Auction guests often look at trees — or any large cumbersome auction item — and think, “How would I ever get it home?” They’ll admire the item, but they won’t bid.  They’ll talk themselves out of bidding because getting the item home seems like too much work.

To address this concern, offer to deliver the auction item to the winning bidder.

You might offer free delivery for some items within a 10, 20, or 30 miles radius (use a radius that makes sense for your community).  Or charge a small fee.  Delivering oversized auction items is a great job for a volunteer with a pickup truck!

You can post a sign on the item or near it that advertises the delivery service.  This will squelch any concerns your guest has about getting it home.   The sign might say, “Free delivery on Monday to any home within 10 miles ($25 charge to outlying suburbs),” or “This auction item can be delivered for $XX to any home in the 10021 zip code.”

You’ve got to CYA (cover your arse)…

I heard a story from a West coast benefit auctioneer who was selling a grand piano in (I think) San Francisco.  To alleviate delivery concerns, the nonprofit offered free delivery.  Turns out the piano sold to someone in New York City!  The nonprofit hadn’t clarified that the free delivery was good only for the immediate area and ended up paying a pretty penny to have the item shipped to New York.

Don’t let that happen to you.  Clarify that “free delivery” is limited to your immediate area.

Looking for other auction ideas?  Get your FREE Benefit Auction Ideas here.

© 2010 Red Apple Auctions Co.  All Rights Reserved.

Powerwashing can be a dirty job, but I love it! I'm bit of a gardener, like imaginary Helen in the blog post.

Here’s a straightforward charity auction idea as it relates to procurement:

Ask someone to donate something that he or she was going to do anyway.

Assume Helen is one of the Mom’s at your child’s school.  The woman’s skin is so tan you swear she’s at the pool every day.

Nope.  She’s in her garden.

Her husband and she bought a modest-sized house with a large yard.  She’s done unbelievable things with the place.

Flowers, shrubs and trees.  Sun to shade.  Verdant patios.

Helen is who you should tap as an auction donor for garden services.

Sure, you can ask a nursery for a $100 gift card, but Helen – not the nursery – is a crown jewel in your charity auction.

Helen’s passion is plants, so these are easy auction “donations” for her:

• She’ll give the winning bidder expensive cuttings
• She’ll offer customized advice as to “what plant where”
• She’ll offer tips for your gardening “zone”
• And I’d bet my bottom dollar that some of her plants are from a breeder.  That means your winning bidder will get some unique plant varieties not readily available, even at that upscale nursery.

(We offered a drawing at my Garden Club tour for this type of advice and sold tickets LIKE CRAZY for this package.)

Helen would easily spend 3 hours doing garden-related work with a winning bidder.  She loves to garden anyway.  She’s got to divide her hostas anyway.  She’s going to buy pricey plants anyway.

If you outline a package you’d like her to donate, it’s no skin off Helen’s back to do any of these activities.

And then there’s Bob.

Bob isn’t a professional handyman but [imagine the conversation], “He single-handedly built that new addition on the back of his and Joanne’s home, and oh-my-God have you seen how fabulous it is?  I only wish my husband could do that…”

Bob’s ‘handyman’ services are legendary.  He’s a marketing guy by day and “fools around’ with power tools at night.  But clearly, the man knows what he’s doing.

It’s his hobby.  It’s his passion.

Bob may not be in the business of building homes, but everyone trusts his work.

Tap into Bob.

• Will he build an extra birdhouse when he’s building one anyway?
• Will he teach five kids how to operate a circular saw in his garage when he’s out there every Saturday anyway?
• Will he go as far as to frame out some windows?

Ask him to donate, suggest ideas, and see what he says.

Forego asking 1-800-Handyman for a donation because the crowd will better respond to Bob.

When you ask people for a donation for a service they already enjoy (their hobby), giving to you becomes a pleasure.  (And charity auction acquisitions become easier!)

It allows them to share their passion with someone else. They’re teaching about something they love, and who doesn’t enjoy talking about their love?

Whether it’s photography, technology, bird-watching, or quilting, tap into your auction donors’ hobbies and your guest’s interests to watch revenues rise at your next charity auction.

Want more auction procurement ideas?  Get our (free) Auction Item Guide instantly .

(c) 2010 Red Apple Auctions LLC.  All rights reserved.

Usually the question goes like this, “Sherry, how many live auction items do you recommend we sell in our charity auction?”

We contemplate that question in the same way we think about prunes: “Will three get the job done?  Is eight too many?”

Here’s what I’ve learned: If the gala’s timeline has already been determined, my recommendation doesn’t matter.

A specific amount of time … 20 minutes … 45 minutes … 70 minutes … has been allotted. Now I need to work with the client to choose the items because we must match a timeframe.

So now I respond to that question with, “How much time have you set aside for the live auction?” If they haven’t yet set the timeline, we’ve got flexibility. We look at other factors (like those below).

I know how long it takes on average to sell different items. Front-row seats at a high-school graduation will take a different length of time than a private concert with Grammy award-winner Emmanuel Ax. By knowing what they have to sell and how much time they’ve allotted, I can tell whether we need to cut the number of auction items — or find more time in the program.

I’ve sold anywhere from two items to 40 items. But what’s the perfect number for your charity auction?

There is no exact number which works for everyone, but here are five points to keep in mind.

1. Are you using a professional charity auctioneer?

A professional charity auctioneer will be able to sell more items in any given timeframe than someone who is not a professional.

We’re in front of people asking for money all the time. We can read faces, and know when to push.

Second, the entire reason “the chant” (the fast talk) was developed was to sell items quickly. Although your charity auctioneer will not chant as quickly at your gala as would be heard at, say, a livestock sale, it does speed the sale along.

A good charity auctioneer will want to say a few brief remarks on stage. She’ll introduce her team; he’ll thank the committee. Trust me, you want this, even though it might take 2 or 3 minutes. This might be the first time the audience gets to experience your auctioneer’s personality. Later, when the bidding is underway, people will give more money to someone they like over someone who only asks them for money.

Isn’t the same true for you? If a development officer cold calls someone to ask for $10,000, what are the odds she’ll get the donation? Isn’t it nicer to have a warm lead? The same is true for an auctioneer, and opening remarks help.

When I was less experienced, I let a client dictate my performance on stage. Because she had scheduled the event too tightly, she didn’t want me to say anything – not even my name. “Just go on stage and say, “The first item is X” and sell it,” she said.

Ugh! That auction was such a disaster.  I eliminated all of my opening remarks, had no audience rapport, and (because there were so few items to sell) had a hard time building rapport through the sale itself. NEVER again.

In short, your charity auctioneer’s experience and chant will pay dividends when determining how many items you can sell and secure top dollar for your items!

2. Do you have good / exciting auction items?

If you’re selling exciting items with a wide-appeal, you can sell more items in the live auction.

If you are selling run-of-the-mill items … ordinary baskets, most gift certificates, generic items … you will lose your audience unless you can structure the event to keep them in their seats. (This type of challenge gets into a charity auction’s “bells & whistles“.)

3. Is the crowd standing or sitting?

This is a pretty simple concept. Seated guests will be more comfortable than standing guests, and you can sell more items in the live auction. You can even take this a step further and analyze the comfort of the chairs.

I used to do some marketing work for a church. When planning workshops, we would take into consideration the uncomfortable chairs the church had. An all-day workshop was a harder sell because those familiar with the chairs wouldn’t pay for a full-day of learning if they had to sit in those chairs.

4. What else will the crowd enjoy (or endure)?

In addition to the live auction, will your guests be seated through 30 minutes of presentations? Or a 45-minute choral concert?

Maybe you’ve heard this phrase: The mind can stand only what the butt can endure. At some point, we humans need to stand up and walk.

In my work, I’ll talk with clients about their schedule. We might move the live auction to a different part of the program once I know the other elements of the gala. I might recommend that the live auction might be the first activity of the program … the last … or somewhere in the middle.

5. What’s your financial goal for the live auction?

Whatever I sell in the live auction will bring in more money than if that same item is sold in the silent auction. It’s a fact.

So if there is a specific financial goal to hit in the live auction — and we don’t have the right items or enough items to hit that goal — we need to add auction items. Your “perfect” number may be adjusted to reach your financial goal.

Whether you sell five auction items or forty items, it might be right for your group. Your charity auctioneer will have the perfect number for you.

Our Auction Item Guide is the most requested item on our site. It lists the top100 items selling over value.  Use it at your next charity auction meeting.

© 2009 Red Apple Auctions Co.  All Rights Reserved.

As seen on the shelf in my grocery store: Oprah's Dec 2009 "O Magazine" cover has a teaser in the upper right corner about winning a trip "to the Oprah Show."

I am often asked what is the best auction item to secure for an auction fundraiser.

Easy answer:  Tickets to The Oprah Winfrey Show

In your fundraising auction, Oprah will outsell tickets to the Superbowl, a private helicopter charter to a Relaix and Chateaux property, and even the chance for a Presidential meet-and-greet.

Friends, when Oprah tickets are up against any other auction item, it is — to borrow a WWE term — an Oprah SmackDown.

As one auction guest told me, “Even if you aren’t a huge fan of Oprah, she’s so generous, you might happen to be in the audience on the day she gives everybody some fabulous gift … like a car.”

Last week, Oprah announced she’s leave the show in the the fall 2011, at the end of its 25th season.  But she’s not retiring.  She’ll reappear in some fashion on her new venture, The Oprah Winfrey Network, which will replace the Discovery Health channel.

So right now, I imagine that Oprah and her team are busy planning one heck of a 2-year-long going-away party.  I predict that these last few months of her show will be stellar.  I suspect she’ll include twice as many surprises.  And I know that any group which manages to secure tickets to any one of her final shows will make an awful lot of money for its fundraising auction.  Wahoo!  

My advice: Draft your letter.

1. If you know someone affiliated with The Oprah Winfrey Show — or even someone affiliated with similar shows — always start by asking your contact.  Knowing somebody who knows somebody might be all it takes to get some of the limited VIP audience tickets often set aside for talk shows.
2. If that’s not an option, draft your letter.  Write to the show, explain your cause, and ask for tickets.  You’ll have a better shot if your cause is one that is aligned to Oprah’s beliefs: living your best life, being true to yourself, helping children, etc.  If this doesn’t sound like your charity, save your time (and Oprah’s) by directing your efforts on securing a different auction item.  (For a related post, I talked about the importance researching a celebrity’s interests here.)
   

P.P.S.  If you personally want to secure tickets to The Oprah Winfrey Show, the acquisition steps are different.  I’ll outline the process here, only because I suspect some readers would like to know.

A few years ago, The Oprah Winfrey Show had a call-in process.  It’s since been transferred to an Internet-based reservation lottery system on www.Oprah.com.  Fans can become a (free) member on the site, and — once inside your member profile site — access the Show Reservations area. When the reservation window is open, you are able to submit your request.  (P.S.  At the time of this writing, the window is not open as no shows are being taped in December 2009. The window will re-open in January 2010.)

Within 24 hours of the reservation window closing, the seats are filled by a random selection process.  If you are one of the chosen, you’ll be sent an email.  You’ll have 48 hours to respond to the instructions in order to claim your tickets.  (And by the way … you’ll need to provide the first and last names and ages of all of your guests when you submit for a reservation!  In addition to the lottery, this added level of detail is part of why it’s difficult to get tickets, and why you would not follow this format if you are trying to acquire tickets to be donated to a charity.)

Finally, Oprah’s site makes it clear that only tickets received through the show’s reservation system are valid, and that people should not be paying for tickets.  That said, I do know legitimate charities have received Oprah tickets to sell at their non-profit fundraisers.  Clearly, those tickets are coming through other channels and not through the “en masse” reservation system on the Website.  So although repeated entries through the show’s online reservation might improve your odds of winning tickets for your personal use, those tickets are not likely eligible for sale in an auction fundraiser.

Copyright (c) 2009 Red Apple Auctions LLC