Silent Auction

[loopyloo87]

Hi , sorry if I've posted in the wrong place
I've got to set up a silent Auction stall at our primary school
I've never worked on one before could anyone tell me how to set up and how it works please ? I feel a bit of a plum asking at school although I'm sure I'll get instructions on the day

I think you need to ask them what they expect you to do.

You need to know if it is an auction of items, or promises, of skills.
You need to know if it is only people in the room that can bid, or if you can circulate a list first, so people who can't come to the 'do' can send in a 'bid' for an item.
You need to know if people are allowed to put a 'reserve' on an item (ie, 'If it raises more than £40 for the school then I will donate a service for your car' but they don't have to do a service if the highest bid is a tenner.
You need to know if everyone can see the latest bid, and therefore go back and bid a bit more, or if it's a 'sealed offer' type thing which I don't think works so well.

DH is running a sealed bids auction for a club he helps with.
His main challenge is just drumming up awareness of the items. They decided not to bother with Ebay.

(Isn't house-buying in Scotland all closed bidding? Doesn't it work ok there?)

Setting a reserve is a good idea!

As above the best ones are where you can see previous high bids so people can outbid each other. I went to one where the bids were projected continuously onto a screen so people could see and go back etc. Alternatively put a clip board with a sheet for each item. Make it clear when bids are to close. I hope you are not having to source all the prizes as that is the pita part!

Oh my, it sounds great fun but I need to find out more details
Thankyou for your replies

I've done this. Each item had a piece of paper with it and at the top it told you the increments. To stop people bidding 1p more. At the end, you yell out a minute to go or whatever and then you snatch all the papers up. Recruit your friends for that bit!

We were able to offer companies a certain number of mentions on the back page of our school newsletter to encourage donations.

I have seen the one which is run at our school ball. The items were advertised when the tickets were sent out (those that had already been pledged). On the night the final list was placed on every table and reminders put out via the pa. Bidding was done at a separate table where the amount of the latest bid was displayed for each item. No names though! You bid more if you wanted to. At the end of the night, the organisers announced the highest bids and who had placed them. This has the advantage of bids being competitive which if you do it table by table, they are not.

Having seen a standard auction at a ball, some macho men were ultra competitive to show off! Not pleasant. Silent auctions are much better but the items being auctioned need to be worthwhile and people do need reminders to bid.