The chessboard went for $300.00. The box went for $525.00. A small jewelry box went for $50.00. I won't bother making the big box next year - ROI is poor. The auction raised $21,000.00.
Tom Watson
... Nice work (so what else is new? :) ), Tom...
Live or silent auction(s) (or both)? We do one for the local comm. college each year of roughly $30k; not tried the woodworking for craft as items, though; don't know why. Get some quilts and art work some of which does pretty well. I may have to give it a go for next year--donated couple-dozen large rolls of grass hay this year...much less effort particularly since auction timing was such could leave them in field until pickup! :)
Tom Watson wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com:
That is great work. It is times like this I wish I had talent.
I have never seen a chessboard style like that - really cool.
Larry C
My woodworking club (Northeastern Woodworkers Association), at my request, donated items for the local Scout Council silent auction at the Distinguished Citizen Awards Banquet. I wouldn't say anyone over paid for any of the items.... to the contrary, every item sold at bargain prices. The single biggest problem is people cannot seem to differentiate between one of a kind hand made items and mass produced Chinese imports... Comments and bids reflected Chinese import prices as the benchmark for worth--the fact that it was a fund raiser didn't seem to have any impact on bids. I've come to accept that "general public" auctions are not going to pull the same kinds of sale prices as garnered at an arts and craft fair such as Woodstock-New Paltz Art & Crafts Fair
John
Do you really expect many to "get it"? They're not buying art, they're buying function. Maybe.
I'm sorry more money was not generated for BSA. Your idea of selling at the A & C fair sounds like a very good idea (of a way of finding already-informed shoppers)! IMHO, the mass-media/marketing in this country puts hand-made items at a relative disadvantage in the competition for the consumers dollar--probably best to stay out of the "fast lane".
Bill
John Grossbohlin wrote: ...
It's a general problem, agreed...we've been doing the Foundation Auction event for nearly 20 years now and still are having difficulty w/ generating the "it's a fundraiser" mentality throughout the audience. Many still come looking for bargains as if it were an estate auction.
OTOH, a neighboring community college and at least one four-year school that have been at it for 30 or more years have seemed to actually begun to win that battle by persistence.
I think it _can_ be done but persistence is the key...
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Then it is an education problem. The MC/Auctioneer needs to be educated as to the value of the items and he or she then needs to educate the bidders. The bidders also need to be educated as to the value to the beneficiary organization. I have seen a charity auction sell a Bridge City square for five times its retail value. Somebody needs to get the bidders pumped and work their way up to the big stuff.
If there is no MC/Auctioneer and Silent, it is a complete crap shoot. Might as well set up a booth.
People like to be wooed. People like to compete. People like to be known for their largesse.
Thanks for the kind words.
The box was in the live auction. The chess board was in the silent auction. There was a minimum on both but the box was set too low. I agree that many people do not understand that it is a fund raiser first and that you get to take something home is a secondary consideration. Also agree that many people do not understand the value of hand made items. It's because we grow up surrounded by items whose manufacturing cost is exceeded by the marketing and advertising cost. Regardless of what we'd like to believe - excellence does not sell itself but I wish the cost of selling was more in balance with the cost of producing.
The chess board was one prototype for a run of several different designs that I'll be making after the first of the year. I expect to spend a great deal of time selling them and as little time possible in making them...sigh.
Regards,
Tom Watson
Historically, and this year was no different, there are a lot of contrived collectables in the auction (e.g., mass produced sports "paintings" and prints,
9-11 memorials, etc. ), services (e.g., hair cuts, massages, rounds of golf, meals), costume jewelry, and a small number of quality hand made items (quilts, afghans, cutting boards). With the donations from NWA members we had very nice turnings (natural edge, stone inlays), a handcut dovetailed jewelry box, pens, and some solid white oak beverage trays. Bidders "over paid" for golf and meals and universally "under paid" for the hand made items while the "collectables" garnered "about retail" in many cases. It's what people value in that is out of whack.... I think Doug Stowe is right that as a society we've lost the sense of value and the sense for what it takes to make something. See the archives on his Wisdom of the Hands blog...John
Tom,
Interesting that you donated prototypes... I did too. ;~) It's not that the items were inferior in any way but rather that I was working out design and production issues that would speed up production of future items. In the long run I'm going to use pattern cutting on the bandsaw and shaper to make the items but getting the design into a machine friendly format takes prototypes... There is no room for hand tool tweaking in items that might "retail" for $40-50... unless one is doing this as a weight loss and fitness program, i.e., starvation combined with physical exertion. ;~)
John
highlight the handles and hinges (I especially like the hinges!)
I agree with your comments downthread, and will offer that this has been a difficult year for fundraisers just about everywhere, and that for many it's probably easier to find a "show-off" spot in home or office for a chess board than for the larger box...
...and these are definitely "show-off" pieces! :)
I won't disagree that many have a misplaced sense of value (witness all the junk sold at "hobby" stores), but in this case I think the venue was all wrong. People weren't expecting to buy heirlooms, rather junk. While those items looked to be fine workmanship, they aren't something I'd buy on the spur of the moment. Heirloom quality stuff I want to be *exactly* what I want because I intend to keep it until I can no longer keep anything.
krw wrote: ...
If people attend a benefit/fund-raising auction w/ the intent of "buying" anything, then their the ones of whom I was speaking that are going for the wrong purpose/mindset. The expenditure should be viewed as a donation, what comes with it just happens to be the carrot.
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Morris Dovey wrote: ...
OTOH, we had second-best auction year yet and at least one Foundation (albeit four-year as opposed to two) has effectively seized upon and used the needs generated to raise immediate funds to make up for available funds that normally would be expected from endowment earnings to beat their previous campaign successes by wide margins.
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It's a silent auction...
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