Like JHB, we group small items together. We might put 5 $10 cards together and make it a "No Cooking for a Week" package.

Last year we put a limo ride, a $25 dinner, a dozen roses and a box of chocolate together for "A Night to Remember" package.

We get a lot of beauty supplies that we group together as well. We try to limit the number of items to about 125. Anymore than that seems to bring the total box down.

We also do not accept credit cards, but our auctions usually bring in at least $3000.

Not only do we set a minimum bid, things can only be upped by a least $1. We have had a few things that had to be upped $5 at a time.

JHB, I'm not trying to hyjack the discussion, but I just had exactly what you just mentioned happen. It could be a very touchy situation.

A parent at our school owns a karate school and donated some certificates for one month of Karate lessons, but you have to have the uniform. The uniform wasn't included. We're trying to tiptoe around and find a way to use these without upsetting the donor or making the bidder feel ripped off.

Our idea is to use 1-2 in a fitness basket, then auction the rest as a group with a note explaining how much more the uniform will cost.

Does anyone have a better idea? We have to use these items because we don't want to alienate this parent. She does a ton for the school including a 6 week discounted karate program after school.

They give out vouchers for 2 weeks free including the uniform all the time, so we were surprized to get these.

Help?

blue67ccm, we are doing our first auction this year. Obviously, I can't tell you how well we'll sell things. But I have more leads for donations than I have time to chase down - I have a baby.

I have an 80% donation rate or better. That may change as we get farther from the school, but so far we've had a warm reception. King Soopers gave us a gift card on the spot. It took only 3 minutes to get that donation. If only they were all that easy.

[ 02-18-2004, 11:33 AM: Message edited by: nonsequitur ]

Yes, we always set minimum bids - although modest ones, not a percentage.

No - we never went to the trouble of accepting credit cards.

Yes - they were successful. Of course it varies with the economy. Mostly we auction the class baskets, but our event committee recruits other items, too. We found the first year that too much effort went into very small items. ($10 gift certificate to a restaraunt, free appetizer). Some of these are okay - but we had too many small certificate items and didn't even get bids on all of them. We found it was better to cluster these into packages rather than have 30 or 40 tiny items. Also, the thing that worked least was when it was a discount coupon (i.e., 40% off a hotel night). People really want to buy things outright.

I haven't done one, but I've been to a couple. Every one I have been to has set a minimum for each item; the increments are then set at a certain percentage of the minimum. For example, if you have an item worth $100, you might set the minimum at 40% ($40), then make each increment 10% of the minimum, so you're going up by at least $4 each time. Generally, the minimums have been set at a certain standard percentage of the FMV (I've seen 25%-60%) for every item; the minimums might get slashed if the items aren't moving after a certain period of time.

One school that didn't want to get set up for credit cards used the merchant account of a parent's business. That parent brought in all the machines and everything, and the receipts were stamped from her business. I suspect that may violate the merchant agreement, but maybe not--it's worth looking into.

A couple of questions for the braintrust:

1) If you have done a silent auction as a fundraiser, did you set minimum bids?

2) Did you pay the fee to set up so you could accept credit cards?

3) Were the auctions successful?

Thanks!!