Diana,
We had a newly-awarded phrag division bring $200 last year!

Interesting that your society only takes 10% off the top. The club I'm in
now gives the member a choice of donating the entire amount or 65% of the
take to the club; the balance to the member.

I was in a club in SoCal where 100% of the take went to the club! With that
club, a donated plant is a donated plant. Most were extras or divisions;
many bare root!

By the way, our "member" auction was held last month. For the first time,
we used the services of a professional auctioneer that is a friend of one of
our boardmembers. A club member (me) would describe the plant, pull up a
photo of the flower on the screen (laptop, projector, powerpoint, internet,
etc.) then hand the plant to the auctioneer. The sale went MUCH faster and
our final take was approximately 40% more than usual. We'll use him again
in the Spring!!! We had no large sales this time around but we did get a
$45 bid on a blooming plant that we paid $6.50 for!!! (Carmela's) We
generally buy a few blooming plants to spice up the auction table at the
Members' auction.

Hope this helps!!!

Garland


"Diana Kulaga" wrote in message
.. .
Hi, All,

Just curious. We had our semi-annual auction last Saturday afternoon (yrs
truly was the auctioneer, thus satisfying my inner ham). We didn't get the
crowd that we generally see, but every plant sold and we probably gained a
few new members.

One beautiful specimen of Bc. Maikai 'Mayumi' sold for $140. I was upping
the bids in $20 increments. I really thought I could get it a little
higher, but one of the bidders chickened out.

All plants for auction belonged to Society members (no dealers), but the
public is invited to bid. I know some Societies purchase plants and then
auction them off, but for us it's a vehicle for members to get rid of
duplicates, scale down, etc. We don't make much on this. We collect 10% to
cover expenses.

Given those parameters, what kind of money do plants bring at your
auctions?

Oh, yes....I discovered a really neat way to get people to bid up an Onc.
Sharry Baby 'Sweet Fragrance'. Before the bidding commenced I made the
whole room sing the refrain from "Sharry Baby". Still laughing about that
one.

Diana