Posted 03/23/2012 01:11 am
The bid board at my local shop is members-only at $5/year. Setting bid increments is important and should vary depending on the number of active bidders. You may want to consider having an assigned number for the shop to act as a "reserve price" bidder for better items. To counteract timed bids and throw in the element of surprise, signal the end of the bid board with a bell/alarm that goes off at a random time. At my local shop the bell can can go off at any time between 6:55 and 7:05PM on Monday evenings, a last second bid will count as long as pen is to paper. Once the timer goes off, the final bid is sealed by marking it with a highlighter on the bidding card. Accept bid board member consignments and charge 10% to the seller, easy way for oldtimers to get rid of duplicates when they don't want to deal with online sales.
