Every year I go to the Mennonite Relief Sale in our area and I'm amazed how broad a range the quilts sell for. I've seen heirloom quality quilts go for as little as $500 and others while nice will go for over $1000! Before the economy collapsed they would go for 3 or 4 times those amounts.

But a couple of things to keep in mind at auctions, people are there looking for a bargain and the quilt is only worth as much as someone is willing to pay for it.

Seems like everyone wants to pay very little for anything. With the internet companies getting into selling anything and everything the prices are getting cheaper all the time.
I only buy items I can't get in a store.
Since i make lots of quilts I never buy any. I give away or donate my quilts and forget the aggravation.

At one guild auction a hand embroidered with machine piecing table runner caught my eye. I knew I would go as high as $150. The opening bid someone bid $10, then $12.50, that way up to $15.00. I bid $100 and I thought the whole room would fall out. To drag out the bidding that low was inexcusable and an insult to the one who donated the item especially with all of the bidders being quilters.

With the WalMart mentality, our society is conditioned to buy cheap goods. Those cheap goods are made by cheap labor in foreign countries. Then we blame the government for manufacturing jobs going out of our country and the resulting pockets of unemployment in areas that have depended on manufacturing. Is it possible that things will change and people will be willing to pay a fair price for products made in this country? Then and only then will hand crafted quilts bring a fair price to the maker.

Good for you Onebyone!

My experience with auctions for hand-made items isn't very formal, but it rings true with what others have noticed. We have a family reunion every few years and host an auction to raise money to fund it during the event. The items that sell for the most $$ are homemade jellies and pies. Really huge mark-ups for the amount of raw materials and time. Conversely, the fiber arts and home dec stuff brings in very little in comparison to time and materials. I ended up winning a scrappy quilt that was made by my cousin using my grandma's chenille bedspreads as backing. The auctioneer started the bidding by having everyone in the room raise their hands at a dollar. When the bid got too high, you dropped your arm. It came down to my neice and me. It was tense. At $95 I decided I couldn't take it from my neice, so I dropped my arm. Just before the auctioneer called sold, my husband raised his hand and ended up outbidding my neice. Final bid was a little over $100. It was a steal for the memories and the quality is awesome. However, the pie my aunt made went for more. Moral of the story is next time I'll make some baked goods and leave my stitiching projects for something else.

BREE123 QUOTE some seemingly questionable regulations like the requirement that Amish must now hire licensed contractors to build their houses and stores, even though they've been safely constructing their homes in the same manner for nearly 2 centuries with very few resulting problems. QUOTE

Some Amish are now licensed contractors. I had my steel roof put on by an Amish company. My treadle sewing machine cabinet is now at a woodworking shop waiting for refinishing and many of them now work for other contractors.

I was at an auction awhile back and there were a few handmade quilts there and they were beautiful would of loved to own one . the bidding started low but went up really fast some went for almost a thousand dollars . i couldnt believe the prices they paid for those quilts but was really happy they got good homes and will be here for the years to come.

When people see hand crafted items, they want them but don't want to pay what they are worth. That's why I say: you won't pay my price, you don't buy. It's sad how people want something for cheap.

We have found that a raffle usually brings the most money for a quilt. It is easier to find 40 people who will buy a ticket for $5 than to find one person who will pay $200 for the quilt. Generally speaking, in the area where I live, a raffle of a good quilt will bring about $1,000. That makes it worthwhile for me to donate a quilt to the firefighters or to the breast cancer fund-raiser. I always stipulate that it be raffled off instead of auctioned off.-

My guild always raffles a quilt at our show, selling tickets for months beforehand. People seem to be much more willing to buy $5 - $20 worth of tickets than pay the value of a handmade quilt. My 99s (women pilots) chapter has found the same, we've raffled off 3 quilts and made close to $1,000 each time. I was thrilled to win a quilt raffled by a different chapter last year at our annual conference after buying $5 of tickets myself. http://www.quiltingboard.com/picture...ml#post7316542