Because we wanted to keep this fair for everyone bidding - both those present at the Nationals and those bidding from offsite - Jean and I had a conversation this morning to figure out a way to do that.
Here's what we came up with. Instead of having a sign-up sheet for each item, where people can see who has bid what and up their bid, accordingly, we have done away with that. It would give leverage to those who are present and can see the increase in bids, without giving those bidding from offsite a chance to do the same.
So, bids that come in via email over the next week and a half will be sent to Jean at the cutoff, Nov 4th 5PM EST, and she will put each bid on a slip of paper, fold it over and place it in the envelope for that item. Everyone bidding on those same items at the National will follow the same procedure. So no one will know what the high bid is or who has bid, until the auction is over. I'll probably send Jean a sheet with all the bids listed, so all she has to do is print it, and cut it up, so she doesn't have to hand write all those bids.
Then Jean will pull out the little slips of paper, find the highest bidder and that bidder wins that items. If they are present, they will pay for their winning bid at that time. If they are offsite, I will invoice them via Paypal. once Jean gets the list of winning bidders to me.
This is a new way to do things, but opens the door to lots of people who both want to support their club's Nationals, but can't be there to bring something, and those who would like the opportunity to bid on some of these items!
If anyone has any ideas on how to improve this process, please let me know. We're treading on new ground here and trying to figure it out as we go.