Thanks, Sherry. Our event is always in March and it's always raffle baskets. Biggest issue would be finding a donor to donate snow plow services!! Do you have a regular blog..what's the site/address?

Sherry,

I follow everything you write. I would LOVE your professional opinion on the above few posts of how to handle "coupon"-type donations of percentages off or a small amount off a costlier service or outing.

Fundraiser Mom -- Yes, snow plowing will sell in an auction. Earlier this week I published a blog post sharing results about a sale of that very item in Wisconsin two years ago. I don't know how well it would sell if your auction is in July, but it sells well when the auction is in winter. So do generators, for that matter. Good luck! Sherry

Suzie,

I think you made a great call on the "coupons" based on your circumstances. You were able to sell a few and made some money on items that wouldn't have been used. Next time, you could try to set the prices even lower to try to entice more people to buy. Our event is a tricky tray so we would put these types of items in our lowest tier ($5 for a sheet of 25).

We ended up with a lot of what we considered “coupons” at our auction last fall. We are a church who does not allow gambling, so no tricky tray, raffle, etc. The auction committee went back and forth for a long time as to what to do with these. We didn’t want to just put them in a basket with similar items because we thought it could be a waste if the person didn’t specifically want it, plus we also didn’t want the person thinking they were paying to get this item.

Also, because most of these places donated 3-20 of each of the items, I couldn’t have an auction sheet for 20 of the same item times a dozen places who donated these “coupons”.

What we finally came up with was a buy it now section. We put a very low price on the item, made a stack of “buy it now” sheets stapled together for as many of these per business that we had, and had signage stating to pull the top sheet and take it to checkout, no need to bid, just pay the amount listed. We thought it was a great idea and our best solution.

However, we sold close to none of these. I don’t know if it ended up being confusing to people (we stood around to explain it if there were questions), or if people just didn’t desire the item, or if there were too many baskets to bid on that there wasn’t time to spend trying to understand this section. The committee isn’t sure we will do this again, but we needed to try it to see how it worked.

Examples of what we had were:
• 3 - $25 off a facial or massage at a spa (their services started at $75, we sold two of these for $10)
• 20 – coupon for a free complete photo session and an 8x10 portrait from Glamour Shots (and I should say our auction was mid November, right during Christmas card picture season, so I thought this would have sold out. We listed them for $20 and sold only ONE)
• 12 – Sticks and Stones certificates, $50 off your purchase (we saw this as a “coupon” because their items started at around $300). We sold 3 at $10.
• $25 off your daughter’s birthday party at a girly spa for teen and younger. Parties started at $200, we had five of these, attempted to sell this for $5, didn’t sell any
• $100 off spring or summer baseball camp – We had 3 listed for $10 each, didn’t sell any
• “Adventure package for 6 people” … a paintball place donated general admission and rental, valued at $180. But you had to purchase the paintballs from them (you couldn’t bring your own). We had 5 of these listed for $20, didn’t sell any.
• $500 off a professional photography session with one wall portrait included. This place was very upscale and charged around $1,500. We had 3 coupons listed for $15, didn’t sell any.

Not sure what we did wrong! Because the silent auction had 200 baskets and only 8 without bids, we know that part went well.

Thanks,
Suzie

I don't think that it would really be considered a "coupon." It would be the same as if you were given a gift certificate to a store where all the merchandise is more expensive than the gift certificate. Also I don't think there is a law against selling coupons as long as it is not written on the coupon that it would be voided if sold. Why would a company donate it if they don't want you to auction it?

As for the bid sheets, I would put the opening bid much lower than what you would typically start with because you would have to take into account what the person would be paying for the item. An example would be you might only get $10 for the balloon ride since the winner would already have to pay $200.

As for using it as just a throw in or goody bag item, I think you would be wasting a good prize since the winner might not even be interested in it. If you don't think anyone would bid on it at all maybe you could consider using it as raffle item. That way you ensure that the person who won it would actually be interested in using it. I do think that lesser value "coupons" make great door prize or goody bag items, just that $100 off is too good to just give away.