How a silent auction works
Each item sits on a table with a sheet of paper beside it. Guests walk round and write their name and a bid on the sheet, each one higher than the last. When the organiser calls time, the last name on each sheet wins. It needs no auctioneer, it runs alongside a dinner or a school fair, and it works with ten items or two hundred.
Setting the starting bid and the raise
A common rule of thumb is to start at 30 to 40 percent of what the item is worth and to ask for raises of about 10 percent of the starting bid. Start too high and the sheet stays empty; start too low and it takes all night to reach a fair price. The “Suggest prices” button applies this rule to every item that has a value, and you can change any figure afterwards. A buy-it-now price, usually 150 percent of the value or more, lets one keen guest end the bidding at once.
Pre-printed amounts or blank lines?
Sheets with the amounts already printed down the side are quicker for guests: they only write a name next to the next free amount, and nobody has to do sums or argue about whether a raise was big enough. Blank lines let people jump ahead with a big bid. Both layouts are here.
Common questions
Do guests need bidder numbers? For a small event names are fine. With more than about forty guests, numbers keep bids private and make checkout faster. Register guests on the Bidders tab, print the number cards, and hand one to each guest at the door.
How do I close the auction? Collect the sheets, open the Results tab and type the last bid and bidder for each lot. You get a total raised and a statement for each winner to settle at the desk.
Does this take payments? No. It records who has paid so you can tick people off. Take the money the way your organisation normally does.