Posted on | by Bryan Arsham

This auction has closed. Look forward to our finals auction after prelims.

The BAA is once again holding our lead truck auction this year!  It’s the one chance you (or a, parent, a spouse, a friend, or any buggy fanatic in your life) have of being right in the middle of the action on Raceday. You’ll sit in the back of the lead truck for whatever race(s) you can win!  Proceeds help with all the costs of putting on such a spectacular Raceday, including the BAA’s sponsorship and various broadcast and other improvements.

The auction will go live on Monday at Noon ET.  Most things are the same as 2019 (and a description of how it works is below), but with one main change – the auction for the Prelims Heats and the auction for the Finals Heats will be two separate online auctions. The auction for Prelims Heats will open Monday at Noon ET and close Wednesday at 8pm ET. The auction for Finals Heats will be much shorter – it will open after Finals Heats are selected on Friday afternoon, and will close at the end of the Buggy100 Buggy Bash on Friday at 9pm ET. Come join your fellow buggy alumni at the Buggy Bash to share your Raceday experiences, enjoy some refreshments, play some trivia, win prizes, and more! The Buggy Bash begins at 7:00 p.m. ET on Friday, and requires advanced registration. More details will be posted to cmubuggy.org.

But don’t worry – if you’re at the Buggy Bash and you want to participate in the auction, the auction site is mobile-friendly and we’ll have plenty of reminders throughout the night. And unlike the past couple of years, the Finals Auction is being held online, not in person. So you do not have to attend the Buggy Bash in order to participate in the auction.

Click on the button below to access the auction site:

If you have any questions, feel free to post in the comments here, or send me an email at bryanarsham@cmubuggy.org and I’ll address it.

ADDITIONAL ITEMS: We are also offering 2 additional items this year – Buggy100 Banners. These banners will be placed on Campus Light Posts during the week of Spring Carnival. Following completion of Spring Carnival week, the banners will be taken down, at which point the winners of the banner auctions will be given the option of either picking up the banner in person or having the banner shipped to them. Please note that the banners contain random designs; we will do our best to honor requests for specific images or organizations, but we cannot guarantee any specific image appearing on the banner that you have won.

As for the online auction, here’s how the Auction works:

  • Just like prior years, we will run the auction on a third-party website. You will need to create an account with the auction site, and you can set up email alerts if you are outbid. Each heat will have a $10 minimum bid, and each banner will have a $20 minimum bid. The minimum bidding increment is $1. You may specify a maximum amount you wish to bid for any heat. Then, the site will automatically increase your bid in $1 increments as needed until your maximum is exceeded by someone else.
  • There will be separate auctions for each heat of Day 1 during the Prelim Heat auction and the banners, and separate auctions for each heat of Day 2 during the Finals Heat auction. This will also allow you to potentially win multiple heats.
  • Bid as much as you want, as often as you want until the auction closes at 8:00p.m. ET on Wednesday, April 6.
  • We will send out an email to the winners, along with instructions on how to collect your winnings.
  • On Raceday, check in WELL BEFORE your heat at the BAA tent between Hill 2 and the Finish Line and sign the waiver. For commentators, we will provide you with additional instructions for when and where to meet.  For truck winners, you must be in the lead truck on Hill 1 before the start of your heat. If you’re late, then you miss your chance. The BAA cannot be the cause of delays.
  • Lead truck rides are transferable. If you can’t be in town or don’t like trucks, or you think your parents or friends might like to try it out, feel free to bid on an auction and then tell us who gets to take the ride. You can also just will it to your organization of choice and we’ll let the lucky team pick who gets to ride. All riders must be at least 18 years old.

If you have any questions, be sure to email Bryan at bryanarsham@cmubuggy.org or comment below, we want to address as much as we can before the auction.

We are, of course extremely thankful to sweepstakes for allowing us to use a spot in the lead truck to create this opportunity and raise some money so that the Buggy Alumni Association can pursue its mission to support buggy.

Fine Print Details

  • All heats will be auctioned simultaneously. Preliminary heats and banners will be awarded upon closing of the online auction on Wednesday; Finals heats will be awarded upon closing of the online auction on Friday.
  • The specific teams in each heat are preliminary and subject to change. Please stay tuned to cmubuggy.org for final heat schedules in case there are any last minute changes. Note that you are bidding on the HEAT, not the teams competing in the heat.
  • The bidding on the Preliminary Heats and Banners will start at noon ET on Monday, April 4th
  • Bidding on the Preliminary Heats and Banners will end at 8:00p.m. ET on Wednesday, April 6th
  • The bidding on the Finals Heats will start after Heats are selected on Friday afternoon.
  • Bidding on the Finals Heats will end at 9:00pm ET on Friday, April 8th
  • Payment must be received before winners take their rides. All payments must be made by credit card. Cash and Check will not be accepted.
  • All winning bids will be considered a gift to the Buggy Alumni Association. We have worked closely with the university to make sure that your gift to the BAA is also credited as a gift to Carnegie Mellon. Be assured that 100% of your gift will go to the Buggy Alumni Association. Also, if you’re an alum celebrating a reunion, your gift to the BAA will be counted towards your class totals.
  • For tax recognition purposes the donor can only claim their gift amount above the Fair Market Value of the Ride Auction. We are currently working with Carnegie Mellon to determine the Fair Market Value of the auction items, and will confirm that as soon as we have that information. Only the amount of your donation above the fair market value of the EVENT is tax deductible. Please consult your tax advisor for more information.
  • If two people specify the same maximum bid, and the auction ends without any higher bids, the person that entered their maximum bid first will be the winner.
  • The end time (8:00p.m. ET Wednesday April 6th for the Preliminary Auction, 9:00p.m. ET Friday for the Finals Auction) is fixed. There will be no extensions to allow for last minute bids. Get your bids in early and make use of the max bid feature!
  • Any heats that get rained out or otherwise cancelled will just void the auction for those heats. Of course, if winners of cancelled heats want to make their donations anyway, we won’t complain.
  • Winners should be present at the BAA tent between Hill 2 and the Finish Line at the end of the preceding heat. Failure to show up in a timely manner will result in forfeiting the ride. We can’t be the cause of any delays, so the Buggy Alumni Association will have to be conservative in our estimation of “timely manner.” Be there!
  • The Buggy Alumni Association and Sweepstakes reserve the right to refund donations from and refuse a ride to anyone that is intoxicated or otherwise unable to safely ride in the back of a truck.
  • No rides may violate Pennsylvania’s laws concerning riding in a pickup truck. Basically this means the passenger must be over 18.
  • Sweepstakes also reserves the right to cancel rides and have us refund donations if they need to for any reason.