Came across this idea many years ago in a book called Conjuring for Cash by Donn Davison in an estate sale.

Has anyone actually tried this? Is it workable in todays' market?

Basically it is this: A promotion done with a merchants association. Each merchant pays a flat fee (ammount depends on the market I suppost) and donates piece of merchandise valued at, say no less than, say,$100.00

They also get posters to advertise the auction and a big supply of 'magic dollars'. In the weeks preceeding the event, each customer of each store gets one of these to save and use as real money to bid on the merchandise that was donated.

Day/evening of the event..you give a magic show and is topped of with the 'Magic Auction' as just discribed...

That is it in a nutshell. Any comments?

The magician who actually worked this promotion successfully all over the South
in the 1960's is Harry Wise. Harry is still with us, but retired. He is currently working on a new book that will include complete information on the magic auction,
plus copies of the advertising.