What is a Chinese Auction?
Enduringly popular special event fund-raisers that combine the elements of both an auction and a raffle, the bidding is done by ticket. Each participant buys a certain number of tickets for a set price,( $10/10 tickets) then uses those tickets to "bid" on a variety of donated items on "auction." They can bid as many tickets as they wish on each item they're interested in, by depositing the tickets in a container assigned to that item. Rather than going to the highest bidder, though, as it would at a regular auction, the item goes to the person whose ticket is drawn, at random, from the container.

It doesn't take long to figure out, of course, that the more tickets you bid on an item, the better your chances are of winning it. And as anyone who's ever bid a lot of tickets on a "must-have" item can tell you, that's what makes these events so much fun.