementary School
730 Marshall Road, SW
Vienna, Virginia 22180

Lots and lots of plants last time, and northern VA is bigtime apisto territory.

[Tc2]

Yes, black calvus, and I'm still kicking myself for not hanging in the bidding on them. Of course, had I stayed in I would be kicking myself because I'd be pushing the car with no gas money. Oh well, some will pop up again. These were absolutely stunning fish, not the raggedy ones occasionally seen in pet shops around here. And thanks for the info on the PVAS, apisto terrety, eh? Do they usually go for decent buyer prices?

[Amber]

Just to make me feel worse; how much were the calvus going for? I remember at ACA in Atlanta, getting into a bidding contest with Raven on some wild-caught blacks (a trio). He ended up paying something like 125 and was his wife ever PO'd. :cool:
As I recall, TC, the apistos were going for 10-15 per pair, and there were a lot of different strains. My sister's friend bought a really nice pair of double reds for about 12.

[Tc2]

Well, this should make you feel real bad......the lowest was 17 (I missed even bidding on those thanks to the guy behind me - OK, not really his fault, we were talking and when I turned around the guy in front of me was holding his prize). The other bags went in the upper 20's. Can usually find them at 10 - 12 around here, but oonly around an inch in length, these were a good 2 1/2 inches, and sold as trios. Oh well, maybe the next one I won't be on such a tight spending llimit.

[sev]

Anyone have some inside scoop with the PVAS auction? It's fairly close to me, thinking of possibly showing up, but a little "what to expect" info would be nice.

[Amber]

Hi Sev,
Sorry it took me a while to respond; I was away for spring break.
The PVAS auction is just a good medium-sized sale (at least the fall one I went to last year). Maybe 100 people there? Plenty of nice plants, that didn't go particularly cheap, although I didn't stay until the end. Lots of apistos, as I'd said. I found some Wonga Creek bows, some Boraras Briggitae, pineapple swordtails, can't recall what other fishes, plenty of plants, rocks, other assorted junk :D
No food sales, and no lunch break; pack a sandwich.
My big problem with the setup was that the tables were at the front of the room, so you can't be looking at fish while the sale is going on. There were breaks when they changed auctioneers, and the crowds at the tables were thick. Hopefully they changed that this time.
The PVAS folks are a really nice group, and the auction is worth attending.
Hope to see you there. :)

[Caiman]

I do believe this was the auction we met up at the hotel, got drunk the night before the auction, and Greg (neptune) passed out on my hotel room floor. I then proceeded to set the alarm clock forward, turn all the lights off, wait 10 minutes, then turn them back on, redress, and run around the room gathering my stuff yelling about how we'd overslept and it was after noon.

Neptune gets up, makes himself as presentable as you can be on 10 minutes of sleep, combs his hair, washes his mouth out, and walks to the door to open it to pitch blackness....

The reaction was priceless

[Dinosauer Fishkeeper]

Cannot help but contributing to this thread, especially after Caiman's recollection. 1st (and only) YATFS Auction I attended, can't remember the date, but Alcohol was involved. ;) This was the 1st (and only) time I have ever met Tom. What triggered this post is that I had flown into Pittsburgh and got a rental car to go to Youngstown, where I had a hotel room reserved.
Major mistake was mentioning this in Chat. 2:00 A.M. phone in room rings, I am told that my rental car had been stolen and the PD had recovered the remains. At this early in the A.M. the brain DOES NOT function at 100%. Suffice it to say that Greg (Neptune) and the very attractive Nancy et.al had been at the happy water and thought this was hilarious. The giggling gave it away.:D Certainly goes down as a major "Gotcha". Convinced me that the folks at Tom's were my kind of folks, and I have been happy here ever after.

DF

[Tom]

Oh God...I do remember that. That whole weekend was quite an event, and that was the crowning glory to cap it off....

[Amber]

That was such a fun trip! Before that motel had gone totally down the dumper, and we had the whole back row to ourselves. Dragged the room chairs out into the parking lot, and Aye and her hubby had the boom box (and a blender, as I recall) We should try it again, now that we're all old and stove in. :D
Anybody know anything about the Whale of a Show?

[Tc2]

Whale of a show will be the weekend of August 16th, set up on the 16th, show and auction on 17th. It will be at the Avalon inn. info should be at http://www.yatfs.com I think they are updating the website.