I attended a fund raiser last night for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and of course there were a wide variety of silent auction items up to bid. Obviously, the wines were of particular interest to me, and I actually was able to walk away with a the two bottles I bid on below. It was quite fun and exciting as this is the first time I have participated in a silent auction, and I love that I got the wines at a VERY reasonable price, and that all that money went to a good cause.
So, I was curious to hear from others on any ‘big wins’ that they might have walked away with from live or silent auction.
Cool, Jeremy. What Williams Seylem especially sounds like a nice find.
We go to quite a few charitable events that feature silent and live auctions. I can get myself in real trouble once I’ve set my sights on a lot. Sometimes one finds good deals on wines, but often, particularly if the cause is well attended and the lots are matched well with the attendees, the bidding can go way above value. But hey, it’s for a good cause.
I think that this is the key when these things are organized. Not that I know 99.9% of the people at the event I went to, but I would imagine most of them aren’t really avid wino’s that would bid on some of the more obscure names (meaning labels you wouldn’t find at Bev Mo or the grocery store). I think that this was apparent in the relatively low minimum opening bids. They had to know that starting them too high would scare most people off. Once the bids start flowing though, I think people see that as meaning that the item is hot and may get in to see what the fuss is about.
I think that is partially why getting the WS was relatively easy. I am not sure most people are familiar with what they do because it is typically hard to get and you won’t find it in most stores. I think there were only 5 bids on that bottle, to of which were mine and two of which were one other person’s.
My dad is putting on a golf tournament to fund Pancreatic Cancer research in the end of July (shameless plug, see my signature below if you are interested), and I was wondering how well a wine silent auction would work at a function like that. As you said, the lots should be matched to the attendees, and I would assume that many golfers have at least some interest in wine, but who knows.