Thursday, April 24, 2008

Auction at MARS!

Hello everyone. It seems like I'm even more busy here in the US than I was back in Indonesia. Just getting a breather to post this thread.

As mentioned before on Saturday the 19th, I joined Steve Tyree and John from "Yourreef.com" to auction off some corals. The event was being held in Sacramento (about 2 hours away from SF) at a conference room at a Round Table Pizza restaurant. It was sponsored by a local reef club called MARS (marine aquarists roundtable of Sacramento).


It was a small crowd, not quite the number of people that was expected. Of course this was the first time the club had an auction like this so I'm sure it will be a bigger event next time around. Nevertheless, it was exciting!

So this is American pizza! To the Indonesian reefers, this is what real pizza should look like, not the funky tasting pizza from Pizza Hut Indonesia. Being a primarily a Muslim country, no pepperoni can be found (made from pork), so beef hot dogs are used. You can imagine the funky taste.

I would have dreamed of this when I was in Indo. This one looked like a combination pizza!

Some members enjoying pizza before the auction.

And here he is, the famous Steve Tyree! The cool guy on the right is me.

Besides me and Steve, John from "your reef" also had frags for the auction. John runs an lfs in Roseville (near Sacramento) and also sells online (yourreef.com). He is pictured here on the right. The lady in the center is my old customer from the Tropical Paradise. Her name is Pam and she is heavily involved with the club activities. I remember a huge frag swap that was held at her home back a few years ago. I loaded up my truck with all sorts of corals and salt and sold a bunch of stuff at the swap meet. It was alot of fun back in the days.

And here is Brian, the president of the club going over the list of corals for the auction.

Most of the frags are from Steve and John. The larger sps and lps pieces are from me. Needleless to say, all the pieces for the auction were sold!

And here is Brian auctioning the corals while Steve looks on.

This cute little baby girl is the daughter of Mark, one of the members. She seems to happy being hugged by my wife.

Overall, the auction went well. It was good to have met up with Steve and some of my old customers. Being at an event like this really made me miss my old retail days at Tropical Paradise!

In a few days, I will post some pictures of my road trip to Monterey California. From strawberry fields to a flat tire to one of my old friend/customer to the Monterey Bay Aquarium, it was a memorable day!

cheers,
Eddie

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh yeah! I'm actually part of Eddie's coral adventures! Thanks so much for bringing all those sweet corals to the auction. It was great to meet you and your beautiful wife. I don't know how you can be away from her for so long. I'd wouldn't have left home without her.

From the beginning, when I saw what you brought, I said to myself, "I'm only buying Eddie's stuff. All this other stuff I can find later. Eddie's corals are one of a kind."

Eddie H. said...

Hi Xia,

Thanks man, you can really be a part of my coral adventures when I set up the eco tourism in the future.

I'm taking my wife with me this time around, so less lonely nights for me!

I strive to make a difference in the hobby!

Thanks,
Eddie

Aquaculture Northern Bali

November Corals Collection Part. 1

November Corals Collection Part. 2

Aquaculture - November Shipment

Coral Showcase - September 2008 Inventory

Holding Facility's Corals Collection Showcase 2007