At the PTOToday conference in Chicago yesterday, Tim made a great point about silent auctions and classroom baskets (or artwork made by the students). When you offer those sorts of items only by silent auction, only the "rich" parents will end up winning. The bidding can go quite high on these kinds of items, quickly leaving "less rich" parents in the dust.

His suggestion was to offer some of the items as raffle only. For $1, you buy a ticket for a chance on winning a specific basket/artwork. That way, everyone has a chance, even the family who can't afford to get in on the silent bidding. An idea to consider, perhaps.

thats a great idea, i was worried about that to, how the increments should go. definetly $1.00 increments.

Thank You, Thank You

Our last silent auction you could increase the bid in increments of dollars and it had to be increased at least by $1.00 This kept people from uping the bid by .01.

Hello Again. Also, remember if this is for an Elementary School it is a "FUN"draisier. If I would have had my Hotel go for what is was worth, it should have gone for over $250.00. Instead, I got $25.00. It hurt, trust me.

Remember too, that everything was donated. So, whatever you make is yours.

Have someone watch the bid sheets. People have a tendency to bid LOWER then the person who just bid because they are looking at the starting bid.

You'll have a GREAT time. Just relax and enjoy.
Let me know how it turns out.
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Gracee

I agree 20% above is what we will have to do, but some are fuller than others what about them.

The bid sheet needs to include the company/ class name, the dollar value, have a starting bid (at least 20 percent) and a bid increment. You should allow a place for their name/ phone number and bid amount

For class baskets you should have a detailed list of each item attached to each basket. We do ours in themes to match the basket.