Best way to auction an item?

[babystar]

Hi all,

This may be a silly question and not seem like much of a fundraiser but - I won a signed Southampton FC football (!) and not being a fan of theirs have no use for it. My OH suggested donating it to charity but how can I do this? I know I could put it on the wellknown auction site and mark it as a charity item but I really want it to get the most out of it. There are two on there already for charity with no bids on either starting at £50. I guess I could do the same? But it doesn't look like there are that many Southampton fans!

I wondered if Alzheimers Society hold charity auctions and I could just send the ball to them to be included? I would have thought this would give it more exposure and maybe attract more interest.

Does anyone know?

 

[Saffie]

Not many Southampton fans?! You must be looking in the wrong place!
The rest of my family are massive fans - not me I'm afraid though I like them to do well of course living where I do! How about asking the club itself where they donate such things or maybe ring up your local Alzheimer's Society, Carers UK or any other charity of your choice to ask if they would be interested.

 

[cobden28]

Not many Southampton fans?! You must be looking in the wrong place!
The rest of my family are massive fans - not me I'm afraid though I like them to do well of course living where I do! How about asking the club itself where they donate such things or maybe ring up your local Alzheimer's Society, Carers UK or any other charity of your choice to ask if they would be interested.

Put an advert on Facebook in the 'items for sale in Southampton' page; I'm sure you'll find plenty of folk interested .

 

[Saffie]

Put an advert on Facebook in the 'items for sale in Southampton' page; I'm sure you'll find plenty of folk interested .

Not just Southampton Facebay either! I'm not sure how you'd auction it though. Is that allowed on Facebay?

 

[LadyA]

There are tons of FB buy and sell groups for localities. Dau sells any good clothes she doesn't want - only for 5 or 10 euro, but everything helps. And it's usually stuff that she had initially bought from charity shops!

 

[Saffie]

There are tons of FB buy and sell groups for localities. Dau sells any good clothes she doesn't want - only for 5 or 10 euro, but everything helps. And it's usually stuff that she had initially bought from charity shops!

Yes there are and that's what Facebay is for but Babystar has said she'd like the ball auctioned to get the best result for charity.
I've not seen an auction on any of the Facebays locally.

 

[Izzy]

I confess I haven't read the details on this but I found this eBay for charity page -

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/ebayforcharity/sell.html

 

[babystar]

Thanks all.

I'm only assuming no Saints fans as the two balls on eBay already are not garnering much interest!! Obviously there must be thousands but it's a case of reaching them!

I've messaged Alzheimer's Society to see what advice they usually give, but thought maybe I could list it on eBay and then post the link on the Southampton Facebook pages (if that passes their rules and regs of course!)...

 

[Toony Oony]

Hi babystar

I often list stuff on eBay. I found the 2 signed footballs with no bids that you mentioned.

IMHO auction listings with a high start price never attract buyers (unless its a remarkable item). I appreciate that you want to realise the most you can from this item, but often I just take the risk and put a 99p start price. It's amazing how people think they are getting a bargain, get carried away with the bidding and the price goes up and up.

Alternatively you can put a low start price and set a reserve, but if it was me, I would set a Buy It Now price with a Best Offer option. The latter will always attract chancers, but you can build in exclusions so you are not bothered with ridiculously low offers. If you are eBaying for charity, make sure the charity name is in your listing title, for example 'Alzheimers'. Then anybody searching for something related to Alzheimers would see it listed in their search results.

You could also list on Preloved.

However to realise the most, your best bet is probably to donate it to a charity auction at an event.