I was at a church fundraiser gala which included a silent and a live auction. The items up for bid in the live auction were high-end goods and services, plus a couple of weekend getaways at luxury properties. However, when I went to the silent auction area, I was astonished to see that all the items looked as though they had come out of someone’s basement, where they had been stored for a long, long time.
Event guests were dutifully walking through the area looking at the items on offer—but no one was lingering to look or stopping to write down bids. How bad was it? Some guests were even involuntarily wrinkling up their noses at some of the more dingy items.
Your auction isn’t a garage sale. Having items in your silent auction that are shopworn, or that have clearly been used, brings down your auction’s quality, reflects poorly on your organization—and takes guests out of “shopping mode”. When requesting item donations for your silent auction, specify that donated items must be new and unused. By adding that caveat to your request, you can tactfully decline to accept shopworn items.