Keep your guests and your venue in mind when procuring silent auction items. You want to have items that appeal to every taste and budget, but if you’re like most organizations, you’ll have limited viewing time and display space. Also, bear in mind that your silent auction space will (hopefully) be filled with guests looking the items over and placing bids. Give your audience time to look, bid, and bid again.
Many of our clients get hundreds of donated and procured items—far too many to display individually at your silent auction. To keep the volume under control, and make your items unique and more desirable, package as much as you can to create unique offerings. Listen to our procurement webinar series or read the procurement white papers in the Resource section of our Website to get some creative packaging ideas. The school auction webinar is a great resource, too.
There’s really no rule of thumb for the number of silent auction items you should have. Every bidder audience and every venue is unique, and there are too many variables to consider. Look at past silent auction history to guide your efforts. Some of our clients have silent auctions with over 500 items, and some have 20. It really depends on your audience.