Cindy,

Wow, how did you score those kinds of prizes????
Where do you live?
Can I come to your auction?... [img]smile.gif[/img]

I would definitely run those types of prizes separately, either separate tickets or silent auction. I think silent auction with minimum bid would be best. Like Moomduck says above, even if you sell them for $5, you still don't make that much.

Remember, though, if you run a silent auction in addition to a chinese auction, you must amend your gambling license accordingly. Check with the gambling commission in your area.

When we do our Tricky Tray (Chinese Auction) we sell 4 different sets of tickets. Prizes are grouped small, medium, large, & grand according to their price value and tickets are sold at different prices for each group. Honestly, all the Tricky Tray/Chinese Auctions I have ever attended for any organization have been done this way. For example: Small prizes are anything valued up to $25, medium prizes are anything valued from $26 - $75, Large prizes are anything valued from $76-$125 and grand prizes are anything valued from $126 and up.

If you don't want to do a live auction, then I would charge more for the tickets for those items. $5 minimum per ticket and that might even be too cheap. You'd need to sell at least 100 to bring in $500.

At our school we normally do our auction as a Chinese Auction just parents putting in tickets.

Well this year I sent out a ton of letters compared to last. We received several large donations which we don't usually get.
How would you auction these if we did it the like the Chinese Auction I dont think they would generate as much as they could. Any suggestions?

The one items is a cruise for two and the other is a family ski package.

Cindy