We recently had a silent auction online. It wasn't very successful but thankfully, it was done as a clearinghouse for leftover prize donations from our actual fundraiser. We had dinners, furniture (Ethan Allen) you name it. In fact, Ethan Allen was very generous. If you have one, give them a call!

First off, good luck. This event is so much fun, but it's also lots of work. We made about $12,000 on our first auction (!!), but this also included a live auction. A few tips:

Start by writing letters to every company you can possibly think of, and do this soon. You can request a specific donation (e.g., a hockey puck signed by one of the hockey players) or just a general donation. Get teams of people to help you write and send out the letters. Some will respond quickly, others, it will take a while.

If you don't already, get a team of people to help you. Get someone in charge of signing people in and giving them a bid number (definitely recommend bid numbers, not names), someone on refreshments, someone on the items descriptions, etc. If you can preregister people, all the better. Have a table for signing in, and a table for paying on the way out. Have both staffed during your event -- some people may leave after only an hour if you have a lot of items, and they have purchased what they want.

Keep a running list of all the things you have had donated. Best if you can get these into a booklet at least a few days prior to the auction, in a readable list if nothing else. Try to organize the items by some sort of theme, so it's easy for people to search.

We created donation sheets for every single item. It listed the minimum bid, and the bid increment (best to set a general one for most things, and then change any specifics you may need -- for example, items that were worth $1 - $50, we set a minimum bid of $5, with a bid increment of $5).

If you have a web site, list the donations as you get them. The more people can see what you have, the more excited they get about them.

Make sure you leave room in the actual set up for people to be able to see the item clearly, and the bid sheet that is next to it.

We had each table close at a different time. We gave people a 10 minute, then 5 minute, then 1 minute warning for the tables, then counted down from 10 seconds. It made it fun and exciting, and you should have seen the parents hovering over some of the tables!! We had a couple of Palm Pilots donated (worth about $250 each) and the were almost pushing each other out of the way!!

If I think of anything else, I'll let you know. Good luck!

I would love a copy of the letter and the address. Having an auction is something I think would be of great benefit to our school.

Thank you
StaceyG
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I would love a copy of the letter and also the addresses. The PTO discussed how much money we could earn by having an auction. Also, any recommendations on how to run the auction would also be very helpful.

Hi everyone!!
If you really have some questions about the nuts and bolts I highly recomend taking sometime and doing some research through the PTO ARCHIVES. There even was a gentleman that is an auctioneer that responeded and offered GREAT advise!!

Personnally, our group is waiting for our school's new addition to be completed so we have room to hold such an event! I can't wait!

...thanks for the American Girl info!!!!

We held our first ever Silent Auction last year and it was extremely successful. We established minimum bids for everything and if something didn't meet the minimum bid we didn't sell it. We saved it for the fall carnival raffle.

There were only 2 items that didn't reach the minimum and they were high-dollar donations. One was a $550 watch from a jeweler and one was a handmade oak rocker valued at $800. We rely on our carnival raffle to support the event so we can keep game and food prices (10 cents to 25 cents) low for our families. Adding these to the raffle seemingly helped because we sold more raffle tickets than ever in our history this year.

Each classroom created a theme basket. The most popular baskets were art related. They were large baskets (PTO provided the baskets) crammed full of sketch pads, watercolors, oil pastels, crayons, markers, charcoal, etc., etc., etc. They went for anywhere from $90 to $150 each.

Another big money maker came from the administrators and PE teachers. The principal and assistant principal each donated a lunch and movie date with themselves. The PE teachers organized a baseball game for the buyer and 10-12 friends followed by a tailgate party. The buyers and their friends are still talking about this and anticipating the next one.

As far as community donations a limousine service donated a lunch time service which we supplemented with a $25 donation of gift certificates from Ruby Tuesdays. Ski packages from 2 local resorts went well as well as a watercolor from a local artist that has a great deal of name recognition. We used these things as our big advertising draws too.

Good luck! With a couple of really good organizers I think you'll be pleased with the outcome of your efforts!