Live Auction for Humidor - thoughts??

Hays

Ok, question time... A little background first:

I am one of the original, founding members at my lounge - been there since their second week of opening. As such, I'm fairly well-known there, and generally liked (I think, lol). At this point, most people who know me there also know about my trip (I'm selling off everything and moving to Europe on a one-way ticket) coming up, and that I'm planning a going-away party at the lounge.

Now, my question is this: I have my beautiful 300ct chest humidor that I'll be looking to offload, and I'm hoping to make some change on it. It's far larger and nicer than anything currently offered in the lounge, so I feel like there might be some serious interest. Do you think it would be tacky to hold an auction for it at the party? If it gets to a certain price point, I was going to offer a kicker of a "souvenir" from my first stop in Europe.

Your thoughts?

0patience

Is the lounge cool with the idea? If it is, I don't see it as tacky, but it may be disappointing unless there is a lot of people with that kind of cash looking for something like that.
I never have that good of luck. LOL!

Hays

One of the BOTLs from here just suggested a good alternative to me... A raffle, perhaps. I might have better success with that. Thoughts?

jthanatos

Hays:

One of the BOTLs from here just suggested a good alternative to me... A raffle, perhaps. I might have better success with that. Thoughts?

From personal experience, raffles are risky. Wrong person hears of it, and the state will take all the money raised and then some. Why not a silent auction? Won't interrupt the night, and since you know the people, no need to worry about "cash on hand".

Hays

jthanatos:

Hays:

One of the BOTLs from here just suggested a good alternative to me... A raffle, perhaps. I might have better success with that. Thoughts?

From personal experience, raffles are risky. Wrong person hears of it, and the state will take all the money raised and then some. Why not a silent auction? Won't interrupt the night, and since you know the people, no need to worry about "cash on hand".

The shop does raffle prizes at nearly every event though...maybe I'm missing something..

jthanatos

Do you buy tickets or do you get tickets with admission? Depends on the state, but some state gaming laws are tricky to navigate. I doubt it is likely that they would care, but with the "all in" nature of your plan, I would hate to see you get screwed by an overzealous official. Just be careful and CYA is all I am saying.

Hays

Ya know, thanks for the heads up. Honestly I'd never looked into the laws around running a raffle, but now I have and it turns out it's illegal the way I was thinking. Sooo gonna talk to the lounge owner tomorrow and see if he has any ideas.

bearb

tacky or not...i wont comment, as i think it all depends upon the lounge, your relationship with guys there, etc ...but another idea might be an open/public bid auction, piece of paper, write name/# down (#number allows annonimity...to get a number they need to be trustworthy? so that might be good or bad to allow/encourage being annonomous..again, depends upon lounge stuff -basically establish an opening bid..and rules for minimum 'ups'..like between 10-100 bids r by 10, 100-150 by 5..200+, by $1....after xx (say 7 days) of no bids, auction done...note after each day, the day gets written to make sure no one 'cheats' by bidding today, and using yesterday's date..to speed up the inactivity window -sorry for the ramble, but i love these as it allows ppl to bid, follow, strategize, etc...esp as ppl go to the lounge @ different times, so a live auction needs all ppl together @ onece...and would be tacky IMHO...but this does the same, the crowd determines how long it takes...etc. and it is very public process which allows conversations, etc...which is what the lounge would likely like anyway -lastly, you could say 50% of the final sale $, or a fixed amount...ie any thing over 200 will be given to charity, or whatever, to allow it to be more appealing -is this a super special humi? what kind of $$ are u expecting/did it cost you anyway?

Hays

bearb:

-is this a super special humi? what kind of $$ are u expecting/did it cost you anyway?

No, it's not "super special" per se - you can buy the same humi here on Ccom. Buuuuuut, a LOT of guys, especially those around the B&Ms, do not shop online and it IS much nicer and larger than regularly seen in B&Ms. Didn't cost me a dime, as I got it for a gift, but if someone wants to buy it I might as well get what I can - within reason - as I need all the money I can get for my relocation.

jlmarta

Hays:

bearb:

-is this a super special humi? what kind of $$ are u expecting/did it cost you anyway?

No, it's not "super special" per se - you can buy the same humi here on Ccom. Buuuuuut, a LOT of guys, especially those around the B&Ms, do not shop online and it IS much nicer and larger than regularly seen in B&Ms. Didn't cost me a dime, as I got it for a gift, but if someone wants to buy it I might as well get what I can - within reason - as I need all the money I can get for my relocation.

I mighta missed it in some other post but I'll ask anyway - where are you relocating to, David? And is the move professional or personal? Just being nosy....

Hays

jlmarta:

Hays:

bearb:

-is this a super special humi? what kind of $$ are u expecting/did it cost you anyway?

No, it's not "super special" per se - you can buy the same humi here on Ccom. Buuuuuut, a LOT of guys, especially those around the B&Ms, do not shop online and it IS much nicer and larger than regularly seen in B&Ms. Didn't cost me a dime, as I got it for a gift, but if someone wants to buy it I might as well get what I can - within reason - as I need all the money I can get for my relocation.

I mighta missed it in some other post but I'll ask anyway - where are you relocating to, David? And is the move professional or personal? Just being nosy....

No worries brother... I have a one-way ticket to Germany in October; spending a month there, and then traveling around after that. Selling off all my possessions here, save for some keepsakes staying in storage.