Tips For Adding Items To Your Auction
Successfully Sourcing Auction Items Locally For Your Outing
There are many ways to source items for your silent or online auction. Here are the most popular ways to source auction items that are attractive for the bidding process:
- Donations from committee members and supporters
- Donations from local businesses in your community
- Items provided by event sponsors related to their business (dinner gift cards, for example)
- Rounds of golf from the golf course hosting your event and from committee member, supporters, sponsors, and players who belong to attractive golf courses in the area
- Trade sponsorships for auction items
- Partner with a reputable auction item supplier for consignment. Perfect Silent Auction can provide consignment items for your online or silent auction. You can view our catalog HERE.
- Purchase items with limited availability. This applies to validated memorabilia signed by athletes and entertainers.
If you need some item categories to get started, take a look at what’s below:
- Sports memorabilia with original signatures
- Framed photos from the sports, music, and entertainment world
- Tickets to sporting events and concerts
- Travel experiences
- Rounds of golf
- Wine tasting and dinner hosted by a donor
- Gift cards and gift certificates
- Art and collectibles
- Restaurant gift certificates
- Wine and gift basket
- Training sessions (golf, yoga)
- Spa days
Consignment Items vs. Purchased Items
A consignment auction item is an item that you purchase only if the item if sold during your online or silent auction. You work with a supplier (Perfect Golf Event has a large collection of consignment items) who has the auction items in their inventory. The supplier will provide the cost, description, and images for you to promote item. If sold, they will ship the item to the winner. You can also order consignment items to display at the silent auction at your event. If an item is not sold, you can return it and have no cost.
If you purchase an auction item, you are responsible for the cost of the item and need to have it sell to cover your cost. Select these items carefully to protect your costs!
Verifying If An Auction Item Is Authentic
This is important. For donated items, the donor might offer an item signed by an athlete or celebrity. You have no way to be sure the signature is authentic so ask the donor some details about how and when the signature was obtained. The story helps add to the credibility. However, you should state that the signature is based on the donor’s description and that you have not verified the signature through any official channels.
The same applies to artwork or other donated collectibles.
For consignment items, a legitimate supplier will provide an official “Certificate of Authenticity”. You can display it as one of your auction items photos and provide the certificate to the winner when shipping the item.
The Magic of Adding Photos and Descriptions
Think of each auction item as a house you want to sell. To sell your house at the highest cost, you certainly would have attractive photos uploaded with a full description of why you house is perfect.
Apply this to each auction item. Add clear photographs. For donated items, have someone with experience take the photographs. For consignment items, the supplier can provide professional photos.
For descriptions, be specific about the items features, size and any restrictions. Be sure to indicate shipping will be added to the final bid amount.
