DPPTO, another angle on the principal for a day only offer one...then when price reaches the final bid...offer #2 to back up bidder at same price...then offer #3 & 4 to anyone else...this way you maximixe the bids instead of smaller bids for #2-4.
We just had our Live and Silent Auctions this weekend. We made $19,000 at the live and $5,400 at the silent. The one thing that went over big was our principal donated 4 "Day with the Principal". They went for around $500. Also, the autographed items went over well too.
Hopetohelp- I just wanted to add a couple of things. We always invite groups from surrounding schools and organizations that normally would not attend our event(ie jump rope team from another elementary, dance class from next town over, etc.) this will bring more people in that will be eating and bidding.
Norman- We just had our auction on our theme baskets and this year we took pre-bids then went to live auction at a certain time. We just started the auction with the highest pre-bid. We made an extra 1100.00 dollars doing it this way.
Silent Auctions do work....and theme baskets work well too. I have seen theme baskets prices range from $150 up to over $1500 (those were really 2-3 really big baskets?) The success of a silent auction is dependent on having bidders hang around until the end...which at a pancake breakfast could be what? 2 hours? Like all auctions, it's the high bid that wins, so with a silent auction, if you can hold the bidders around to the last minute, you will achieve good results. If they eat and leave, it will not be as successful. The key here is to plan your event so that they do not leave. Perhaps some student activities/performances so no one leaves?
On the other hand, the live auction....the item is sold to the highest bidder straight out.
Norman - Our school's recent fall catalogue sale fell short of the budget by $5000. The PTO is now considering adding another fundraiser. Pancake Breakfast and Silent Auction. We are considering the themed basket idea we got from this site (each class picks a theme and builds the basket with donations from their class parents).
My question is: Do we continue with a silent auction or do we consider a different avenue?
After reading some of the other forum posts, I'd like to add some thoughts for your auction event consideration.
First - I believe the auction event is a "social event" for parents to get out, meet & great each other and have a fun evening.
Second - when they come to an auction event....they come with money in their pocket to buy...but like estate auctions...they come looking for bargains or a special thing like a "teacher special outing/trip etc.
Live Auction vs. Silent - my experience has shown that live auctions will bring a higher dollar than a silent auction. One school gave me feedback that their live auction averaged 60% of est. value vs. 40% for silent auction. Think about it, the live auction has EVERYONES attention, the Silent Auction is only to the ones who see the item up for bid.
One would think tha you should have everything as a live auction then? I say, no not neccessarily, unless you want to sell 100+ items at a really fast pace similar to an estate auction, selling 120 plus items an hour...which will detract from the "social event" atmosphere.
I would recommend limiting the live auction to about 20-30 items, at a slower auction pace of about 1 to 1 1/2 hrs for these items...with the higher value items, which allows you to maintain the "social atmosphere".
I monitor the auction issues posts and try to respond to other auction issues...so post your auction questions and I'll ry to help out to make your auction events to the best of my ability.
Norman O'Neal
Professional Auctioneer
Frederick, MD
