An Auctioneer Turned One $55,000 Bid Into $110,000 in a Single Night

The bidding had already blown past what anyone expected. Dia Bondi, a communications coach and author who volunteers as a fundraising auctioneer, was selling a one-night, catered glamping trip, comfortable camping with real beds and cooked meals, at a private coastal site in the Bay Area. When the price reached $55,000, two hands were still in the air.

Bondi did not pick a single winner. She sold the trip twice, for $110,000 in one night.

It became her biggest auction win, and the clearest example of the lesson she now teaches about asking. Bondi says "asking is one of the most overlooked and sometimes actively avoided success strategies out there" and that the way to get the most from any request "is to ask for more than you think you'll get because you have no idea what somebody is going to say."

She had come to auctioneering with a purpose. In the weeks before the 2016 election, amid wide talk about the pay gap and how little venture capital goes to women founders, Bondi decided to use her new skill to raise money for women-led nonprofits. Her logic was practical. If she helped a woman who runs a nonprofit become more successful, more funded, and more respected, the organization would succeed, too. She called it a twofer or a threefer.

The glamping trip showed how that thinking works in a crowded room. Bondi said the team thought the trip would bring in much less, and then the bidding blew right past that estimate all the way to $55,000. With two bidders still willing to pay at the top, doubling the lot meant neither had to walk away, and the charity did not leave money on the table.

Bondi still tells the story as proof of what can happen when you let the room show you what it will pay. Two hands stayed up, so she sold it twice.