Two numbers on every item decide most of what happens on auction night: where bidding starts and how much each new bid has to beat the last one. Get them right and items climb steadily. Get them wrong and you end up with a table full of items nobody touched, or a closing minute where people raise each other by a dollar at a time.
What should the starting bid be on a silent auction item?
Start most items at 30% to 50% of their fair market value. That is low enough that someone places the first bid early, and the first bid matters more than any other: an item with one bid on it attracts a second far more easily than an item with none.
Go toward the low end for items where the value is obvious and easy to compare, like gift cards. Go toward the high end for one-of-a-kind items, where there is no store price to anchor against and bidders tend to push past value anyway.
What bid increment should you use?
A good increment is roughly 10% of the starting bid, rounded to a number people can add in their heads:
- Items starting under $50: $5
- Items starting between $50 and $200: $10
- Items starting between $200 and $500: $25
- Items starting above $500: $50 or more
Too small an increment on a big item makes the close a tapping contest that barely moves the price. Too large an increment on a small item stops bidding cold, because nobody wants to jump $25 on a $40 basket.
Should silent auction items have a buy-now price?
Sometimes. A buy-now price works well on items where someone might pay a premium for certainty, like a popular teacher experience with limited spots. Set it well above value, usually around 150% of fair market value, so it only triggers when someone really wants the item.
Skip buy-now on your anchor items. Those are the items most likely to spark a bidding war, and a buy-now price puts a ceiling on it.
What about items with no obvious value?
Experiences like "principal for a day" still need a fair market value on record. Your treasurer will want it, and winners who pay above it may ask for a receipt showing the difference. Pick a defensible number, such as what a comparable paid experience would cost, and set the starting bid from there.
The mistakes we see most often
- Starting at full value. Nobody wants to pay retail at a fundraiser. Items priced at value tend to sit with zero bids.
- One increment for everything. A flat $5 across the whole catalog is fine for baskets and painful for a vacation package.
- Leaving bidders to do the math. If a bidder has to work out the minimum next bid, some of them will not bother.
In MyGiveKit you can set opening bids as a percentage of fair market value for the whole event, then adjust the starting bid, increment, or buy-now price on any individual item. Bidders see the minimum next bid on every item, with one-tap buttons for it and the next two steps up, so nobody has to calculate anything standing at a table.