Our guild has a silent auction. Every one brings their unwanted stuff: fabrics, UFO's, patterns, books, magazines, ect. It is all put in neat stacks on tables with a slip of paper. We are given some time,not more than 10 minutes to walk around the table and write our name and bid on the paper. At the end of the time allotted the person whose name and bid is the last on the paper is the winner of that stack. We have tried it other ways, but this is so much more fun.