Bargains at a charity event? Say it isn’t so

This past weekend I played at a gig with a ten-piece band I'm in. Aside from lots of people having a good time, and us playing pretty well, the attendees raised money for the American Red Cross.

Part of the money raised was through ticket sales (which offset the cost of the bands and the refreshments). The other component of the fundraising was through silent auction bidding. For those of you unfamiliar with how a silent auction works, it's as follows. Items are “bid upon” by writing a bid amount on a piece of paper and an identifier (usually one's name, or a bidder number). The bids get progressively higher throughout the evening, and the highest bid wins the item. The items up for bid are usually right next to the paper.

These items can go for bargain prices

My wife — and me as well, actually — get a bit of a rush in the office supplies section. I'm an advanced novice at organization, but it still doesn't stop me from trying out new ways of keeping my life straight. Anyway, one of the silent auction packages available was a quilted briefcase and $50 worth of Staples gift cards.

When I checked out the table in between sets, the current bid was only $10. For (probably) $75 or more worth of merchandise, this was highway robbery. So, after checking with the people running the auction just in case it was only open to ticket holders, I put in a bid of $40 — which was still below the face value of the gift cards. I ended up winning the auction, and my wife was very happy with me. 🙂

One might think that the charity lost out on this deal, but probably not. Most of the items are donated, so the cost to the charity is nothing. Hopefully the donors of the gifts don't get bent out of shape if their gifts don't go for more than face value. (Regardless, the donors can deduct the full cost of the donated items if they get nothing in return for the donation.)

The charities are happy to get whatever they get for the auctioned items. Even if the high bidder gets a bargain.