Warren Buffett's success with auctions, like his recent $1 million charity lunch, illustrates the potential of online auctions which draw a larger customer base. These auctions are popular for fundraising due to their cost-effectiveness, variety of products, and limitless geographic reach, leading to significant profit potential. As traditional fundraising options fade, online auctions provide fresh experiences and continue to gain traction among organizations.

1. “Innovative Auctions”
1. Why was Buffett so successfulwith the auctions?
Buffet becomes successfulby Auction. Auction is a valuable commodity, and it
provides greater access (larger potential customer pool). An online auction for the
chance to break bread with the Oracleof Omaha took in justover $1 million this
past week. That’s the lowestprice since investor Mohnish Pabrai and two friends
won with a $650,100bid in 2007, and an astonishing 71 percent discount below
the $3.45 million paid by last year’s winner for lunch at a Manhattan steakhouse.
This year’s winner—oneof eight contenders—choseto remain anonymous.
Proceeds go to Glide, a San Francisco charity supported by Buffett’s first wifefor
many years.
2.You can place your item for sale on EBay without a trading
assistant and save on the commission. Why do people use
Dan’s services?
He provides information and expertise that customers feel is worth the
price.
you can and most people DO list their own items.
Open an account on eBay and go to eBays homepage, click on 'Sell' at the top of
the page. It will explain exactly what you have to do. You'll need a camera for
photos of your item, make an honest, thorough description of your item, calculate
your postagecosts and follow the instructions.
3. What are the advantages of fundraisingvia auctions?
As sites like eBay haveproven, online auctions are extremely popular. More and
more, people are including online auctions as a firstchoice for purchases. The

2. popularity of online auctions has not been lost on the fundraising crowd. In fact,
entire companies and websites have been built purely to serve the needs of
online fundraising auctions. Many organizations arecoming to realize somereal
advantages of choosing online fundraising auctions to raisemoney for their
groups. A few of the reasons why online fundraiser auctions havegrown in
popularity are
• Fresh ideas – many traditional fundraising options might be viewed as boring
and stale; online fundraising auctions offer something fresh and new for
volunteers and supporters
• Costeffectiveness – products aside, the costs of hosting an online fundraising
auction are very low; mostgroups search for in-kind donations from group
members and business supporters, though, so even with the productincluded,
there is still very little expense involved in running an online auction fundraiser
• Profitpotential – with a good product mix, online auctions can profitvery
handsomely. Since there is no pre-setprice for items, the potential sale price can
grow continually in responseto consumer demand
• Productvariety – a variety of products can easily be auctioned to suit the tastes
of many different kinds of bidders: signed sports memorabilia, event tickets, art,
etc.
• Outreach – there is no geographical limit to the consumer basefor online
auction fundraisers; supporterscan beacross the roomor across the world
• Expansion – options like advertising and sponsorshipsincreasetheprofitability
of online fundraising auctions
• Availability – the internet is open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week; that means
that online auctions are open 24/7, too.