FYI: I would be leery about auctioning a de-accessioned object or other item on e-bay using an anonymous/individual account for a number of reasons, that boil down to the appearance of being deceitful/evasive (especially for tax/accounting documentation). e-bay rules prohibit fundraising (for a non-profit) unless you sell as an individual or organizational e-bay member via e-bay's 'missionfish' (by which a non-profit is already a member of). Otherwise, the only way for a non-profit to sell/auction with an ebay account used by an organization or an individual, requires that the organization's name be indicated. It is also required that the directors' signed permission and the non-profit's 501 (c) (3) ID# be scanned and presented on the actual auction listing. An example of a way to avoid all this would be to give the de-accessioned item to someone who is not affiliated with the museum (and provide documentation that no monies, etc., were exchanged) and trust that they will sell it (on ebay or other means) without affiliating it with the name of the museum. And then trust that they donate the proceeds to the museum and that they collected and will pay sales tax from the sale of the item (if applicable). Now this would be your public relation's or even tax nightmare -if it became known that a de-accessed object was sold in such a round-about manner. Museums bid and win auctions on ebay quite often. Personally I've never come across an item being auctioned by or on behalf of a museum, but I have seen museums bid on and win auctions. The reason for de-accessioning an item should be a valid reason to begin with and therefore one that you can refer to in an auction listing. And it is important to indicate that the proceeds from the auction are earmarked for a specific (or general) purpose...organizational costs, or for a particular program/project. 'Monetary valuing' is inconsequential when auctioning an item for fundraising. What I was referring to was the re-sale of an artifact - that is different. I believe that it would be appropriate to have a stipulation for the auction winner that, if the item were to be re-sold, the museum name should in no manner be referred to in a subsequent transaction (mainly, to not give the impression that there would be any proceeds from such a sale that would again, benefit the museum if there is indeed, none). I don't believe that there is 'trade-off' along the lines for which you are thinking, and quite the adverse when you consider your accounts receivable, sales taxes, and the monetary proceeds as a donation, etc. Doing things on the sly are just that and will always have the potential of coming back to haunt you. Being honest and clear about the reasons for de-accessing an object and the proceeds in affiliation with your museum will do more good than harm. Personally, if I donated something to a museum (what if I myself had gotten for free or at little cost?) and they didn't need it - I would be more than thrilled if it got big bucks in an auction and even more thrilled that the proceeds were more of a contribution than a useless, or even worthless item. Pam In a message dated 9/20/2005 3:21:02 P.M. Eastern Daylight Time, [log in to unmask] writes: Pam, My comment was really focused on eBay auctions. My thought with eBay is that it reaches so many people (not a discrete set of buyers) that it would be prudent to not have that association known. It might impact the value the piece sells for without the association, but in my mind, for my institution, I think that trade-off is acceptable. I don't think the Museum itself would be listed as the seller. Probably we would use an anonymous individual seller's account so the connection to my institution was not apparent. (Assuming we even disposed of an item via eBay.) From a broader perspective, I feel, given my history museum perspective (probably different from the art world), that we should not encourage the monetary valuing of artifacts or encourage the thinking that something is more valuable because it once belonged to a museum. Stacey Pamela Silvestri, Museum Assistant Northeast States Civilian Conservation Corps Museum Shenipsit State Forest 166 Chestnut Hill Road Stafford Springs, Connecticut 06076 (860) 684-3430 ========================================================= Important Subscriber Information: The Museum-L FAQ file is located at http://www.finalchapter.com/museum-l-faq/ . You may obtain detailed information about the listserv commands by sending a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "help" (without the quotes). If you decide to leave Museum-L, please send a one line e-mail message to [log in to unmask] . The body of the message should read "Signoff Museum-L" (without the quotes).