Question: Bidding etiquette

We are trying to think of a way to not see/know who the most recent bidder is at our silent auction. some people are so polite if they see their friends name there they won't bid higher. Assigning #'s is way to complicated for check out - anyone have some good bid sheet ideas out there that might help to accomplish this?

Asked by bb110565

Answers:

Community Advice

rm9116 writes:
We found numbers to be way easier than any other method. When people arrive, they are issued a number by our greeters. We write down name and contact info, and then put their number inside the auction program. At the end of the night, we have file folders set up by number and put winning bid slips into the appropriate folders. At checkout, we pull their folder and add up their winnings. It's made everything much faster all the way around, and no longer do we have the "can't bid because my friend is currently winning" problem.

Community Advice

rtye writes:
I'm a fan of placing name/bid in a ballot box. Our PTO fund raisers have these lists where everyone can see what others bid. What we have seen happen is that the organizers themselves, who stand watch during the auction, keep bidding on an item they want. This has resulted in them winning at least two highly coveted items. Everyone should be able to bid, including the fundraisers themselves, but it should be truly done without people seeing the last bid. If parameters are set up, e.g., minimum bid, minimum bid increments, there shouldn't be a problem.