Five Ways To Get Consignment Items For A Silent Auction

Let’s talk about how people source the items that they want to show off in a silent auction setting.

First of all, as we pointed out on the blog and elsewhere on the website, it’s important to have items that carry some value. It’s very hard to run a silent auction with extremely cheap items, or things that don’t reach out and grab your target audience. That just makes sense, when you think about it from the bidder’s perspective. 

So one quick tip is to associate the items that you get with the cause that you’re trying to advance, or the organization that you’re trying to work with. There are many creative ways to do that, and they are likely to boost your auction results. 

All that aside, where do you get these items, anyway? We’ll talk about that a little in the context of how you can use our modern silent auction site for success. 

Local Businesses

Some local businesses may want to be part of local public events. But maybe they don’t know quite how to go about that. When you do the initial outreach and ask them to be involved, it often fosters those kinds of connections that make sense down the road. So this is one place to look for silent auction items, if you’re stumped and just don’t know where to go. 

 

Committee Members

People who are involved in a particular cause or charity already have ‘skin in the game.’ They may be a place to go for silent auction items. They might have the perfect thing in their garage or basement that could be used to generate interest in one of these online events. Just ask!

Sponsors

If you have a local business that is already a sponsor, that’s ideal. You can get what you need for putting on the best silent auction around, with appealing items that catch everyone’s eye. That’s the best case scenario. But at least you can start building up a catalog of items to sell in a silent auction and get money for whatever you’re trying to do!

Buy the Items Yourself

Yes, a busy silent auction manager or management team can go out and buy the items themselves. One place to start is local thrift shops or places where items with some pretty good value may be sold cheaply. But it doesn’t hurt to sink some money into your silent auction items, either, because of the kinds of issues that we raised above.

Our Consignment Items

We actually have consignment items on hand for silent auctions. Ask us about how to access this catalog and think about it as an alternative for silent auction events that are going to be successful when it’s go-time. We have the right stuff to get your auction going!