It used to be that everyone hosted basket bingos as fundraisers. Now it seems like everyone in my area is doing quarter auctions! I actually prefer the quarter auctions more (and as a direct sales consultant they work out better for us).

Have quarter auctions replaced basket bingos in your area? Just curious.

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I was born free, but now I'm expensive!

Gosh, I have not heard of either of those...sometimes I think I live in a cave...sigh

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Mary

I hadn't either. We just do the standard fund raisers each year... there are three during the school year.

Enlighten me.. what are these?

X

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Then Jesus said, "Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest." Matthew 11:28

We still have lots of Longaberger basket bingos and tricky trays here. Never heard of quarter auctions -- what are they?

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Cecilia

"We must love them both--those whose opinions we share and those whose opinions we reject. For both have labored in the search for truth, and both have helped us in the finding of it."
Saint Thomas Aquinas

I have never heard of either. Can someone tell me what they are?

Never heard of them. I know basket bingo is still very big in our area. Many of the local schools are hosting them now for their class trips. Four years ago we had one for my daughters Senior Trip, and it was a nice fundraiser. Doing the concessions also helped them raise a lot. We had all the food donated, so it was all profit for their trip to New York City.

Sorry - I was off the computer all weekend.

A Quarter Auction is where you get 8 - 10 direct sales consultants (like Tastefully Simple, Pampered Chef, Tupperware, etc) to participate. Each vendor brings 10 auction items in various price ranges. The people that attend the auction purchase a bid paddle. They can purchase more than one if they like. this is how the bidding is usually broken down:

Item Cost
$10 - $15 1 quarter bid
$15 - $25 2 quarter bid
$25 - $50 3 quarter bid
over $50 4 quarter bid

when the auction begins, the auctioneer reads the description of the product, shows it to everyone and then tells them how many quarters the bid is. If you want to bid on the product, you place the appropriate number of quarters in the bid bucket on your table and hold up your paddle number. When all bids have been placed, the auctioneer draws a number (usually they do poker chips or ping pong balls that number the same as the paddles that were sold). If it's your number and you place a bid, then you win the product. If you didn't bid you say "no bid" and then they draw again until they have a winner. There is an honor system that you don't throw up your number real quick if they call it and you really didn't bid.

After each item, the quarters are collected and placed in a bucket that is associated with that vendor. If this is a fundraiser you can work it two ways. You can ask each vendor to donate 2 items (of their 10 auction items) that 100% of the auction bids goes to the fundraising group. Or you can ask them at the end to donate 10% of their total quarters to you. The fundraising group also gets the money from selling the paddles.

We also let the vendors set up a cash and carry/display table so guests can visit them and make additional purchases if they want. This way the vendor doesn't lose out 100%, they make some money on the auction itself, can get potential clients or other sales and still help the fundraiser.

If you have any other questions, either post them here or email me at auvilmom@yahoo.com and I'll try to answer them. I live in Baltimore MD so if anyone is near here and wants to attend one, I can point you in the right direction.

These are fun because you can spend as much or as little as you want and you only have to bid on the things that you really like.

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I was born free, but now I'm expensive!

For those that don't know what a basket bingo is, I can explain that one also.

You run it like a regular bingo with 20 games and 2 specials. We normally charge $15 in advance or $18 at the door. You purchase longaberger baskets from a local consultant as your prizes. Then you can get people to fill them. At our school, we assign each class a theme (like sports, snacks, pamper yourself, chocolate etc). Parents donate small items based on the theme and we use those donations to fill the baskets. You can also contact other direct sales consultants to see if they will fill a basket as a donation (as a Tastefully Simple rep, I am always getting calls).

Then you run it like a normal bingo. The person that wins bingo gets the basket. If you have two or more bingos on the same game you have to have some type of tie breaker like a deck of cards and the person that picks the highest card wins the basket. You 'll want to have some runner up prizes (we usually try to get some gift certificates donated).

For the specials you sell these games as extras outside of the package for $1 a card and then play bingo. We normally get 3 or 4 extra bigger baskets or retired baskets that will fill and then hold a raffle that night $1.oo per chance or 6 for $5.00.

The more fillers you can get donated the better. usually the consultant for the baskets will give you a discount as well on the baskets.

You need a fair amount of people to attend because you have to cover the cost of the baskets before you make a profit. But we normally make between 2 and 3 thousand on our bingos after all is said and done.

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I was born free, but now I'm expensive!

Thank you so much for the information. They both sound like a lot of fun.