Firstly, let me give a big THANK YOU to everyone who came out, participated, volunteered organized, etc. for this event. I am absolutely grateful for the folks who put this together for us local reefers. I know events of this level take a great deal of work to organize and make happen.
Now….
This was my first reefing event and I wasn’t sure what to expect. I originally did not plan to go because I wasn’t sure if attending this sort of event would be beneficial to me, but folks changed my mind and in the wee hours of the morning, my interest was quadrupled when I saw the pics of Saturdays set-up on the MACI facebook page. I bought my ticket at 1130 AM at a local LFS and sped all the way to St. Charles doing 100, always using my turn single though.
I wasn’t sure what I’d find, but based on the map on the MACI page, I figured I would find a bunch of vendors and local sellers in fraggers row. When I heard that Reefwise and Aquapros were exhibiting, I knew I would probably go, as I am very big on supporting local reef shops. I want to see them all do well and I tend to not shop online for stuff. I like supporting the little guys.
When I walked in, I was a tad big disappointed. I thought there would be more vendors because based on the map that was published, it appeared that the place would be packed. There was tons of empty unused space. I can only assume that a lot of vendors weren’t interested in paying the premium for space. I could be wrong, but perhaps if that was the case, would it be possible to lower the exhibiting price a bit to attract more vendors? Wouldn’t the group be able to make more money based on the volume of vendors that would in fact choose to come and exhibit? I don’t know, as I wasn’t involved in any of the backend stuff, but I was really hoping that this event, being the first, would be insanely popular and well received with awesome participant attendance.
I came to the event with $200 in cash on me and 2 credit cards ready to burn through my available credit, but I was so turned off by the prices that people were charging. So many of the vendors had prices so offensively inflated that it left a bad taste in my mouth. For example, I purchased a 1 Liter bottle of Reef Fusion 1 and 2 for $12 on Saturday. The vendor there that had the Seachem products on the end had the same stuff. I wanted to buy more, so I asked how much were his. He said $20. I must have cocked my head to the side and given him the side-eye, before thanking him for his time and walked away.
As I walked around, I noticed that many of the folks selling coral also were inflating their prices. Aquapros and Reefwise had prices that were down to earth and consistent with pricing in store and I did find some awesome deals that I did not bite at, like the 20 heads of Blue Tubbs for $50. The vendor and I were talking about how good of a deal they were while a guy was interested in them and kept coming back to look at them but not buying. I walked away to look at other stuff but I did want them….and when I returned, dude finally broke down and bought them when he saw me walk away. The vendor thanked me for the sale when I came back, but I wanted those Tubbs!! He did end up giving me a couple nice chalice frags for a sweet deal. I knew I would have to pay through the nose for a Jason Fox piece, but even he had sweet deals on his stuff. I mean 4 of those frags in the left section were $100…for FOUR. I wish I would have gotten more, but I didn’t want to be greedy. I picked up one of his non-sale pieces, but I didn’t feel raped at all. I felt it was a good deal.
The raffle was fun, but it dragged on for longer than I would have liked. Everyone circled around the raffle tables and just stood there for what seemed like forever. Poor Tammy seemed to be doing all the work there, and like someone said previously, dude with the microphone could have put down the beer and stopped with the corny jokes to help a sista out. That line for picking up the prizes was so slow, that I said F*** it, and went straight to Paradise Coral to pick up my Pink Watermelon Frag that I won in the raffle. It was also kind of foul that the unclaimed prizes were not reraffled off like Marine Geek did. We were told that they would be held and reraffled off at the next MACI event….NEXT YEAR. I’m sorry, but I don’t plan on dumping anything old into my tank after it’s been sitting around for a few months and then an ADDITIONAL year. No ma’am Pam.
All in all, I had a good time, but there is definitely room for improvement. I think there would be better attendance if the event was in the city, but I know that the price to hold an event would be sky high, so I’m pretty forgiving about the location. I also think that holding the event out there brings in those of us who are REALLY serious about our passion, and by passion I mean obsession. I’d go again for sure. It was nice running into folks from CR. I can’t wait to go next year!!!
And please excuse the typos...I'm at work and posting on the QT. Shhhhhh
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