# Supporting UKAPS?



## Steve Smith (15 Oct 2007)

Hi all.  Is there currently a way (that I've not spotted) or plans for being able to support UKAPS via donations/purchasing merchandise (would love a UKAPS sticker for my laptop!) or anything else?

You guys have seemingly put a lot of effort into this, and time and money I'd expect!  Seems fair to spread the load a little!  Any plans along these lines?

Also, are you needing any help with anything? I'd love to contribute if I can, in any way


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## James Flexton (15 Oct 2007)

ditto. i know the original idea was to use plant pounds rather than hard cash but some things require money. 

i think it would be a good idea to offer stickers for sale. maybe Â£5 per sticker or something. obviously overpriced but it's more a freebie for a Â£5 donation rather than an expensive sticker.

i'd put a lump in if i knew where to send it. maybe set up a UKAPS paypal account or something. I know dan usually charges a lot of money for those printed boards for example it's not fair to scrounge freebies every time.


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## Steve Smith (15 Oct 2007)

I suspect there might be difficulties when it comes to money of course and all the politics, and even legal obligations (?), but the Â£5 sticker sounds like a cool idea


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## Themuleous (15 Oct 2007)

Same here  I do know there is soon to be a UKAPS branded aquascaping kit which will be on sale through ebay, Â£24.99 or Â£25.99 cant remember.  Either way I'll probably get one.  If its been arranged by someone on here it should be a great little product.  

Stickers, etc sound good too, but I guess all these things take time to organise, etc so all in good time 

Sam


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## Steve Smith (15 Oct 2007)

Themuleous said:
			
		

> Same here  I do know there is soon to be a UKAPS branded aquascaping kit which will be on sale through ebay, Â£24.99 or Â£25.99 cant remember.  Either way I'll probably get one.  If its been arranged by someone on here it should be a great little product.
> 
> Stickers, etc sound good too, but I guess all these things take time to organise, etc so all in good time
> 
> Sam



I sense an earl christmas present to myself


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## Matt Holbrook-Bull (15 Oct 2007)

thanks for your thoughts 

eventually, what well do, is setup an ebay shop to sell stickers, tshirt, scaping kits and wotnot.

your welcome to donate to us, we do have a paypal account, but I for one would rather you had at least a token for your hard earned cash!  if your interested JamesC has all the details, PM him and he can fill you in.

we do put a bit of our money into it, but youd be amazed just how much George can blag!


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## Themuleous (15 Oct 2007)

Frolicsome_Flora said:
			
		

> thanks for your thoughts  but youd be amazed just how much George can blag!



Having met him now, I would not be surprised at that!


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## Matt Holbrook-Bull (15 Oct 2007)

George did an amazing job this weekend, plants alive donated all the plants.. a 2 foot box of them, all the rock, all the gravel, all the wood.. not sure where they came from, but Ill suggest to him we do a thanks to our sponsors bit on the announcement section maybe as without it all, we'd have been far less impressive.


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## Steve Smith (15 Oct 2007)

Frolicsome_Flora said:
			
		

> George did an amazing job this weekend, plants alive donated all the plants.. a 2 foot box of them, all the rock, all the gravel, all the wood.. not sure where they came from, but Ill suggest to him we do a thanks to our sponsors bit on the announcement section maybe as without it all, we'd have been far less impressive.



Was the equipment/plants/gravel on loan from the various suppliers?  If you want to raise any more funds, how about raffling off the show tank?  Â£2 a ticket or something along those lines.  I'm sure you'd get plenty of interest and could have it "sponsored" by the companies that supplied the goods as a thankyou perhaps 

Anyhow, to my other question, are you in need of any man-power for anything, whether it be any admin stuff or web based stuff?  If so, what skill sets are you needing more of?


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## Matt Holbrook-Bull (15 Oct 2007)

> Was the equipment/plants/gravel on loan from the various suppliers?  If you want to raise any more funds, how about raffling off the show tank?  Â£2 a ticket or something along those lines.  I'm sure you'd get plenty of interest and could have it "sponsored" by the companies that supplied the goods as a thankyou perhaps



the tanks were on loan via the festival sponsors I beleive, so theyll be all broken back down now, which is a shame!



> Anyhow, to my other question, are you in need of any man-power for anything, whether it be any admin stuff or web based stuff?  If so, what skill sets are you needing more of?



website stuff and everything ICT based I handle, and Id rather keep that to just me to be honest, its much easier to organise and write for.  The whole site is hard coded except for the gallery and the forum which is heavily modified stock code Ive brought in.  Its also written to support a much larger infrastructure than we currently have, so itll be easy to expand it as we need to.

The main thing I would say we need is people to take charge of organising events in their own particular geographical areas, whether it be BBQs in the summer, or drinks at a local pub.. skies the limit really! plant sharing locally would be a great thing to get off the ground as well, but again, is highly geographical.

If there are any big events going on that you think we should have a presence at then let us know and we can see what we can do.  

battling with local fish shops to provide better support for the hobby is going to be an ongoing project, so thats always good.. If your confident, Pets at home are for instance, approachable and depending on the management, can be open to suggestions.  The Poole one down by me is possibly going to let me do a display tank for them and even stock our gear.  Its always worth asking these people, they can only say no.

Nice to see such energy though from everyone  this is whats made us what we are this quickly, and is what'll keep us going long after alot of the other forums/clubs have fallen by the wayside  we should all be very proud of ourselves.


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## ulster exile (15 Oct 2007)

Another forum I belong to offers people the chance to donate a fiver a year to help towards running costs, which I have been happy to pay.  

It can't be easy keeping a site running to a high standard and if I can't yet donate experience etc, I'd be happy to give a little to help where I can.


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## Lozbug (15 Oct 2007)

i'd love to know where the wood is from - i did ask, but all the information i got over the weekend some of it was pushed out again lol (i should write things down!)


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## Dan Crawford (17 Oct 2007)

Hi guys, the merchandising is my area.

What we have discussed in the past has been t-shirts, bumper and window stickers, bespoke tank backgrounds (as on the back of our show tanks) and the aquascaping tool kits.
The t-shirts i have printed and ready for shipping since i had done a load for the festival but we were too busy to get them out abd try and sell them.
I have window stickers alread printed too, some of us already have them plastered all over our cars.



> i'd love to know where the wood is from - i did ask, but all the information i got over the weekend some of it was pushed out again lol (i should write things down!)


The wood we had used is from a company called unipac but they are trade so i doubt they would appreciate public callers. I am meeting with the boss in a couple of weeks to scape his tank along with George and i'm planning to come to some "arrangment" with regards to the wood. Aquaessential.co.uk sell some lovely wood which i have in my tank and would really reccomend.
The rocks George sorted out and they all came from Aquaessetials.co.uk too.
The plants George also sorted out and they came from plants alive.

Things like the stand are very expensive but luckily i'm in a situation to sort all that out, fuel and accomadation we were happy to pay.
If we were to recieve monies it allows us to explore more hightech things like the aquascaping tools and various other things that we have in the pipeline  

T-shirts I would like to charge about Â£7.50 + P&P and it would include a window sticker just for the giggle.




Window and normal stickers would be about Â£3.00




Aquascaping tool kits are still in the early stages and we need to get it right from the off so it may be a while before they are out but you can expect to pay around Â£25

UKaps is not trying to be a profit making business but like it has already been pointed out, doing what we do can be quite costly any monies will help UKaps to further itself.

Any thoughts would be appreciated and if you want to order anything please PM me.


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## Matt Holbrook-Bull (17 Oct 2007)

ok, update on this 

Jimbooo is investigating the processes in declairing ourselves a society, we will have to get all this sorted before anyone buys anything, donates anything bacause of the dreaded tax man.

we hope to have this sorted out soon, Ill keep you updated 

we didnt want to address this issue until we were really up and running and had a need for it, as we didnt want to give people the idea we were after money and wotnots.  weve now reached that time when we can push forward to the next stage.

thanks for all your kind thoughts and intentions  we'll have something sorted soon as


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## Lozbug (17 Oct 2007)

> Aquaessential.co.uk sell some lovely wood which i have in my tank and would really reccomend.
> The rocks George sorted out and they all came from Aquaessetials.co.uk too.
> The plants George also sorted out and they came from plants alive.



Thank you 

my input if you'd like it,  t-shirt cost i would say is very reasonable. and bumper stickers too. i would imagin for what you get in tool kit that is a good price to, as for example the curved scissors fetch Â£10+ alone. 

i'd certainly be up for some purchases  add to my collection of window stickers lol

we able to PM now, or wait for the nod of official-ness?


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## Moss Man (21 Oct 2007)

This all sounds very good, I'd certainly be interested in the scaping tools as well as some stickers.


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## Dan Crawford (22 Oct 2007)

> we able to PM now, or wait for the nod of official-ness?


Cheers guys, i think we should wait till we are sure of the ins and outs of receiving monies. We're not far off now.


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## ulster exile (22 Oct 2007)

A UKAPs callender would be cool, especially if it featured the 12 best tanks/pictures donated by members of this site.


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## Matt Holbrook-Bull (22 Oct 2007)

we have to register with the inland revenue, and open a bank account.. once weve done that were away


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## Lozbug (22 Oct 2007)

ulster exile said:
			
		

> A UKAPs callender would be cool, especially if it featured the 12 best tanks/pictures donated by members of this site.



thats a fantastic idea!!! it's pretty hard to find aquatic related calanders. i'd definatly have one. or two lol


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## Dan Crawford (22 Oct 2007)

> A UKAPs callender would be cool, especially if it featured the 12 best tanks/pictures donated by members of this site.


How weird, i was in focus this afternoon and saw some cat and dog calanders and thought exactly that! great minds hey.......


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## Lozbug (24 Oct 2007)

is there a printable flyer/poster ? i was thinking of printhing one to put up in my lfs?


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## Dan Crawford (24 Oct 2007)

I'll email you one and i'll ask matt to add one to the resorces are of our home page.
Thanks


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## Matt Holbrook-Bull (24 Oct 2007)

cool idea Dan  email me everything and Ill add it to the resources page.. dunno why i didnt think of that already *boggle*

good call Lauren


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## Lozbug (24 Oct 2007)

BigDanne said:
			
		

> I'll email you one and i'll ask matt to add one to the resorces are of our home page.
> Thanks



Thank you


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## nickyc (27 Oct 2007)

was just about to buy an aquascaping kit, so will hold fire if this is coming soon!  the calendar sounds great too.  thanks guys


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## Matt Holbrook-Bull (27 Oct 2007)

when weve got things sorted out  we'll run an ebay shop for bits and bobs.

Im waiting for Dan to sort the scaping kit too hehe Hurry up danny boy!


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## Lozbug (14 Dec 2007)

we have any more news on this ?


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## Dan Crawford (14 Dec 2007)

well, the scaping tools will be posted next week so once we've received them and we know they are ok then maybe we'll be in a position to start selling them.


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## Moss Man (14 Dec 2007)

BigDanne said:
			
		

> well, the scaping tools will be posted next week so once we've received them and we know they are ok then maybe we'll be in a position to start selling them.



Sounds good....[/youtube]


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## Egmel (3 Apr 2008)

This seems to be the only thread about the tool kits, I saw them on the merchandise section of the site but there's no price or info about how to get my grubby little mitts on one 

Are they available or have you sold out already


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## GreenNeedle (3 Apr 2008)

Welcome to Ukaps Egmel.  Someone from admin will answer this tonight but I think they are still trying to source them at a viable price.

Andy


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## Dan Crawford (3 Apr 2008)

Hiya, thanks for your interest. The tools are sourced and samples have been receive and approved. Ive ordered the sets and they are ready, I just need to pay for them. After the doo at the weekend we should have raised enough funds to pay for them! Way hey! No doubt they will be here before the end of the month.
there will be plenty of publicity once they are received.
cheers
Dan


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## John Starkey (3 Apr 2008)

Hi All, i have a set of UKAPS tools, would you like me to bring them at the weekend to the TGM  meet so members can have  a look ,regards john.


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## Dan Crawford (3 Apr 2008)

cheers John. I'm bringing a set and so is Graeme and they are up for sale too!


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## nickyc (3 Apr 2008)

Fantastic news!  Can't wait for mine!


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## LondonDragon (3 Apr 2008)

Dan Crawford said:
			
		

> cheers John. I'm bringing a set and so is Graeme and they are up for sale too!


I saw the tool kit on the main webpage, where can I get them from and how much are they? I was thinking of buying one. thanks


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## Dan Crawford (4 Apr 2008)

They are Â£36 + Â£3 p&p
Once we receive them I'll make it public and then PM me if your interested and i'll give you our paypal details.
Cheers guys
Dan


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## LondonDragon (4 Apr 2008)

Ok thanks


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## beeky (4 Apr 2008)

Are they 'UKAPS' branded?

Has anyone asked TGM if they'll stock them? Probably a bit cheeky really!


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## Egmel (4 Apr 2008)

Excellent, then I shall await further info   8) 

Andy - I've been lurking here quite a while but it took me a while to dangle my feet in the water, nice to get a feel for a forum before you dive in. 

Cheers all for the quick responses.
Helen


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## Dan Crawford (4 Apr 2008)

beeky said:
			
		

> Are they 'UKAPS' branded?
> 
> Has anyone asked TGM if they'll stock them? Probably a bit cheeky really!



The pouch is UKaps branded and TGM have expressed an interest so we'll see how it goes


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## johnny70 (17 Apr 2008)

Do you know yet when you are getting the sets? I'm pretty desperate for some decent ones, but I don't want to be waiting too long if I can help it

JOHNNY


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## Dan Crawford (17 Apr 2008)

Hiya, were still short on funds, i just sold my own set to SteveUK to try and raise more funds so were not too far off. Should only be another couple of weeks fingers crossed!


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## LondonDragon (17 Apr 2008)

I can pre-order a set to help with the funds, let me know where to send the payment.


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## Arana (17 Apr 2008)

LondonDragon said:
			
		

> I can pre-order a set to help with the funds, let me know where to send the payment.



Me too... i'm more than happy to pay up front


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## Steve Smith (18 Apr 2008)

Got my set of Dan the other day.  Not put them into action yet but they are fantastic quality.  Mine didn't have the curved scissors, but it is a sample set.  I believe the next batch will have the curved scissors.  At which point I'll be ordering a set of those too! 

Fantastic quality.  All I can say is they are well worth the money!


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## Egmel (18 Apr 2008)

Arana said:
			
		

> LondonDragon said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Me three


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## Dan Crawford (18 Apr 2008)

Well then folks that sounds like i'll be ordering them then doesn't it, woo hooo!
If you just click on the donate button and bash Â£39.00 (thats Â£36.00 + Â£3.00 P+P) in the account then i'll get them ordered and they should be with me within 10 working days. I'll get them out to you all on the day that i receive them.

Thanks for your support folks, this is what we're all about.

UKaps BABY!


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## LondonDragon (18 Apr 2008)

Donation for the set has been sent


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## Dan Crawford (18 Apr 2008)

Nice one!


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## Arana (18 Apr 2008)

Donation done


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## Dan Crawford (18 Apr 2008)

Thanks mate!


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## Egmel (19 Apr 2008)

Donation made 

Helen


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## aaronnorth (19 Apr 2008)

I made a donation of Â£2, not much but every little helps, i donate a bit more next week   

Wee do the funds go? What do you get in tthe set for Â£39?

Thanks, Aaron


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## Dan Crawford (19 Apr 2008)

Thankyou so much for your donation, like you say every little helps.
the donation goes into promoting the hobby. None if the UKaps founders or admin take anything from the donations. What The money is spent on is allowing UKaps to further the pregression of the planted tank scene throughout the UK. 
At the moment the donations are going towards the aquascapung tools which in turn will fund expenses involved in us attending the festival if fishkeeping and the further development and nurturing of the obsession that we call "planted tanks".


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## Egmel (21 Apr 2008)

Do you want to put a link to this thread from the merchandise page?  Or to be a bit more swish you could just update it with a 'donate' button and a note about donations over Â£38.99 receiving a set     The other idea would be to have a banner ad like the AE one top right which comes up occasionally with info about the set and a link to the merchandise page... unless of course you're trying to keep things manageable for the moment


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## Dan Crawford (21 Apr 2008)

Thats a great idea, cheers.
I think what we'll do is when i actually receive them then we can start looking to really push them. I'm very worried about getting all the advanced order now! I've told the company that i have the funds and they said on Saturday morning "please wait 3 more days" so touch wood i'll pay for them mid week this week and i'll have them here by the end of next week. Woo hoo.
Thanks again to everyone who's donated, we couldn't do it without you!


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## Egmel (21 Apr 2008)

Sounds like you're keeping thing manageable for now... probably for the best 

H.


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## aaronnorth (21 Apr 2008)

You could sell wallpapers or screensavers for a few quid, Only trouble is that you could forward them on. You could also poduce a book about aquascaping and plants etc.


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## Dan Crawford (30 Apr 2008)

Hi Folks, i've just had an email saying it'll be one more week before they can send the tools out so give it a couple of weeks and the tools will be sent to those who have kindly payed in advance. Blimey it feels like this has been dragging of forever


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## LondonDragon (30 Apr 2008)

Thanks for the update Dan, and its not a problem I can wait  Was going to buy a set on ebay but since you guys were doing one might aswell support the site than send my cash to Hong Kong


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## Egmel (30 Apr 2008)

LondonDragon said:
			
		

> Was going to buy a set on ebay but since you guys were doing one might aswell support the site than send my cash to Hong Kong


That was my theory too.  Plus these are 'badged'


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## Steve Smith (30 Apr 2008)

And they're great quality... I can vouch for that


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## Dan Crawford (30 Apr 2008)

Egmel said:
			
		

> That was my theory too.  Plus these are 'badged'


It's all about the UKaps logo folks


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## nickyc (30 Apr 2008)

Thanks for the update Dan!  Waiting is saving me pennies... am waiting for them before I order more plants


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## LondonDragon (1 May 2008)

BTW I didn't even check lol how many tools are in the set? Is it the 5 tool kit or just 3?


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## Egmel (13 May 2008)

Something jogged my memory about these (ok I admit it I was window shopping on AE again   ) any word on them?


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## Dan Crawford (14 May 2008)

An email at 5am this morning after a week of chasing them "It should be ready by the end of this week. Due to some heavy order of different clients, it is delayed. Sorry for inconvenience. Just wait two three more days."
so there you go folks, _in theory_ they should be here buy the end of next week. Apologies for the wait i know some of you have been waiting quite some time.
Cheers
Dan


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## LondonDragon (14 May 2008)

Not a problem Dan, just to recap what I asked before are these the 5 piece kit? didn't even bother to ask before just assumed they were. cheers


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## Dan Crawford (14 May 2008)

Indeed, 5 pieces.
11" tweezers
11" curved tweezers
11" scissors
9" curved scissors
11" bulldozer
Leather look branded case.
Cheers
Dan


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## LondonDragon (14 May 2008)

Thanks Dan, those scissors will come in handy, using a tiny one which is not great at the moment


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## Steve Smith (14 May 2008)

From memory, these have:

Straight scissors
Curved scissors
Straight forceps
Angled forceps (very useful!)
Flat substrate shovel (double ended, small and large end) - This is also sharp enough (not like a knife though) to cut roots through the substrate around established plants.

I'll take a pic of my set tonight if I can, though I don't have the curved scissors as I bought my set off of Dan and they are a pre-release model


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## Dan Crawford (14 May 2008)

There are pics here.

http://www.ukaps.org/merchandise.htm


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## Egmel (14 May 2008)

Dan Crawford said:
			
		

> An email at 5am this morning after a week of chasing them "It should be ready by the end of this week. Due to some heavy order of different clients, it is delayed. Sorry for inconvenience. Just wait two three more days."
> so there you go folks, _in theory_ they should be here buy the end of next week.


It sounds like they're giving you a bit of a run around, any chance of getting them to give you a discount thereby bolstering UKaps funds? 


			
				Dan Crawford said:
			
		

> Apologies for the wait i know some of you have been waiting quite some time.


No worries, you know I'm just waiting on the logo right


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## LondonDragon (14 May 2008)

Egmel said:
			
		

> No worries, you know I'm just waiting on the logo right


Send him a sticker, it will keep him quiet for a while!


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## Egmel (14 May 2008)

LondonDragon said:
			
		

> Send him a sticker, it will keep him quiet for a while!


*her* 

But you do stickers    ..... Only joking, I'll survive until they arrive


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## LondonDragon (14 May 2008)

Egmel said:
			
		

> *her* )


My apologies, difficult to tell from the nick


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## Dan Crawford (14 May 2008)

Yeh i do stickers, window stickers, bumper stickers, big stickers, little stickers all kinds of stickers. a window sticker will be included with all aquascaping kits, as with most stuff that i send out.


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## Steve Smith (14 May 2008)

I have a couple of window stickers, but could I buy a bumper sticker or two to go on my laptop lid?


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## Egmel (14 May 2008)

LondonDragon said:
			
		

> Egmel said:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I know, but having been using it for the last 10 years I'm not about to go changing it now!  The profile photo doesn't exactly help either does it  


			
				Dan Crawford said:
			
		

> Yeh i do stickers, window stickers, bumper stickers, big stickers, little stickers all kinds of stickers. a window sticker will be included with all aquascaping kits, as with most stuff that i send out.


Ooohh, very swish!  Though not sure where I'll put a window sticker as my landlord probably wouldn't appreciate it in my room and I don't have a car...   .... Is the glue fish safe...


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## Dan Crawford (2 Jun 2008)

Good news folks, i've been promised that the tools will be sent out on Thursday or Friday of this week so not long now. I'll keep you updated.
Thanks for your patients.

Dan


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## LondonDragon (2 Jun 2008)

Great news Dan  thanks for the update


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## Egmel (2 Jun 2008)

Dan Crawford said:
			
		

> Good news folks, i've been promised that the tools will be sent out on Thursday or Friday of this week so not long now. I'll keep you updated.
> Thanks for your patients.
> 
> Dan


There is only one word for situations like this... *w00t*...


 ahem, normal service now resumed


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## nickyc (2 Jun 2008)




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## Dan Crawford (23 Jun 2008)

Hey guys, the toolkit is being posted to me today so i recon i'll be posting them next monday, touch wood. I'll keep you all updated   

I'll have 17 kits for sale so PM me if your interested.


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## LondonDragon (23 Jun 2008)

Dan Crawford said:
			
		

> Hey guys, the toolkit is being posted to me today so i recon i'll be posting them next monday, touch wood. I'll keep you all updated
> I'll have 17 kits for sale so PM me if your interested.


Great news, I am in need of mine, prunning with a short scissors and as been a pain! lol so as replating stuff now that its a jungle!


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## Egmel (23 Jun 2008)

Dan Crawford said:
			
		

> Hey guys, the toolkit is being posted to me today so i recon i'll be posting them next monday, touch wood. I'll keep you all updated
> 
> I'll have 17 kits for sale so PM me if your interested.


Excellent, looking forward to them


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## nickyc (24 Jun 2008)

Great news!!!


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