So, if you didn't read my ten mile long post about attending a benefit concert tonight, I don't blame you. But I did attend one tonight. They had a bunch of things going such as raffles, a 50/50 and a silent auction.

The silent auction was so odd to me. They had all these items displayed and had clip boards with spaces to fill in a name and bid and they started the bids with X dollar amount. I always see silent auctions as envelopes put into a box with bids.

The way they did it, it was like, "last post wins."

Granted, I haven't been privy to a ton of silent auctions. Have you seen it performed this way? The only benefit I see to it is they will #1, get more because they began the bids at a set amount, so nobody is going to walk away with getting a high value item for a minor amount. And #2, people will possibly "compete."

actually, this way is quite common, and is often used in tv shows for comedic effect. I remember an episode of fraiser-- i think they were fighting over a bottle of wine or something... wound up paying like $8000 for it cause they were so competitive... then the epi my BIL was in on Hawaii 5-0 had the same thing

Oh, that is interesting that it is common practice. Then, it's not truly "silent." In person, the only type I have experience with is sealed bids.

That's interesting. I have been to auctions before, but they were never silent. The erratic and campy behavior at auctions, in general, sort of amuse me. Reminds me of little kids in school, fervently raising their hands to get the teacher to call on them, while going ‘oooh, ooh.’

Silent auctions are normally in conjunction with a benefit of sorts.

I never even heard of a 'silent' auction. Defeats the purpose I would think.