Wrap your silent auction basket with clear plastic wrap

By Sherry · Friday, December 11th, 2009

Here's a cute silent auction item! It's a 'tween sleepover bag stuffed with appropriate items.

Here's a cute silent auction basket item! It's a 'tween sleepover bag stuffed with appropriate items.

At a smaller benefit auction, you can skate by being a little “loosey-goosey” in the way you present a silent auction basket. At larger fundraisers, you need to step up your game.

Here are some advantages of wrapping a basket in clear plastic / cellophane.

1) Contents can’t fall out. Sometimes items are dropped. Sometimes items get tipped over. Nothing spills out when that basket is wrapped.

2) Items can’t be swapped between baskets. Whose to stop sneaky Silvia from slyly exchanging the $50 Shell gift card with a $50 Best Buy gift card from a nearby unwrapped basket?

3) Prevents theft. If your silent auction is in a large hotel where hotel guests — or anyone — could meander through, theft can become a concern. It’s easy to pocket a small item from a basket; it’s trickier to walk out with the entire auction basket.

I couldn't resist squeezing this plush hippo's nose a few times when I walked by. But the open basket also makes it easy to swipe the contents.

I admit it. I grabbed and squeezed this hippo's adorable nose every single time I walked by. (That's another reason to wrap it up. Keep germy hands from squeezing the plush toy!)

4) The contents can be “frozen” into place so they don’t move.

This has two sub-advantages.

First, the items are more stable. They don’t move easily. Breakable items become less so.

Second, you can make the auction basket look more attractive. You can display it in such a way that it appears that there is more stuff in the container than there really is.

This is the same concept professional photographers use when they shoot the contents of, say, a fruit basket or popcorn bucket. The container is filled with filler, and the good stuff — the stuff you are interested in buying — is bursting from the top.

It looks tempting. “Wow,” you think, “I get all that for $50?!”

5) Keeps the contents clean. Some items are as squeezable as Charmin but you really don’t want your guests to squeeze them. See my caption under photograph #2 for more information on this.

These gift cards would be very easy to swipe from the basket. Better to wrap it up.

6) Makes the auction basket more portable for pick-up and carry-out. In the rush of pick-up, you’ll appreciate the “grab-and-go” convenience of a shrink-wrapped auction item.

Incidentally, shrink-wrapping an auction basket or putting them into cellophane bags is an activity often reserved for the decor committee overseeing the silent auction.

For more great ideas, get your free Auction Item Guide™.

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