Using Consignment Items to Augment Donations

The planning for your event is well underway—but your procurement isn’t keeping pace with your revenue goal. What do you do if your target list of procurement items isn’t materializing? Consignment items are an option to augment procurement for your benefit event.

There are many companies that offer consignment items from art and sports memorabilia to travel packages, all designed to enhance your auction. Consignment items can generate interest and bidding excitement among your guests with no risk to your organization. The typical process is to reserve the items, offer them at your event, and after the auction, order the items that are sold at the auction. In most cases, your organization keeps the difference between the winning bid and the package cost – sometimes hundreds or thousands of dollars.

Consignment items are easy to obtain and are often highly desirable items that can generate substantial revenues and boost the overall appeal and excitement at your auction. Keep in mind that you can usually sell each package more than once at your event (check with the consignment vendor regarding multiple sales of a single item before you reserve). If you get into a bidding war on a particular package, you can offer that same package to two bidders—and double your revenue.

The drawback about consignment items is that you don’t get to keep all the money – the advantage is that you can get items that you couldn’t otherwise. Some packages are also restrictive in how they can be reserved and sold, so do your homework when seeking a consignment vendor prior to reserving the items.