Online auction for charity?

emz1979

Another forum I beling to has the idea to do a charit auction before xmas of crafty bits and pieces that members make, I've looked at eBay's charity section but not sure if tehre are other ways to do this. Missionfish (which eBay use) take 20% which seems rather a lot especially as we're looking at selling lost cost items. Any ideas?

Spamface_2

ebid has a category for charity auctions. There are no listing fees and the final value fee is quite low, something like 2 or 3%.

oldtoolie

You can sell on eBay without MissionFish. You can even say you will give the proceeds to charity. You will not get the eBay for Charity branding however and you will pay all the usual eBay fees.

If your charity is registered with eBay and Missionfish, you can be named a 'direct seller' by the charity. MissionFish doesn't take a cut and you are completely responsible for delivering the proceeds to the charity.

The advantage of Missionfish for a charity is that anyone can sell in the charity's favour and Missionfish insures that they really give it to the charity.

Be sure that your handmade crafts are really suitable for eBay. I've heard that over 50% of the items offered on eBay recieve zero bids. Buyers can be very demanding so it can be a headache to deal with them. A Christmas market where buyers can see the items might be easier.

Larry Boyd
Tools for Self Reliance
www.tfsr.org

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Thanks to MSE for making TFSR one of your charities.