By Carl Lindquist
The York Dispatch
WRIGHTSVILLE, Pa. — The Wrightsville Fire Co. is planning to launch a national auction website that gives bidders a chance to win electronics, fire gear and other items for a fraction of the retail cost.
The fire company launched the website firenrescueauction.com on Wednesday to help raise funds for the volunteer department, said Matt Russ, co-chairman of the fire company’s auction committee. The site will specialize in firefighting gear but also offer other items of interest to the general public.
Revenue from the site should help supplement money the fire company makes with traditional fundraisers, such as chicken barbecues and ham-and-cheese sandwich sales, he said. Those fundraisers aren’t particularly lucrative.
He said the fire company hopes to raise $500,000 a year with the new site.
Unusual: The style of the auction was borrowed from similar sites already operating domestically and overseas, he said, and differs from traditional auctions, eBay and other popular sites.
Bidders first must purchase bids to pursue items, which the fire company is selling on the site, he said. The cost of each bid is based on the number that are purchased, but they will cost at least 50 cents each.
Each bid pushes the price of
an item up by 1 cent and extends the end of the auction. At the end of the auction, the winner pays the purchase price and receives the item by mail.
For example, a flat-screen TV starts out with a price of 0 cents. Each time someone bids, the price creeps up by 1 cent.
Eventually bidders stop pursuing the item and the auction ends. If the final bid is $75, that’s what the buyer pays, plus any money spent buying bids.
A bidder can get a great deal on items because of low sale prices, Russ said, but the actual cost to the buyer depends on how many bids are used and the price the buyer pays for the bids.
The fire company makes money on the bids people buy, plus the sale price of the item.
Debt: The goal is to get the fire company out of debt stemming from 2005 purchases of a new fire engine and rescue truck. The fire company is also trying to save for a new rescue engine to replace one the company got in 1996, he said.
Fire Chief Fred Smeltzer Sr. came up with the idea and proposed it to the department. Smeltzer makes a living running an auction website that sells racing pigeons.
The fire department has hired Smeltzer’s company to manage the website on a day-to-day basis, but the fire company will be responsible for purchasing and shipping the merchandise to winners, Russ said.
Smeltzer said the website will feature a “bid butler” that will automatically make bids at the direction of the buyer, who can tell the butler when to start placing bids and for how long. That way, people can pursue items even if they’re asleep or can’t get to a computer.
The department plans to market the website through the media, direct mailing and on websites frequented by other firefighters, Russ said.
“I would probably check our website out ... because I know who’s running it,” he said. “It’s from a trusted fire department.”
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