Proof of silent auction ideas that work: Revisiting Printer’s Plates
A gorgeous printer's plate from an uplifting day in history for Cal Ripken and his fans made a great silent auction item at this benefit in Annapolis, MD.
A few months ago, I shared what a printer’s plate is and how to get it.
These plates make for nice silent auction items because they are unusual.
At a recent benefit auction, I was walking the silent auction with my client before guests arrived. As we approached these plates (see photos), she said, “We’re really excited about these.”
“Wow!,” I said, “I wrote about how to get these donated a few months ago, but I don’t often see them in auctions.”
“I know you wrote about it,” she said, “That’s how I got the idea.”
Turns out, this ambitious auction chair read every one of my blog posts and subscribed to my FREE e-zine (you can sign-up on the right) to prepare for her auction.
When she read my blog post about printer’s plates, she asked one of her auction team members to follow-up with a local newspaper.
The newspaper sent this group — wow! — two beautiful historical plates with copies of the front page framed.
She was so excited to have them in the auction. And now I was excited, too. I couldn’t believe how nice these were.
The newspaper donated two sports-related printer's plates.
These plates were different than what I’d seen donated from The Wall Street Journal. These were clearly more contemporary-looking. They were printed on a slick surface that seemed to be a plastic but almost looked like a metal.
Final numbers are still out, but early results indicate that the auction-related activities raised twice as much as in year’s past. They also hit a new attendance record.
(Let’s not forget that at the time of this writing, we’re still in a recession.)
Friends, making money at a benefit auction is simply a matter of using a proven system. Sign-up for my e-zine on the right where I share more info, twice a month.
Copyright (c) 2009 Red Apple Auctions LLC
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