Pricing Examples
A collection of example pricing approaches to help you set starting bids and bid increments for your auction items.
These Are Guidelines, Not Rules
The examples below are based on past auction experiences and general best practices. They are suggestions only — use your knowledge of your audience and items to adapt them as needed.
Auctria has a built-in Pricing Policy that can save you time by letting you set default Starting Bid, Minimum Bid Increment, and Buy It Now values across all your auction items at once. This works especially well for Paper Bidding type items.
🛍️ Ordinary Goods and Services
For everyday donated goods and services, a reliable rule of thumb is:
- Set the Starting Bid at around 40–50% of the retail value.
- Divide the remaining value by 5 to set the Bid Increment, creating a natural back-and-forth bidding exchange.
Example: A restaurant donates a $100 gift certificate.
- Starting Bid: $100 ÷ 2 = $50
- Bid Increment: $50 ÷ 5 = $10
✈️ Unique and High Value Items
Unique or high-value items can be tricky to price. Start too high and you risk no bids; start too low and the item may sell well below its value.
- Set the Starting Bid at around 40–60% of a realistic retail value.
- Set Bid Increments in bite-sized chunks to quickly elevate the price without discouraging bidders.
Example: A vacation package with a retail value of $3,000.
- Starting Bid: $1,200–$1,800
- Bid Increment: $75–$200
High Value Items Work Well as Live Auction Items
Live auction format gives auctioneers flexibility to adjust the starting bid on the spot if an item isn't generating interest — a significant advantage for high-value items.🎨 Keepsakes and One-of-a-Kind Items
Keepsakes and exclusive experiences require a tailored approach. Exclusivity drives interest, so lean into it with detailed descriptions that emphasize what makes the item special and why winning it would delight the buyer.
A few principles to keep in mind:
- Do create an image of exclusivity in your description.
- Do include lots of detail — the more vivid, the better.
- Do start keepsakes a bit higher than ordinary goods.
- Don't start at last year's final sale price — leave room for the bidding to develop.
- Don't be afraid to use smaller increments to draw more bidders into the action.
🖼️ School or Classroom Projects
Consider whether the item has broad appeal or is primarily valuable to a specific subset of your audience — for example, parents from a particular classroom. If the appeal is narrow, start higher but use smaller increments to keep interested bidders engaged.
Example: Each class created a group art project.
- Starting Bid: $25–$30 (keep it consistent across all classes)
- Bid Increment: $5–$10
Example: Each class created a printed photo book costing $30 to produce.
- Starting Bid: Cost of materials +25–50% = $37–$45
- Bid Increment: ~20% of starting bid = $8–$9
⭐ Priceless Items
Priceless items have no fixed retail value but carry real utility or emotional appeal — think upfront reserved parking, front row seating, or a "principal helper for the day" experience. Because the bidder pool for these items tends to be smaller, make each bid increment count.
- Starting Bid: On the higher end relative to general goods
- Bid Increments: Larger than typical to reflect the item's uniqueness
Example: Reserved front row seating at an event.
- Starting Bid: $50
- Bid Increment: $20
In Auctria, you can mark an item as Priceless by entering -1 as the item value. The word Priceless will appear in place of a dollar amount on the website and in catalogs. This has two benefits:
- The retail value is not artificially inflated in reports.
- Priceless items can stand out for marketing purposes.
Last reviewed: April 2026