Thanks! I like the idea at starting at 1/3 of the value. I think that will get more people involved. Although we are predominantly a low income school, our first silent auction (last year) made $400, which is nothing for us to sneeze at. This auction, as well as the carnival on the same night, is how many of our families give money to the school, so it is well worth doing.
Depending on the value of the item, we have always started the starting bid at 1/3 of the cost.
With gift certificates, we usually start a $10.00 gift certificate at $5.00, a $25.00 gift certificate at $15.00 and a $50.00 gift certificate at $25.00. We have found that the GC usually go for more than the face value!
If we have a big ticket item worth $100 or more, we usually start at 1/2.
We have also state on the bid sheets that bid increments must be $1.00 or more.
One more thing, we also group a bunch of the GC together to make a package. If the grouping is around $100 make sure you start your bidding at 1/2 its value.
Though I have never done this for a school, I did work a silent auction for another organization. I believe the coordinator put at least 50% of what she thought it was worth. We have a similar population to you and have never been able to get the best response to this type of auction unless we held it outside of your school where people other than our population would be in attendance.
The irony of commitment is that it’s deeply liberating-in work, in play, in love. The act frees you from the tyranny of your internal critic, from the fear that likes to dress itself up and parade around as rational hesitation. To commit is to remove your head as the barrier to your life. --Anne Morris
For those of you who have held silent auctions, how do you decide upon the minimum bid? We are having ours in a few weeks and I am trying to get as much ready in advance as possible. I have seen the figure 50% of the estimated value, but I think that might be too high.We have about 80% low income families at our school.
