Ann. New England Frag Farmer's Market 3-3-18 - Storrs, CT

[dakar652]

it was a ZOO! lots of over priced nonsense (found a single mushroom priced at $1200...i actually laughed out loud) but some good deals mixed in. i mostly went for macro algae and snails but came home with a couple small zoa frags to start out with.

 

[Chris A.]

I thought there would be awesome discounts there

 

[Mr. Leemr]

First off, I love this event and look forward to it every year BUT... I believe this event is growing out of this venue, there was massive over crowding especially in the hallways with all the vendors set up there it just chokes the area down way too much. I did however manage to grab some nice pieces only after weeding through some massively overpriced micro frags that seemed to be the trend this year.

 

[Mike Stay]

First off, I love this event and look forward to it every year BUT... I believe this event is growing out of this venue, there was massive over crowding especially in the hallways with all the vendors set up there it just chokes the area down way too much. I did however manage to grab some nice pieces only after weeding through some massively overpriced micro frags that seemed to be the trend this year.

Know who runs it? I'd have the perfect spot to host...

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[Mccune]

Went with my son today. So many way overpriced pieces. Area was defiantly way to small. I was not really impressed doubt I’ll go back

 

[Saltydoug]

I beleive the op is the guy who runs it.
The reason they use the school is because its a fundraiser for their class reef project and for scholarships.

I do agree though that the event is too big now for the venue. I felt like a sardine the whole time. I would of loved to browse longer but i just had to get out.

However if you couldn't find deals I don't think you looked hard enough. Of course the top trending corals fetch top dollar but there where entire tankfulls of 5$ corals.

One guy was selling colorful zoa rocks a good 100 polyps each for 45$

 

[Aaron W.]

I went for the first time this year. Overall I had a good time but I agree that it was so crowded it was difficult to get to some tables. I managed to find some great deals mostly by keeping an eye out for hobbyists’ tables rather than the big vendors who seemed to have some inflated prices. I didn’t show up until about 12:30 and there was still plenty left. The raffle was great I thought; I was impressed by the amount and types of items they got in for it! I was super happy with the items I won.

 

[wdebenedettojr]

I don’t think there were many super discounts. I do think some stuff was way over priced however the selection was really really good. Prices are what I expected. If people thought they were gonna get 50% off regular priced frags then they were mistaken.

I agree with the overcrowding. Took me 20 minutes to find a parking spot. And what the worst part is that they have the vendors in the hallways. There were people with baby carriages that couldn’t get through. Maybe they should not do hallways and class rooms anymore, maybe open up the gym? Or do both. Very very clustered. I would have stayed much longer if I didn’t feel rushed so other people could see.

That being said I did get some nice sps and zoa rocks. I was impressed with the amount of awesome sps corals the vendors had.

 

[Mike Stay]

I beleive the op is the guy who runs it.
The reason they use the school is because its a fundraiser for their class reef project and for scholarships.

I do agree though that the event is too big now for the venue. I felt like a sardine the whole time. I would of loved to browse longer but i just had to get out.

However if you couldn't find deals I don't think you looked hard enough. Of course the top trending corals fetch top dollar but there where entire tankfulls of 5$ corals.

One guy was selling colorful zoa rocks a good 100 polyps each for 45$

Pretty much my take as well. Came home with 5 new corals for $80 which is a win in my book. Way too crowded though. We would have stayed a lot longer if there was more space.

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[dz6t]

How are the talks?

 

[cilyjr]

It is crowded for the first 2 hours but by 130 it's pretty easy to get around. People crowd in at the start because they are looking for the best deal. Thing is the best deals are at the end when we don't want to pack stuff back up for home. The deals are there for those who want them and the hard to find pieces (overpriced was the term used above)for those who want those were there as well.

It's at the school because it's a fundraiser for the school. Jon I hope the school did well.

As always thank you Jon @fitch4 for hosting an amazing event. I personally look foward to it every year!

 

[fitch4]

Hey, I just wanted to thank all of the BRS members who came out yesterday, vendors and shoppers. The attendance yesterday was 1312, which is the biggest number for the FFM yet. I do hear all the complaints about the crowds and the venue. The FFM was developed to try to do two things: promote aquaculture in the hobby and support the school's coral project. As a result of that, I host it at the school to show off the work that my students have been doing on our coral system. I have looked into the idea of having it in the gym, or cafeteria, but that isn't going to really help with crowding- it actually might make it worse with everyone in the same room (its not that big). I am also not interested in moving it to someplace off campus (Mohegan Sun or something like that) because it takes the focus away from the school project and my students. The rooms make it tough and I am always working to spread it out as much as possible - I do what I can.

As far as bargains go, you just had to look. Yes, there were CRAZY expensive pieces there. I walked away from quite a few places because when I asked they were just silly prices for TINY chips. There were also a TON of vendors who had great frags for great prices and in some cases the same corals as the expensive vendors. With SO many vendors, you just need to look- what you wanted was there somewhere. The thing about the FFM that is better than a MACNA or a RAP is that the cost for the vendors is so low that they don't feel like they need to make their money back- which hopefully ends in lower prices. Not every vendor gets that. I always have a few that leave unhappy because they have great stuff but are just asking too much.

In the end, I hope the BRS people who came out had a good time and found some gems for their tanks. I am going to start putting together the 2019 FFM in the next few weeks. I am eyeballing March 2nd, 2019 and will be working on trying to help with some of your complaints about this year's FFM. I will keep you guys posted!

 

[aresangel]

Jon, great job on everything! Your army of students past and present were fantastic checking on the vendors and the set up the day before helped a whole lot!

For my first big frag meet I had a great time and my school was able to acquire a few new pieces from the sales we did so Hopedale thanks you as well!

Imagine the turn out if the storm didn’t knock so many people’s power out!

The school’s’ set up is awesome and I love seeing that there were a total of three outside schools represented. (Maybe a room for the school’s next time to keep us all together?).

I look forward to using E.O. Smith as a model for Hopedale and expanding interest to the youth for our hobby.

Happy Reefing.


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[Greg Hiller]

If you couldn't find deals you weren't looking at the hobbyist tables. I sold a large number of very large pieces of coral. I saw the dealer booths with the huge numbers of large, very expensive wild collected LPS corals. Not the spirit of this show. Get the stuff that lives and grows well in a captive environment.

 

[dakar652]

ever think about doing this twice a year? I bet you'd see the same or similar numbers present if you did one in the fall as well.

 

[Aaron W.]

Does anyone know who the vendor in the hallway was who had the acrylic sump on display with the built in ATS? He also donated one for the auction. I grabbed a few cards and I thought his was Aquatic Creations / Reef Delivery but I looked at their website and didn’t see anything about these sumps.

 

[wdebenedettojr]

Two times a year would be cool. Would that be an option?

 

[Frag Freaks]

If you couldn't find deals you weren't looking at the hobbyist tables. I sold a large number of very large pieces of coral. I saw the dealer booths with the huge numbers of large, very expensive wild collected LPS corals. Not the spirit of this show. Get the stuff that lives and grows well in a captive environment.

I would have to disagree. We had over 100 frags all at $10 each all of which were aquacultured.

 

[aresangel]

I know it puts a lot of work. I am looking at attempting another school based frag meet in Hopedale MA next year after FFM. Let’s hope my plans work I am thinking late May/early June next year. Just have to get the OK from Admin.


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[OSA]

Does anyone know who the vendor in the hallway was who had the acrylic sump on display with the built in ATS? He also donated one for the auction. I grabbed a few cards and I thought his was Aquatic Creations / Reef Delivery but I looked at their website and didn’t see anything about these sumps.

It was Aquatic Creations ! His name is Myke he’s a great guy !