Club auction questions. Need advice.

Well there are a few things you can do and I will try to answer each one as best I can.

1. We need an auctioneer. What is the going rate to hire one? We'll have members helping out but to look a bit more "professional", an auctioneer would be great.

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Don't hire one... find one of your more out going members that is willing to do this for you. I would bet that a professional auctioneer would be expensive and more than unecessary. Furthermore if you do hire one all the proceeds of your auction will go to pay them and not the club, counter-productive to why you are holding an auction... correct?

2. Methods of advertising. We have already thought of fliers, our site, and word of mouth. Fliers will be at most of the LFS's. Newspaper ad is just way too expensive around here so that is probably out. Do you have any other suggestions?

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You have mentioned the bigger three. Have you also thought of notifying all the local aquatic societies around your club? They may have members that might be willing to travel. Furthermore you will need to bait them. So let out a partial list of what is up for sale in your auction. Sometimes the right fish will bring them out. When notifying them of your auction be sure to mention a quid pro quo on the notices. They will be more willing to assist advertising yours if you agree to advertise theirs. Furthermore have you thought of advertising in the Aquarium magazines? I am not sure if they charge for the classified at the back but there are a number of them and they are read buy quite a few hobbiests.

3. Sponsors/LFS. Have you seen any type of sponsors or LFS being incorporated into an auction? Maybe have their own table? How did this work? Any examples are greatly appreciated.

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Many LFS are willing to assist with auction by means of donating fish or plants. Just don't expect them to donate anything rare or exotic. I do know that one of the LFS in my area frequently donates food to the society which we give away at meetings to all paid members in attendance. Furthermore offering them a table to display their wares and make some sales is effective advertising for them as well as assists them in recouping the cost of the donated fish. If they are unwilling to donate anything to the auction I would charge them a table rental.

4. Odds and ends. What are some other things we should have on hand that we may have overlooked? We are currently doing priority stickers, extras bags, extra water, extra boxes, runners, help carrying big items, rules, and food. Anything we missed that would help boost the performance of the auction?

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You will need a cash float to help make change with and someone to man that table. Ask your treasurer as you already trust them with the money of your society. If you can also have a cylinder of O2 on hand for those people that are attending and have a long trip home. Make sure you also have a supply of water treatment liquid as sometimes bags break and they need to be transferred to another bag. The treatment will help with the stress of the fish. Lastly don't forget to have membership forms on hand and someone to answer question of any prospective new members. Auctions can be a good source of memberships.

Couple of last things. Have you decided how you will charge people for their submissions into the auction? Percentage of sale or flat fee? Also when (and if) you get to sales of donated items be sure to pump the store or individual that donated the item. i.e. "This great specimin of a (enter fish/plant name here) was donated by XYZ Fish Store and the proceeds will be going towards covering the expenses of this auction and our annual expenses. We thank XYZ for their generous donation. Now who would like to start the bidding off at......

Lastly.... and just thought of this... check with your LFS's and ask if they could contact the local supplier reps for sample packs. Or better yet contact the distributors themselves and ask if they have the little sample bottles that you can use as a giveaway. Create a grab bag for anyone that is a successful auction winnter or joins or renews their membership. Remember auctions are great things and can be done many different ways. You can have the live auction that you are currently proposing, a silent auction where all the items are laid out on a table for people to see and there are sheets in front of them for people to bid as they choose and lastly there is the chinese auction that is a bit more fun. You start the bidding out at say a quarter and keep collecting it at that level for 20 bids, then you raise it to 50 cents for 20 more bids, after that it is then a $1, then $2, then $5, etc. The person who was the last bidder wins the item. The trick with this is that when each person bids they actually have to pay what they are bidding. This is one of the best fundraising ideas and can raise hundreds of dollars for the right items in it. So after you have gone through the $0.25 stage you will have raised $5.00, after the $0.50 stage you will have raised $15.00 etc. You need assistants for this type of bidding as you have to collect the money after each bid. The winner of the auction is the last bidder for the item when you can solicit no more bids from the audience. Again this type of auction is great for fundraising for donated items.

You mentioned some of this already but...

Unless you expect a very large attendance, allow donors to set minimum bids. If bag X doesn't reach $5 then No Sale! You may have some upset donors if they're not getting at least a little money.

Make sure you have runners to deliver the goods to the bidders and fill out tickets which will need to be payed at the auction close. You don't want to be dealing with exchanging money during the actual auction. Just like a regular auction, give numbers to bidders (they show ID) then have them sign a ticket when they win an auction. They pay when they leave.

Sell some soft drinks and burgers/dogs to generate a little extra revenue.

Sell the right to allow donors to place their goods before others. For example, a donor may purchase a special sticker that would allow them to get their goods auctioned off at the beginning. For only a dollar more, Johnny can have his bag of X auctioned off before all of the others.

Contact AGA for some goodies.

Use the auction time to sell new memberships to your club/website/etc...

Buy a case of breather bags with club money at wholesale and sell 25,50,100,200 ct. packs of them to attendants.

Go to my website... Aquarium Elements and sign up on the forum. Then make a posting about the auction in the 'Club Announcements' area. Make a few more posts while you're at it Help support a fellow PT member like I'm doing here.

Remind bidders to bring coolers with them to store ther won items. Also tell them to bring any reference material they need. ie. AquaLog, Baensch Atlas, Kasselmann and Walstad plant books, etc...

Absolutely get some sponsors. Ask your LFS if they'd like to donate a few gift certificates (if they're smart, they'll donate gift certs so that the winners actually have to go to their store to redeem them) and you'll place a bunch of their business cards around the auction and recommend them to attendees.

If there are clubs in any cities near by, ask them to help you advertise on their sites in exchange for you doing the same for them in the future.

If you have website banners through banner exchanges on other sites, change them to reflect the coming Auction. They can be changed back afterwards. People get used to seeing the same banners day after day but if you change it to read "CLUB X 2007 Mega Auction" it'll catch their eye and they'll more likely click and see your info.

Sell raffle tickets for something.

Ok, I'm done.