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[Ray]

I have two matted and framed, limited edition Vietnamese orchid (Paph. delenatii and Cym. lowianum) prints that I will "lottery off" to raise funds for a local wildlife rescue organization. (Please disregard the gray background and irregular orientation - these were a bear to photograph with an iPhone.)

My question is this: shall I offer them individually or as a set, as they were intended?

The complementary colors of the set look good on a wall (they had been in my office for more than a decade, and got lots of complements), but folks favoring one or the other type of plant might be more amenable to just bidding on a single one.

 

[merc]

+1 individually

 

[big923cattleya]

Individually.
I would be interested in the Paphiopedilum because I grow them. I do not grow Cymbidiums. Although I appreciate the fact that it is a beautiful Cymbidium picture, it would give me cause not to bid as much as I might otherwise.
Let me say this, if I would be high bidder, say at $1,000, I have two pictures now. One will be on my wall ASAP!!! The Cymbidium might never hang on a wall. Why not? Because in the back of my mind I would be thinking that a Cymbidium lover would perhaps love to have this and appreciate it more then me.
And strange as it might sound, it is not about the money! Helping Wildlife Rescue would be my objective.

 

[Ray]

Bill, that was pretty much my thinking, as well.

It's not going to be an auction, but more like a lottery. My goal is to raise money for the wildlife rescue operation, as well, and I'm betting more people would spend $10 or $20 for a chance than can bid it up to a few hundred dollars or more.

 

[Djthomp28]

I also suggest auctioning them off individually. My reasoning is the same as Bill's.

 

[Ray]

I have decided to go the “individual” route, but it will be as a lottery, not an auction.

1. I believe that more folks would be willing to take a chance for a nominal cost that there will be folks willing to cough up a large sum.
2. “Chances” are purchased up-front; auctions require that funds be collected after the fact, which is not always easy. I recently participated in a charity auction, bidding for an art photo of a sea turtle hatchling and its wiggling path to the sea. The bids were going up in nice increments when a woman came in and doubled my bid - all bidding was stopped at that point. Three weeks later, I got a call telling me she skipped on her bid and was I willing to take it for my highest bid (I did). I’m sure more people would had raised the bid had she not done that.
3. My existing store software will handle selling chances, as is. I’d have to purchase more to do an auction, and the idea is to raise money, not spend it.

Thanks, all, for the feedback. Stay tuned.

 

[Austin Creek]

If you were inclined to do an action (aside from the issue of available software), a possible option would be to use "eBay for Charity". A friend of mine passed away a few years ago and I did this to help liquidate their collection and raise money for their favorite charity. Of course, I was already an eBay seller, so it wasn't much of a stretch to use this charity feature.

As long as the intended charity is a recognized non-profit, you can create an eBay auction listing and designate up to 100% of the proceeds to that specific charity. eBay waives the normal Final Value Fees for the donated amount.
One potential downside is that the donations to that charity are sent directly from eBay, so you would not necessarily get any recognition from the charity receiving the money.
https://charity.ebay.com/help/seller#selectcharity