I don't think the posts about very low proceeds have been about quilt raffles. In my experience, raffling off a quilt makes the most money! This is when you have raffle tickets and sell them for $1 each/6 for $5, leave enough time before the event to sell the raffle tickets, and have enough people selling the tickets.
However, I have seen "silent auctions" make very low returns. Sometimes the items sell for less than the materials in them.
Also, a traditional type auction (auctioneer calling out and people bidding against each other) tends not to make very good returns for a quilt when it is part of a larger event. Traditional auctions can work when only quilts are being auctioned off and there are a lot of quilts, but those are special situations. If it's, say, a school fundraising auction then you have to have people in the audience who have deep pockets.