erock412
Member
i hope this isnt against the rules. i apologize ahead of time if it is. a good friend of my family, uncle dan, has a friend who used to own a LFS. he got old, and closed the doors for good about 6 weeks ago. well, sad to say, the dude passed on new years eve. i guess him and his wife never really got around to selling all the stuff from the store. although my uncle dan offered to help sell all the remaining stuff, the widow told him that he could just have it, and what he didnt want would be either tossed or would sit in their basement. uncle dan used to be into swf BIG TIME. he knew i've been trying to get involved for years now, but never really took the plunge until now. he doesnt want anything, he just doesnt have it in him to devote the time to this hobby. as far as what dan tells me there is "tens of thousands of dollars" worth of equipment in this ladies basement. "skimmers, powerheads, heaters, sand, LR (base rock by now), salt, thermometers, lights, canopies, stands, etc.". he said there's a few tanks... mostly nano's. i guess the guy didn't really set aside space to display empty tanks, and they never removed the display aquariums b/c they were put into the walls of the store and i guess they were liquid-nailed in and kinda became permanent fixtures. there are a few larger tanks that he had in the store's basement: a reef-ready 220gal, 2 reef-ready 125gal's, and finally a tank that he had in the basement of his house. an acrylic tank that my uncle estimates to be in the area of 800-1,000 gal. anyways, i'd love to take it all, but my 2 bedroom house probably isnt as big as this dudes basement from what my uncle says. i'm going to head over and check things out tomorrow or saturday, whenever dan can go with me. i'd feel weird going to some old, newly-widowed womans' house to cherry pick her basement full of expensive equipment. whatever i don't take for myself this weekend, you guys are willing to have free of charge if you haul it yourself the following weekend. some of the smaller equipment, i guess i can ship to people, but postage will have to be paid, as well as a small fee for my time. i really hope this doesnt get erased, because it's a great oppurtunity for people, and i dont have friends that are into this hobby. i live in pittsburgh, FYI. i know it sounds too good to be true, but as far as uncle dan is concerned- he know's his stuff, and he made it very clear to me that there is beyond a ton of equipment here. he counted 47 skimmers alone! trust me people, i have much better things to do with my time than lie about something so cool to a bunch of folks i'll never meet. also, to those of you who choose to come and grab stuff up, i'm going to arrange for everyone to meet me in a public place at a certain time and we'll all head over together, so you know i'm not some weirdo internet stalker who prey's on people in hobby website forums. i want everyone to feel comfortable with this, because i know it could change a lot of our situations and set-ups. whatever you take home from this ladies house you have to use and not sell. if anyone was going to make $ from this, it should have been the guy who passed away. the only reason i would ask for a minimal fee for my time to ship is because i'm a busy guy, and i'll be even busier in the next few weeks (obviously) and to a guy like me time is money. my fee would be MINIMAL, i'm not looking for profit. i'll be checking this thread very often and in the next few days i will figure out a way to make this as fair to everyone as i can. thanks everyone, and to those who will be coming out next weekend: i look forward to meeting you, and i'll see you soon.
