Had some chat and great input from Mitch Walker on the Paradise Hunt about how to get to $100,000 on the next auction.

I've kicked around his idea, and came up with a thought myself on how to go about it....gonna try and explain this the best I can, and I'd like to have some of ya'll input as to how you think it would work. I ran it by Doug and I think we are off to a good start.

OK...1st we make an 'Entry Forum' where all entries are entered, and a strong plea for all items to be entered before the auction opens. This will be open for listings by all members.

We create Auction Forum 1, Auction Forum 2, Auction Forum 3, and Auction Forum 4 that are all separate, and all have the same start date, but have a different end date. Auction Forum 1 will end, and a day later 2, and a day later 3, and a day later 4.

These will be a read only forums till its time to turn them on. Doug and I will move listings from the Entry Forum as they come in to the other 4 forums as we see fit, so that each forum carries a few of the big ticket items.....take for instance hunts...each forum would have at least one hunt, and then we'd start back over....same with other big ticket items...and separate knives, arrows, bows in the 4 forums.

This way if someone gets out bid on a hunt lets say, they can bid on another one the next day. Same with other items. This will allow folks to still have a chance donate even if they loose out on a particular item.

This will also allow those that have a set amount to actually get to donate again and again instead of loosing out on the single day as before.

We could also create a 'Late Entry' forum for those items that come in during the action.

Instead of closing at 8 PM we Move it up to 9 PM every evening.  This will give the west coasters time to get home and bid hopefully.

Any thoughts???

How does that sound???

Is there something we are missing or not thinking about?

Sounds like a good idea. The forum allowing early veiws of the items will peak peoples interest and maybe get someone saving who wasnt going to at first and the 4 different auctions ending at different times is a good idea too if someone gets outbid at the last moment.

Terry that sounds great. Make alotta sense and should work out very well.<><

I e-mailed you an idea Terry.

Sounds like a great idea for the donors and the bidders.        

I wouldn't worry about the west coasters. They all get off work at noon.    

Sounds like some good ideas there.  I like the thought that, if you loose out on something one day you can turn around and bid on something else the next!!  Good thinking guys!!  Keep up the good work  

very fair.... That will work.

Good idea, Terry.     There's got to be some way that we can get more Trad Gang members to donate, provide, and/or bid on an Item for the auction..I know I'm not the only person to think what would happen if 50% of the TG membership would get involved.....How can we get more people to participate????????  Just a thought.

I have an idea to stop sniping which, I believe, also will encourage early bidding and maximize funds raised.

The idea:  

On each item bidding ends at the alloted time OR 5 minutes after the last bid.

Benefits:

• Time is not an issue, only price
  
• No sniping possible
  
• It's more like a "live auction".  As long as people are willing to keep raising their bid, the auction continues
  

Sounds like a great Idea.

Terry, I like the idea.  The only concern that I would have would be the potential to overload the server four nights in a row instead of just one.  The lesson learned there is to bid high early, I guess.

Jeff might be on to something.  Sniping doesn't really bother me, but his idea would help reduce the technology overload that occured last year.  Of course you could potentially string out some bids for a while, which would delay the process.

Gregg,

Rob and I have discussed this issue of crashing the server...and our 'provider' is going to run another server along with ours tied in for the week just to cover the traffic.....this is still uncharted territory...so we shall see...but at least we are making an effort, and a big thanks to our server provider.    

All great ideas, I really like Juff U's. The bidding continues until the bids run out    That one should really increase revenues. For maximum efect!

And a big thank you to our Server Provider  

Jeff...I'll give that some thought....however, there will be hundreds of bids at the same time...not like a regular auction where its 'one at a time'.

With jeff's idea, items that run past 9 on the first day could be carried over to the next day as long as bidding continues, until you get to the last day, then all bidding should stop at the appropriate time.

All great ideas.

That defeats the purpose of having different end dates 4 runner....and we are back to square 1.

If every one knows they can bid till the last day of the last forum...we might as well just have one forum.

While I think mine is a simple idea, I admit that it may be difficult, if not impossible, to mechanically put into practice.

I do not know how to shut off some but not all threads.  

And how to police the 5 minute deadline?  Again, I do not know....

What is this all about I havent seen a post for this. I have something I would like to donate if this is a fund raiser for St. Judes and need some info on where, how, and when to send it in.
Someone let me know.

Great idea, Terry! I can't wait for this year's Auction.

La bowhunter: Please click on the St. Jude's Auction 2007 thread...a few threads below Pow Wow. It will give you an idea of how 2008 Auction will look like.Great items at auction and ALL proceeds go to St. Jude's.

I think it's a great idea and should really help spread out the bids and take some pressure off the server.  
I've seen another way of closing out bids that might help some more.  Certain items (higher priced?) could be specially coded or identified by color, icon, whatever.  The specially coded items are left open a bit longer than the other items in that group.  Even an extra 15 - 30 minutes could draw some pretty good last minute bidding on the higher priced items.  I just don't know if it is mechanically possible from your end.