I love the idea of the "Pick of the Basket". How much did you sell the raffle tickets for? Did you allow people to buy tickets if they were not going to be at the event?
Our school does something similar to Critter's suggestion of raffling one of the baskets. We call it "Pick of the Baskets" Whoever wins the raffle gets their pick of one of the baskets, before we start the auction. This is a BIG hit! Our auction is done by an auctioneer, rather than silently, which really adds to the excitement. We have a local auctioneer who donates his services. Last year our best selling basket went for $800.
thats a good idea, the board thing I figure I will announce the last 30 min. or so to keep people going.
Thank you for all of your input it has given me a great tool to work with.
Now I just pray for sun, with as crazy as the weather has been. But in the forecast it shows SUN [img]smile.gif[/img] [img]smile.gif[/img]
I would announce the Auction Winners at the end while they are still there. It's one less you'll have to take home or worry about. For those whose are not there, call later.
I always post a board so if they are outside or something they can always come in and check as well to see if they won.
Thank you for the other ideas, they are great food for thought, the auction is being held during the day, I have quite a few volunteers watching this area.
Should I hold a certain time to give the winners there baskets or wait until its over and call them??
On our class baskets, each one is clearly label with the Teacher's name, theme, and grade. Plus there's a festively typed inventory of the contents attached. Some years, each teacher does this for us. Some years the basket wrapping volunteers do it.
A couple logistics...
1) Use pens, not pencils.
2) Lots of adult monitors
3) If your auction will be at night, be sure to view the space in advance at night - all the little nooks and crannies. How dark is it? Will the people be able to READ the bid sheets? (We had to bring in some floor lamps.)
4) If you get a LOT of donations for one basket, think about breaking it up into 2 or even 3 smaller baskets. We always had generous donations on candles and bath/beauty - which were also popular sellers. But does anyone really need 30 candles or a lifetime supply of bubblebath? We still kept the sizes generous, but not jumbo!
