I applied to shuuterly myself last week and received a yes within a day. On a side note, we made books of the children that we sold as a "sign up" and sold them at the cost on the site. Shutter fly gave us a discount and free shipping and we made around $1k for the difference.
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20-page 8x8 photo book (hard cover)
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Before opting for Maestro, have you considered other affordable, easier-to-use options?
There are many companies who sell software into the charity auction arena (I know most all of them.), and when you start to get into the nitty gritty, they vary dramatically.
I encourage you to visit www.schoolauction.net/ . Roger is their sales/marketing guy ... he's also been active in this post providing content. He will take you on a tour.
There are a handful of companies I recommend and I can tell you from experience that of my clients who have opted for Roger, they've been delighted. One recently wrote to me after her event to thank me for the recommendation.
Another idea - call / email your local AIA group and see if the group knows of a local architect will donate their time to sketching the winner's house from a picture. I am waiting on a final decision on my request.
Our event was last night and I am exhausted. But when I get the time, I will total up the event and what this message board helped me obtain - I can definitely say it was substantial, and all of your input helped to make our event 'unique' and not just another 'groundhog day' movie!
regarding signed posters - we would copy and paste the poster image from the author's website, give the dimensions and hold the actual poster at check out. I love the idea of including the book. I should have done that for Jan Brett's 'The Three Dassies" and if we do this next year, I am getting volunteers for each category and having someone work specifically on children's book authors and other authors - what a great market!
we put a minimum bid of $90 on the Pearl Paradise necklace and it sold for a little higher I think, but not that much more - I will have to check our original bid sheet.
Does anyone out there use a software program called Maestro Auction pro? If we do this next year or the following, I am going to absolutely suggest that we look into a software program because my spreadsheet was almost unmanageable at the end with almost 300 items.
I will say - I think the economy had a definite effect on us more this year than last. We had fewer items last year, but overall, I think the ratios are going to be off - for what we had this year, people were walking away with steals - and part of it is because we are fishing from a small pond - our event location is the school gym and we have parents, relatives, friends but we do not encourage the general public. If I have my way and we do this for a 3rd time we MUST go off school property - our location just barely held everything and our 270+, almost 300 attendees. The attendance was probably almost 80 to 90 more than last year, but again, I think the current state of the economy is hitting our particular population hard. Not all, but a lot. That's why I think it's important to get community investment - there are people who will pay for the things we offered.
I'll follow up with the group once I look over the bid sheets and ending bids and will be happy to update the group as to my findings for us. Thanks again to everyone for such awesome input!
@Ninalynd
Dick's Sporting Goods -I received a $20 gift certificate and coupons-Just came inmail no notice
Subway -Got a No
Carvel -Received 2x$4.00 coupons-No notice just in the mail
Build A Bear-Received 2x$5 bear bucks-Just came in mail
Hershey's-Got a no from all Hershey places
Most companies donation just come very rarely did i get a notice of what is being sent.
I'm losing hope that Airtran is a yes:(...No response I sent request in 2/3 and our event is 4/2.
