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You are here: Home / Blog Post / What’s the BEST number of auction items? (Live auction)
Jan 20

What’s the BEST number of auction items? (Live auction)

Sherry Truhlar Leave a Comment

live auction display at Virginia nonprofit auction

During the reception at this Virginia fundraiser, I chatted with guests about the live auction items, like this trip.

Enjoy this series on determining the best number of auction items for your event.

  • How many silent auction items are best.
  • Today’s post on how many live auction items are ideal.
  • How many online auction items are good.
  • The influence of mobile bidding on terminology.

Back in 2009 I wrote a post about how many live auction items you should sell. I’m making some updates.

What’s the best number of auction items for our live auction?

The two biggest factors affecting your ideal number of live items are these:

D.C> Benefit Auctioneer Sherry Truhlar stands with White House behind her

Snapped this right before stepping inside a law firm to oversee a live auction in downtown Washington, D.C. Check out that view of the White House!

1. How much time are you willing to devote to the live auction?

It takes me about 3 minutes to sell an item.  Some auctioneers sell more quickly; others more slowly.

(For the purposes of your planning, find out the average length of time to sell an item and plan accordingly.)

This means that I can sell 20 items in an hour. Add extra time for opening announcements, a Fund a Need, raffle drawings, and similar activities.

2. How much money do you need / want to raise?

This was shot as I was leaving the building, after a great live auction held in a Maryland live music venue.

This was shot as I was leaving the building, after a great live auction held in a Maryland live music venue.

Take any item from your silent auction, sell it in the live auction, and you’ll sell it for more money. Always.

So if it’s important to hit a specific goal in your live auction (e.g. “We must raise $60k to reach out budget.”) then WORK WITH YOUR AUCTIONEER to figure out how many items you need to sell to hit that goal. Based on your event, it might be 3 items or 25 items or 70 items. This is a number unique to you.

Last year a client I’ve worked with for a few years was rushed to organize her auction. Procurement wasn’t as robust as in previous years. She emailed me her list of live auction items and I immediately was concerned. I sent an email, preparing her for the inevitable.

“Based on your crowd and past sales,” I wrote, “my prediction is that we’ll raise about half of what we did last year in the live auction. Are you OK with that? If so, do you want to tell your Executive Director or shall I? I don’t want anyone blindsided by the results.”

We sold the items for 1½ times (148% ROI) of what they were worth, which is fabulous. Even so, our gross sales were about $50,000 less than the previous year. I’d done my job by preparing her and was thrilled I had enough history with the client to accurately predict what would happen on auction night. (This is one advantage of having a long-term relationship with your auctioneer.)

Other factors affecting your best number of auction items in the live auction:

How entertaining is your auctioneer?

One of my school clients has me sell more items than their previous auctioneer because time seems to pass more quickly when I’m on stage. You’ll find variations among auctioneers you know, too.

Is the crowd seated or standing?

Guests become restless more quickly when they are standing. Consider the heel height of your patrons.

Do you have other programmatic elements?

The live auction is often one of many activities happening onstage during the event. You might have speeches, awards, videos, performances, and other programmatic elements to which you must budget time. You might have to be happy with a shorter live auction in order to allow these other pieces to fit into the event.

The averages

  • As I work around the country, I’ve noticed that the number of live auction items deemed “acceptable” seems to vary by region. Among my client base, most of my school clients will sell 15-20 items in their live auction. However, one school sells 10 items, and a couple others sell nearly 40 items each.
  • Among my nonprofits, the typical number of items sold in the live auction ranges from 5-12.
  • And of course, one of the growing areas of my auction business is to skip the auction completely! (Go figure!) In those cases, I work with the nonprofit to design a well-crafted Fund a Need. (There are several types of speeches one might deliver for a Fund a Need, depending on the situation. You can watch a video of me delivering one style on this page.)

In short, the best number of live auction items for you is unique.  Work with your auctioneer to figure that out.

lucrative-live-auctions-volume-2-book-1And, if learning all the ins and outs of live auctions is of interest to you, here’s the defining resource on live auction planning: Lucrative Live Auctions. This DVD and workbook is beset watched by your entire procurement team and then handed off the next year for continued support of your auction and the new volunteers.

You’ll learn about what items are best sellers in live auctions, how to order items, where to get the right items, better sales strategies (using simple human psychology), how to sell similar items, and much more. Read the full details on the page.

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Copyright © 2015 Red Apple Auctions Co. All Rights Reserved

About Sherry Truhlar

Fundraising auctioneer and educator, helping schools and nonprofits plan more profitable benefit auctions. A prolific writer for her own blog and other fundraising sites, she’s been covered in The Beacon-News, Town & Country Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Northern Virginia Magazine, Wiley's Special Events Galore!, AUCTIONEER, and other publications.

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Sherry, oh, Sherry! You were an invaluable asset to this year’s gala. With your assistance we were able to add so many new elements that truly made a difference in taking our event to another level. This year was the most successful yet! Everyone loved you and the amazing energy that you brought to the event. We look forward to having you again in 2018!

Krystal Fenwick
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Thank you so much for the outstanding job you did for us on April 1! I have received so much positive feedback from so many who attended. You even earned Sister Suzan’s (our Vice-Principal) seal of approval! Safe travels to all your many events and thank you for making our biggest fundraiser of the year our best ever!

Diane Albano, Director of Development
St. Joseph Academy Catholic High School (St. Augustine, FL)
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Sherry is flexible and easy to work with. She gives honest feedback and advice throughout the planning and implementation process. Without a doubt, Sherry and Red Apple Auctions has helped take our annual fundraising event to the next level.

Beckie Middendorf, Development Director and Janet Gulla, Development Coordinator
St. Henry District High School (Erlanger, KY)
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Sherry is “on board” from day one of auction planning, works closely with our steering committee and is only just a phone call away. The night of the auction, we toss her the keys and let her drive the event! We are never disappointed!

Charly Ryan, Director of Institutional Advancement
The Academy of the Holy Cross (Kensington, MD)
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I was very fortunate to have Red Apple on board for my first auction. Working with Sherry was invaluable. She provided guidance at every phase of planning, from procurement on forward – and she challenged us to make our event more ambitious and more successful at every stage. Thank you, Sherry!

Pete Goldlust, Director of Development
Oak Hill School (Eugene, OR)
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If your auction needs to upgrade, call any auctioneer you find on Google. But if you want your auction to be impressive, meaningful, and profitable, you need to call Sherry.

Erin Banda
2016 NYUMBANI Board member
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The auction was entertaining .. proactive … the crowd was involved and felt a part of it,” he said, emphasizing, “The entertainment value was huge.

Darrell, a long-time attendee
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We plan on booking Red Apple Auctions much earlier for our next event so we can take advantage of more of the pre-event offerings.

Nicole Carr, Director of Grants and Special Events
The Ivymount School (Rockville, MD)
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Sherry, personally, I can’t even begin to tell you the immense amount of positive feedback that I received having YOU (and Darby) there with is this year! Some of the tidbits: You added EXCITEMENT and ENTERTAINMENT… You added EXPERTISE and FUN… You helped the evening FLOW, in a wonderful and positive direction… You were FUN,… Read The Rest “Anne Livaudais Knudsen, 5th year gala co-chair”

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Aren’t KK and Michael a cute couple? They liked that I “moved the crowd along … kept the crowd engaged but wasn’t obtrusive or invasive. We were able to talk but still keep track of what was going on.”

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You have NO idea of how many people came up to me (I know Julie as well) and said, ‘That auctioneer was incredible … she engaged the crowd, … she got the bidders to bid without being rude/pushing, … I loved observing her, I just watched her, … she did a great job.’ It was… Read The Rest “Staci Meruvia”

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Geri said: “Great job of getting potential donors in the room to step up to the plate and not feel guilty or bad about it. They actually wanted to give more … and that’s not something I’ve seen in many other auctioneers.” The following year, she herself ‘stepped up’ and became one of the gala… Read The Rest “Geri”

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Irene attended one of my New Hampshire auctions and assumed I must be a radio personality — until I started to chant that fast talk. “I’ve been to this event before with a couple of other auctioneers,” she said, “Your ability to get personal with people in a way that isn’t intimidating — men, women,… Read The Rest “Irene”

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Most product & consulting remarks are found on their respective webpages, but I’ve listed two below so you’re assured my products are as spot-on as my auctioneering.   Not only was our 2013 auction a blast, but our Washington, D.C. public school raised $67,000 — that’s $25,000 more than last year! The evening went off… Read The Rest “Carolyn Kahn-Hall and Andrea Del Vecchio”

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As a former Fox News Anchorwoman, I am often called on to perform at auctions. So, I know first-hand that auctioneering can be a difficult job. Sherry Truhlar is one of the best in the business. She is skillful at managing an audience and keeping them focused on the task at hand – which is… Read The Rest “Cynthia Steele Vance”

Cynthia Steele Vance
Guest at The Potomac School 2014 auction (McLean, VA)
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