The ePhilanthropyFoundation.Org offers the following advice in its book Fundraising On The Internet: The ePhilanthropyFoundation.Org's Guide To Success Online (available online at http://ephilanthropyfoundation.org/bookstore) , regarding Charity Internet Auctions:

From author George Irish's Chapter 24:

Charity auction sites work just like the for-profit online auctions, such as

eBay (http://pages.ebay.com/charity/index.html) , but the proceeds go to a designated charity. Online charity auctions may be time-limited, minimum-bid reserved, silent, or open just like traditional charity auctions.

Generally, you're free to select items from the portal provider's inventory to include in the auction and can add any of your own items to the auction.

(The portal will collect a commission on all sales of its own items but usually charges a small fee, but no commission, on items you supply.)

Some online charity auction portals specialize in a particular kind of auction or promotional vehicle. Unless your organization can collect high-value items to auction on one of these sites, it's hard to raise a lot of money.

From authors Aleta Jeffress and Phil Richmond's Chapter 10:

In addition to basic event management, there are several online services that provide specialized event modules catering to almost any type of event an organization may want to offer.

Auctions

Many vendors handle both silent and live auctions. They may also offer an accounting module to help track income and expenses. Many of them produce invitations, thank-you letters, forms, and catalogs. Current examples of companies that offer such services include:

[updated list]

§ArtAuctionFundraiser: http://artauctionfundraiser.com
§ Benefit Events: http://benefitevents.com
§ Celebrity Auctions: http://CelebrityAuctions.com
§ Charity Fundraiser: http://charityfundraiser.com
§ Donation Depot: http://donationdepot.com
§ MaestroSoft: http://www.maestrosoft.com
§ Mission Fish: http://www.missionfish.com
§ WebCharity: http://www.Webcharity.com