We had much better luck selling higher ticket items towards the end of our live auction. At the beginning, people are still feeling shy and uncertain. One year, at the beginning, we auctioned off grab bags, guaranteed to be worth at leas $50, but otherwise a surprise. It got everything going. And it may be sexist, but we've noticed that our high bidders are almost always the men. So, now items are worded to appeal and/or saved til the middle or end for them.
This question is really "Six of One & Half Dozen of the Other". Some like to have the higher price items in the beginning, others want them near the end. The ones who sell the higher items early in the auction tend to think that the early "higher" priced items will set the tone for the overall auction
From my own perspective, I like to spread the higher priced items throughout the auction in order to keep the excitement level up throughout the entire auction.
Now if you have 2-3 vacation packages of nearly the same value, you might try this --- put both up for bid at the same time, and offer the High Bidder their choice, then offer the next highest bidder the opportunity to buy the other one at the same price. The idea for this is that the bidder’s do not know which item the other bidder is bidding on, so this tends to drive up the price for the first choice, and sometimes, the 2nd bidder is so glad that the first bidder did not take the item the 2nd bidder wanted, they are glad to pay the high bid price for their choice also…which usually means you will have a higher total for the two items combined.
Wondering if in peoples experience they might recommend how to order items for a live auction. One of our items is a trip to NAPA Valley (from NE) do I start out with this item since it is higher priced so that people who may want to bid on it will know right away whether they get it and if they don't get it will than bid on other items that they might not have if I saved the bigger ticket items 'til last?? Sorry difficult question to word in writing.
