I am so frustrated and angry.

I want to cry.

As some of you may know, there was recently a Charlotte fish club auction. Back at the end of July, people started posting the fish they were planning on bringing to the auction. (They have their own forum.) Someone posted that they were bringing uaru, which I have been wanting for a while, and some neat type of small geophagus. Well, since they posted that, I've had my hopes up so high for getting these fish, or at least having the chance to bid on them. For those of you not counting, that's over two months of anticipation. That's 'clean a tank, buy new substrates, get new decorations, paint the back, set it up all nice and pretty, make my own filter cartridges, and watch it run empty for 3 weeks until auction day, imagining how nice it will look with fish in it' anticipation.

So I get to the auction, and those fish aren't there. I was so disappointed that i almost walked out right then. But i stayed, and spent $20 on fish I like but didn't really WANT. I got a female bristlenose that my males bristlenoses really want (i imagine), but not me especially. I got a cory for $1, because no one else wanted to buy a single cory. I got a geophagus brasiliensis, because gosh darn it, i was going to buy a geo at the auction and actually, no one else wanted him either. But i am still so very disappointed that the fish i wanted weren't there.

So afterwards i made a note of it in the feedback, just saying that people should update their lists of what they're bringing so buyers know what to expect in case they're planning on something specific being there. Well, then i find out that it's all about Side Deals. If i wanted something, i should have contacted the person and bought it outright rather than waiting, duh. Like it's all my fault.

i was completely bowled over. what's the point of having an auction if everyone is just going to snipe all the good stuff before it even gets there? I would have contacted the seller, but i thought it would be in bad taste to try and get stuff that was (I thought) supposed to be fair game for everyone. You know, a good faith sort of thing. Why post it as going to the auction then, just put it in the 'for sale' section and don't take a risk on low bids.

So then i contact the seller, to see if there are any fish left that he just didn't feel like bringing. Nope. He traded the whole lot of them for some other fish outside of the auction. Oh, but i can contact THAT person and i'll *probably* get a good price.

And now i'm extra mad that my big chance to get these fish that i wanted so much turned into the lovely opportunity to pay probably double or more what i would have paid for them if i did a side deal. . . . plus SHIPPING, because now they've gone out of state. and i hate paying shipping more than almost anything.

So I guess I've learned my lesson. Snipe fast, snipe early, and be ruthless. No fair play, no "sharing", get what you want and to heck with the spirit and point of the auction, which is supposed to be a fund raiser for the club.

I've been stewing over this and getting more and more angry, especially after the "you can probably get a good price" message.

i feel like i don't even want *those* fish anymore, just out of the principle of the thing. i'd rather buy them somewhere else, but when i can find them (rarely) it seems like such a rip-off compared to what i could have gotten them for. is that understandable?

well, this is what i just posted about it:

I see what you and jennifer are saying about the pre-orders and not seeing everything there that was possibly going to be there. I've never been to any auction, let alone one done by this club. i knew about pre-orders for your fish, because you said it outright "let me know what you want me to bring". that's different because otherwise we'd have to pay shipping to get those fish if we wanted them. it's much easier to just have ken bring them when he's going to be in the area anyway and save that extra money.

but as for pre-ordering stuff that local people already said they would bring - it didn't come to my mind. my point of view was that this was supposed to be a benefit for the club. if i'm PM'ing people privately (behind everyone else's back) and saying can i have this or that instead of them putting it in the auction, then everyone else loses out on their "chance" and the club loses that % of the sale. I'm not a member of your club, i guess i don't know how things work, but it seems strange to me to do all these pre-auction side deals which undermine the "fund raising" aspect of having the auction.

I've been hesitant to share this because i feel like you're all going to rip into me, but this is how, as an outsider, i saw things. if i had known to PM the person about what i wanted, i would have had my fish already, but i thought auction stuff was 'hands off', because that's how i would do it if it were me. if i had a buyer from another source who wanted to buy fish or add to an order, and all i had left was what i set aside for auction time, then i would say i didn't have any more to sell. and if people are worried about losing money on pricey fish, why not have reserve prices set? if someone wants to buy a pair of angelfish i have set aside and they'll give me $50 as a side deal, then they can come to the auction and i'll set the reserve at $45 or something. either no one else bids and the buyer gets the fish or the bid goes higher and everyone benefits, financially (as a seller and as a club) and also by at least having the chance to bid on and obtain really nice fish.

It's much easier to go to an auction and not have expectations about what might be there when you've already made side deals and purchased the fish you definitely want to have. I on the other hand went with very high expectations of finally getting the fish/getting the chance to bid on the fish I'd wanted for months, and ended up feeling baited and switched. And it worked - i certainly didn't leave empty handed. But I was still sad.

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well, they'll see what i already wrote. i'm not a paying member of the club, just a screen name on their website. either they will do something about it or they won't.

i just checked, and the fish that i could have gotten for $5 each are now being resold for $15 each. i guess it is a matter of pride - i could say 'hey, i wanted those fish at the auction, do you think you could give me a deal?' and maybe i would get one. but i feel ashamed begging and asking for special treatment now, when all i really wanted was a fair shot then.