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Hold a Special Auction
- Think you can find some special, high-value items to sell?
- Why hold an expensive gala dinner for a few people when your eBay for Charity auction can attract millions at virtually zero cost?
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Why use eBay for Charity?
- eBay for Charity is a great way of turning valuable items into unrestricted funding for your charity:
- Eliminate the costs and hassle of hosting a live event
- Reach a larger audience than any other online auction platform
- Use our promotional tools to help you spread the word
- Use the eBay brand to increase awareness of your auction
- If you’re planning a major auction and looking for in-depth instructions and support, contact us and we’ll be happy to help.
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Holding a successful auction
- These are the four essential ingredients of every successful eBay for Charity auction:
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- Great items and a compelling story behind the auction
- Generating awareness through public relations and marketing
- Using the eBay.co.uk marketplace effectively
- Good planning and management
- Here's what you need to know:
- Make sure your charity is registered
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- Register with MissionFish if you haven’t already
- Register a seller account on eBay.co.uk
(choose an appropriate name!) - Add your eBay ID as a "Direct Seller" in your MissionFish account
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You should also consider setting up a PayPal account to receive payments from customers on eBay.
- Plan ahead
- Plan your auction in advance. You should think about the story behind the campaign, its branding, and what you want to achieve. You’ll need to secure valuable or interesting items that fit well with the campaign, and work out how best to market and publicise the auction.
- Top tip
- Practice by selling a low value item on eBay at least once (try something small just to get a feel for how it works). This item will show up on your account, so make sure it’s appropriate!
- What items do well on eBay?
- Unique and high value items and experiences do extremely well on eBay: think ‘money can’t buy’ and ‘exclusive’. Try to secure a series of special items to grab attention and compel people to visit the campaign, e.g.
- Items or experiences with celebrity or star association
- Unique, rare and in-demand items
- High-value items
- Special interest items, experiences or memorabilia
- Promoting your auction
- The success of your campaign will depend on the level of interest you generate, so PR and marketing is essential. Schedule the start and end time of the auction based on when you are likely to get maximum attention and publicity.
- Make sure all your promotional messages include a clear call to auction, such as “Find our auction on eBay on 1 December”. Make sure your auction can easily be found from your own website, and any other relevant sites.
- You can adapt our template press release to spread the word.
- Listing your item
- Make your listing as striking, engaging, and convincing as possible. Include information about the auction, the charity, and as much “background story” about the item as you can.
- When listing your item don’t forget to:
- Select the charity and % donation in the How You’re Selling section(choose 100% if you are a direct seller)
- Set a starting price as low as you dare – this encourages maximum interest– and avoid reserve prices
- Include any terms and conditions you need to attach to the sale, such as deadlines for payment
- Don’t forget to tell us!
- If you’re planning an auction that will attract major attention, don’t forget to tell us. We’ll be able to give you extra advice and support to help things run smoothly.
"Besides the new funds raised through our eBay auction, the profile of the charity has been raised immeasurably through eBay for Charity. We're still riding the wave!" — Claire Newman, Development Office, Books Abroad
"Thank you so much for all your help: you have really given us an excellent service to help our charity auction move forwards." — Gyles Ryan, London Transport Museum
"We were very pleased with how the auction went and we raised over £7,000. I enjoyed doing the auction on eBay for Charity as it was pretty straightforward to use
" — Claire Hay, Office Manager, Scotland on Sunday
"Thanks so much for all your help. It was a great example of how successful charity auctions can be. We were thrilled with the outcome of our auction and are already thinking of other charity events we can run on eBay for Charity." — Mihiri Bonney, Digital Marketing Manager, The Mirror
"eBay and MissionFish have helped connect us to a broad range of supporters, donors and bidders that we would not otherwise have been able to reach. This has both expanded our fundraising base and helped us to find active supporters who might not otherwise have been aware of our work." — Sean Flanagan, Wild Trout Trust