The AquaFest auctions are listed on MyGroupAuctions.Com. Please visit http://www.mygroupauctions.com/ and logon. You must be affiliated with PVAS to see the AquaFest auctions, sorry CCA and GWAPA-ers. If you haven't, read the help files there. PLEASE note that you can add photos -- including ones from the internet. These photos will be displayed during the auction. It's nice to have a representative picture of your species of fish or whatever on the page -- I promise, it will help your sale price.
You can see the full rules at http://www.pvas.com/auctions.php.
Please pay special attention to the rules listing items that cannot legally be sold. The following items are prohibited from being sold at the auction: Used light bulbs of any kind, open containers of food or medicine, used carbons or filter resins, wet substrates. All dry goods MUST have a label on them that indicates their working condition (New; Used/Works Fine; Needs Parts: <XYZ>). Additionally, any item that is restricted by local, state, or federal law may not be sold. The most notable of these are Hygrophila polysperma and it's variants, including Tropica Sunset, and any and all species of Crayfish. There are others, but those are the most common. Please note that all fish, plants, etc. must be bagged PROPERLY in fish bags. You may not enter plants in ziplocks, or fish, or anything else. Properly bagged means the bag is firm and contains approximately 1/3rd water and 2/3rd air. Flat bags, overfilled bags, etc. will be rebagged at the auction.
There are two auctions available, Auction and Tag Sale. The auction is a traditional auction, and any aquarium related merchandise, live fish, plants, or other aquatic organisms may be sold.
The Tag Sale is different from an auction in that items are entered at a fixed price. If you want to sell your bag of Feeder Guppies for $20, you put in the $20 price as a the "Minimum Bid," and the first person who wants them for $20 gets them. It's sort of like a garage sale for fish etc. Please note that the prices are reduced at points throughout the day, as described in the rules. The seller ALWAYS has the option to remove items from the tag sale, and an announcement is made before the prices are reduced.
We have a couple of new rules specifically for AquaFest that I don't believe are included in the rules.
First, you may enter no more than 5 of the same or grossly similar items into the auction. Any more should be put in the Tag Sale. The Tag sale really is a great place to sell multiple lots of the same item at a good price, while the auction is not -- this rule benefits the sellers more than it does the auction! So, if you have six bags of angelfish, please put them in the tag sale. Put a couple in the auction if you want, but limit it to five. If they're different varieties of angelfish -- Blue Paraba and Black and Veiltail -- yes, you can put them all in the auction, but you'll still honestly be better served entering them in the tag sale. And, no, a bag of 10 Cory aeneus is not different from a bag of 12 Cory aeneus, so please put them in the tag sale.
Secondly, there are a handful of sellers who have put items into the tag sale and just do not want them reduced, but do no want to remove them from the Tag Sale. We are introducing a new sticker that will be available at the Tag Sale called a "NO REDUCTION" tag. Any item that bears a new reduction tag will NOT get reduced at the various times at the tag sale. So, if you bring a 55-gallon tank that you want to sell for $1,000 and won't take anything less for, but don't want to worry about running back to get, you can get a "NO REDUCTION" tag. These are sort of an anti-bump-up sticker. Like the bump-up stickers, though, they will cost you $2.
Lastly, AquaFest auction is not a place to get rid of trash. Every single year, we have people who put items that are legally allowed into the auction that best belong in the bin. Please do not enter used algae scrapers, cracked and dirty aquariums, etc. We reserve the right to remove these items from the auction.
