Pricing advice for auction items

Posted by Ella Jacques on 11 October 2021

When uploading your auction items it is important to start at the right price point. We would broadly recommend starting the items at 50% of the value of the item. Each item will receive on average 5 bids and so it is important to ensure your starting price is not too far away from the amount you would like the item to sell for. To do this we recommend counting back 5 times in the increments from your ideal amount.

For example, if you want the item to sell for £1,000 and you have set your increments at £50, we would recommend starting the item at £750.

Setting the increment at a good level is also vital to keep the bidding momentum going. We also advise on increasing this as the bids come in and the minimum bid goes up. We would always suggest keeping the increments at a minimum of £25 as anything lower than this will mean the increase in price is very slow even if the item is receiving a lot of bids. See below the increments we would recommend based on the start price:

Start price            Increment
£25 – £250             £25
£250 – £500           £50
£500 – £1,000        £75
£1,000 +                 £100

If you have a supply cost on the item or a high minimum amount that the item can sell for, we would recommend setting a reserve price accordingly. If you do not have a cost associated with the item then we would recommend keeping the start price and reserve price the same. If a bid is made below the reserve price then the bidder will see a message confirming that their bid has been accepted but is below the reserve price of £XX.

Ella Jacques

Global Client Services Manager at Givergy

Ella heads up the global Fundraising & Events team. A key part of Givergy’s growth for four years, Ella has a passion for event planning and ensuring her and her teams’ clients exceed their fundraising targets. Furthermore, Ella’s exposure to some of the highest-profile fundraising events gives her a unique insight into the newest and most innovative way in which charities are engaging with their audiences.