Don’t let those “bid blockers” and “sheet stealers” ruin your auction!

If you’ve never seen one at your event, you’re lucky! While it’s great to have fast and furious bidding on your silent auction items, and it’s fun to watch that competition, too many times I’ve heard (or seen) heated bidders try to bend or break the rules of fair play.

I’ve seen Bid Blockers who square their shoulders and won’t let anyone else get to the bid sheet to bid against them, or Sheet Stealers who actually pick up or hide the bid sheet and try to sneak it back on the table right before closing time! I’ve actually seen someone rip up a bid sheet…twice! The same guy!

Anyway, if every year a few of your classroom projects or priceless opportunities create more bad blood than goodwill among your bidders, you’ve got a few options: either move those items to the main Live Auction, where peer pressure and encouragement will spur on the bidding, or post signs and make announcements reminding people that if your auctioneer sees a bidding war heat up, she plans to step over there and see who really wants it the most with an on-the-spot, mini live auction. It’s fun, it’s fast, and it’s fair.

But make sure to warn people first. And, of course, if you use mobile bidding for your silent auction, you’ll never have this issue again 🙂

What are your auctions most highly contested items year after year? How have you solved it?

Great way to make sure everyone sees your best silent auction items!

How do you make sure that the more significant, valuable or noteworthy items in your silent auction don’t get lost among the smaller items and packages?

Sure, you can make a small section of silent auction with somewhat larger displays, or target spot lighting (or both). For just a few dollars, you can really make a statement and get bidders’ attention.

Sometimes I call these “Almost Live” items, meaning that they were good enough for the live auction, but either we already had the live auction spots all filled, or this event doesn’t have a live auction.

Simply save the ready-to-print bid sheet as a PDF and have FedEx/Kinko’s blow it up to 20″ x 30″ for $4 (black and white). Whether it’s one item or 10, having a super-sized bid sheet will help ensure you get the eyeballs (and bids) you want.

Since color displays of this size would be crazy expensive (like $20-40 each), we just printed the color photos, slid into clear slip sleeves from Office Depot, and attached via O-ring and ribbon. Guests still bid just like a normal bid sheet, though we did have Sharpies on hand to make bids easier to see.

Which items will be SUPER at your next auction?

Think ahead to plan how you will display jewelry donations

Isn’t it a tiny bit sad when you see jewelry at auctions just lying flat on the table? Surely that isn’t the best way to showcase that donor’s contribution, or encourage the most bids?

Some options, from easiest to most elaborate:

1. Drape necklace over a corner of the plexi sign holder or description frame
2. Cut a length of pretty ribbon and attach earrings or bracelets to the ribbon
3. Gift-wrap (in a solid or metallic paper) a small flat box (perhaps 6″ x 8″ x 1″ high) to place the jewelry on
4. Buy stand up jewelry displays from Michael’s or from a Dollar Store
5. Arrange to borrow jewelry displays from the donor (but make sure to label so your donor gets them back)
6. Use lighted clear plexi boxes for luxury jewelry items to mimic the actual jewelry retailer effect.

By the way, an easy way to remember that you’ll need specialty display items before you get to the venue to set up is to add a column or field in your auction item database called “Needed for Display.” Here you can make months weeks or months in advance about how many easels, jewelry displays, gift-wrapped boxes, clip-on lighting, props or other display enhancements you’ll need to bring.

Here’s to better auction displays. Cheers!

Post Silent Auction closing times for each section

Don’t you get this question ALL the time?

“What time does the silent auction close?”

Or worse yet, you have patrons complaining after a section has already closed that they didn’t know.

You can put auction closing times in the program, but we all know hardly anyone reads the program, and especially not while they are shopping, holding a cocktail and an appetizer plate.

So put signs on each table or row, at least 2 per section. If you use 4″ x 6″ signage, put 6 or more on each row of tables. What’s the harm?

If there’s a chance (due to traffic, slow registration, or a quirky chairperson) that your silent auction closing times might change, here’s a secret: print several options for each section and just hide them behind the front one. For instance, you can have signage display “This section closes at 7:30” but also have a 7:40 and a 7:45 printed out and hidden behind, so if you have to change the rules on the fly, you can. Keep in mind, though, you need to do this in conjunction with big, bold, loud announcements to keep the crowd up to date. You don’t want to upset any bidders, so you can say over the microphone, “Folks, due to some heavy traffic we have guests just now arriving, so you’ll notice that this section will NOW close at 7:45. Please see the signs on each table.”

Make it easy for people to spend money – by being clear about the closing times!

(Note that with handheld (text) bidding, you won’t have this issue. Alerts about closing are sent to bidders’ devices, assuming they still have battery life!)

Make it clear which Bid Sheet matches which plexiglass or framed display

Let’s face it: at most silent auctions, there are a lot of items and bid sheets on the table. When you’re on the auction committee, it’s easy for you to know at a glance that the basket on the left with the blue ribbon is the “Family Fun Night” basket and the one on the right with the red ribbon is the “Italian Fest” basket (duh!). But to your guests, it’s all just a mash up of colors, fluff, and paperwork.

Make it easier for people to spend money by clearly labeling and numbering each package up for bid. I like to place each bid sheet directly in front of its plexi display, and I make sure the auction section and number on each are clearly visible.

Or you can invest in mobile (text) bidding and folks will see the image you’ve uploaded with each auction item 🙂

Don’t want to take a photo of each basket? Find a funny image

When I attend other auctions, I often see groups that don’t make a stand-up display for baskets or physical items, thinking that the item “sells itself.” I don’t agree.

I like the continuity that every auction lot, whether physical item or certificate-not-on-display, gets a standardized written description, displayed either in a frame, an acrylic slanted sign holder, or a foamboard with attached easel back. This makes the tables organized, balanced, consistent, and polished.

So, what do you put as a visual for a basket that’s right next to it on display? Sure, you could take a picture of the basket, but to me that doesn’t add anything, so I try to find an image (Google Images) that’s cute, funny, or will make the viewer chuckle with recognition. That wine basket gets the “I love wine” graphic, and the coffee basket gets the cutesy, “Life is short. Enjoy your coffee.”

OH, and make sure that a list of what’s in the basket is either in the typed description or attached by a nicely typed card attached to the actual basket.

Will your next auction have better basket descriptions?

If the donor sent a brochure, display it!

If you’ve ever been in the office or on the committee when donations come in the mail, you know that many of them include an informational or promotional piece, like a brochure, menu of services, takeout menu, postcard, folder, etc.

It may be your first inclination to give these items to the winning bidder, so you just stash them away in the winner’s envelope with the certificate.

DON’T!

In order to make it easy for people to spend money (one of my mantras), make sure promotional items that would help potential bidders understand an item, see the value, or get excited are put on display next to the bid sheet. Either stuff into a clear plexi sign holder, or, for small items, I lean them against a 4″ x 6″ plexi.

If you hide all the juicy details until after the bidding is over, you’ve lost the opportunity to promote your donors and encourage more (and higher) bids. Promote your items better next time!

Make it easy for people to spend money by hanging a poster listing this silent auction section’s items in order

Here’s a simple way to make it easier for people to shop your silent auctions.

This is just a table made in Excel with columns for the Item Number, Item Name, and an extra column where later you will write in the winning bidder’s name or number.

Simply save the table as a PDF, and then FedEx/Kinko’s can blow this up to a 20″ x 30″ for about $4 in black and white. You can tape or spraymount it onto a standard foam core board (about $4 at Michael’s craft store). If you’re going to hang it, attach a cord or ribbon.

These boards should be easily visible (up high!) within each auction section, and make sure that the items are then displayed in the order listed on the board. Guests should be able to look up at the board, see “514 Massage, Mani, Pedi” and walk right to that bid sheet to bid. If you have electronic (text) bidding, signage like this still helps guests to see what items interest them at a glance.

After each silent auction section closes, it’s fast and easy to write in winning bidders and display these in front of the Checkout area so patrons can easy check to see who won.