This is so great! We've done similar, but only got about $100 for a signed football. I think a helmet would have definitely brought in more. We also did ball boy/girl experiences for football, baseball and basketball.

We are a small private school of roughly 400 students in K-3 through 12th grade. This past March was our most successful auction to date. We brought in right at $35,000. I contribute most of our success to the wonderful tips and tricks I have learned from this amazing website and it's wonderful members who are always willing to share their experience and knowledge. Thank you so much for sharing!

After learning so much I finally have something to share with you. Last winter I was in the Head Football Coach's classroom when I noticed some school football helmets that were signed by past teams. Having 3 boys in the Football Program I thought now that would be a great piece of memorabilia to have for my boys. I mentioned the idea of a team autographed football helmet for the Auction to our Athletic Dept Head and he told me every year the helmets are sent off for reconditioning and every year there are always a few that are no longer safe to use. He checked with the head coach and sure enough they had 2 helmets I could use for the Auction. I used one helmet for the JV team and one helmet for the Varsity team. Our colors are Royal blue and gold, the helmets were royal blue so I used a gold Sharpie and had all the Coaches sign the helmets first (JV Coaches for JV and Varsity Coaches for Varsity). Next I made some guidelines for the football players, they were not to sign on top of the Logo or on anyone else's signature, they were not to sign their name BIG, everyone needed to be able to fit their signature on the helmet and last they were only allowed to sign their name on the helmet, NOT the face guard or the chin strap. I made a list of the players and checked them off as they signed to be sure everyone had signed the helmets.

We highlighted the Autographed Helmets for our Live Auction both on our fliers and our website and they were a huge hit! The helmets made the perfect rare personal auction item; it's not like you can just go to any sporting goods store and buy your High School football helmet. The helmets were unique and the final bid reflected that; the JV helmet sold for $870 and the Varsity helmet sold for $1,000! This was basically free money because the helmets had been paid for years ago all it really cost was a gold Sharpie and time. We took something that wasn't usable and turned it into Auction Gold, now that's how you recycle!