I'll quickly speak to your question about silent auction sheets: we avoided that problem by having runners, red sharpie pen in hand, circle the winning bid at the moment the bidding was closed, BEFORE the sheets are removed from the table. We also have a secondary sheet that stays on the table by the item. When the runner pulls the bid sheet, she also writes the winning bidder's number and bid amount on the secondary sheet so the bidders can see what they've "won". Only takes a second, but having lots of runners is a plus.
Sadly, there's always someone out to make the system work in their favor unfairly. I saw one of my best friends put a bid down on an item she was stalking after the bidding was closed but before the runner could get there. Give me a break!
Questions, do you physically walk down and hand over the items to bidders in the audience AS SOON AS THEY WIN THE BID ?? Or are the items placed off to the side for picking up when PAYING FOR IT ?? Have you experienced problems with wrong bidder numbers on bid tickets and/or price being wrong (according to bidder)?? How did you handle errors and correct this for future auctions ?(no, we did not have a professional auctioneer company do it) On our silent auction, we were accused of adding a bid on one of our items after the papers were picked up. I was one of 4 people whose hands were on these tickets from table to room where last bidder was highlighted, sheets tallied,and bid tickets written out and then filed in bidder cubbies. I can assure you NO ONE DID THIS !! Does this happen often ?
Thanks for any answers you will share.
