I know that I will be too late for this year's auction, but for next year. Has anyone tried the Vegas Hotels? I was wondering if they would give a stay?
We have a really strange situation this year that has been upsetting and frustrating to those taking their timeto solicit items. And keep in mind that the principal is a co chair! We had two items mailed to the school that were misplaced! One was an expensive item too and parent volunteer had notified the principal of when the item was due to arrive ect..A couple of month later the parent asked about the item and was told it never arrived. Parent had a tracking receipt so people at school looked for it and finally found it! Then we had a couple of local business report to a volunteer that they spoke with principal and said they had items to donate. No one was ever sent to pick the items up! Parent doing the soliciting was very mad and the local business upset with principal now! Also our chair sent out updated list of items we received and saw one he was expecting was not on the list. When he contacted the company with a friendly reminder he was told the item was shipped a month before! Chair then said oh yeah we have it, I just didn't put it onthe list! Parent was very embarassed because the company was then concerned where their donation was. So now the volunteers involved in the above have politely disappeared from or committee. And oddly the. Rest of us were told our help was not needed the night of the event. People worked on this all school year and now not allowed to feel part of things on the night of the event. Strange. Everyone has a bad taste in their mouth this year and odd that a school official would let this go on.
I am no expert, but from attending auctions as a buyer I would say there are some items that will bring in more money if sold individually and others if they are part of a package. It can be tricky. I also find some packages frustrating. While it does make for a nice package I often see a great local restaurant paired with a local hotel for a home town getaway. Me and many others have no real interest in a local hotel but do want the restaurant and might pay more than face value for the restaurant. I also don't like when packages have items that are not really that relevant to each other. I once saw a package for a really nice dinner cruise in a city that required a day trip paired with tickets to a zoo in that city. Strange. Don't think I,d get all grungy at a zoo and then go board and elegaant dinner cruise. Lol I think those two items would have been better seperate and at least face valueif not more brought in on the dinner cruise by itself. Just because two items are in the same city doesn't mean they go together. Other thing when highly relevant to each other and lower cost items can work better as a package...like an AAA membership and vouchers for car washes ect...Putting those items seperate could give more of the garage sale feel. The trick is ti figure out what to package and what will bring in the most money if it stands alone. Also too many items in one ackage can put people off. Simple is better.
Anne - I know every school/ community is different, so I just wanted to share our numbers. (We are a mid-sized city with a very mixed demographic). This is my first year chairing the auction and I am trying to go with what worked for the last committee. They had over 300 items (including live items, for-sale items, but majority being silent items) for 130 or so guests. They sold most everything and raised over $45k. I'm very nervous for our event this coming Saturday, and am hoping that we can do as well . . .
I agree with Karen on having balance, and in trying to stagger the price points of your packages, in order to have items affordable to every pocketbook. There is a formula that will help you to have the correct number of items.
If you have too many items, then you have more of a garage sale with everyone walking away with really great deals and not raising as much money as possible for your charity. If you have to few items, then the very fast bidding will move items beyond most people's purses and a good time will not be had, affecting people's decision not to return next year, and leaving people who did not donate to your charity.
The magic is in having enough items to have busy bidding, but not too many. Here is the formula (number of people / 2 = number of households / 2 = number of items). So if you are expecting 100 people divide by 2 equals the number of households =50, then divide by 2 again=25 which gives you the number of items. In this case the auction would have between 25 and 30 packages staggered between the lowest and highest price points. You may have to divide one package into two or you may have to combine two packages into one in order to have the correct number of packages for your auction.
It is also nice to have things that people can purchase outright. Like a donation for a wine pull, or a donation for a surprise box or a donation for a visor with your logo on it.
I took an auction seminar last fall and a previous one the winter before. Both seminars used this formula.
