How to Curate Live Auction Items for Your Upcoming Fundraisers

The success of your live auction often depends on the items people can bid on. But procuring attention-grabbing auction items is no easy task. More often than not, you end up calling and emailing a wide array of businesses, hoping they’ll be willing to donate to your auction. This approach ends one of two ways: you end up empty-handed, or you don’t hear back. In this blog, the ClickBid team shares top tips for procuring your live auction items.

Your Step-by-step Guide to Curating Live Auction Items

Rather than sending out random requests to businesses, effectively curating high-value live auction items requires a strategic approach. Let’s walk through the key steps to securing your item lineup.

#1. Set Goals

There is a common saying amongst auctioneers that goes, “The winning bidder doesn’t make your money. The second placed bidder does.” In other words, you want to find live auction items that are so desirable they create a bidding war. 

The best way to start doing that is by setting goals for your live auction items. By doing this, you can prevent yourself from listing too many items or ending up with items no one wants. The secret? Aim for quality items over quantity. 

Use this quick checklist to ensure your items are popular with bidders:

• Does the item have a high perceived value?
• Does the item appeal to many people?
• Is the item difficult to find elsewhere?
• Is the item simple to explain?
• Can the item be packaged or sold in multiples? 

As a best practice, you should offer one item for every two bidders. For the majority of auctions, 6-12 live auction items and 25-40 silent auction items are the appropriate amounts.

#2. Conduct Outreach

The biggest mistake people make with their outreach for live auction items? It’s cold. They start with people who don’t know them well or have any reason to support their cause. 

When you’re conducting outreach, start with the people you know: your family, friends, co-workers, local stores, service professionals, or even your board. Your existing relationships with these people make it more likely they’ll support your cause.

Focus on “who” can provide items for your auction instead of focusing on “what” items you can offer donors. Why? Because this approach is much more efficient than cold calling. Plus, it’s definitely less intimidating, and it helps you think more strategically about your auction items. You might just come up with some ideas that never occurred to you before.

#3. Make the Ask

Whenever you reach out to someone to ask for live auction items, make sure it feels warm and personable. The best way to do this is face-to-face or over the phone. You can email, but this approach is more removed, making it easier for the recipient to say “no” or ignore it.

Ask everyone on your list—and don’t count out anyone. While some of the people you ask might not know what to give, you can definitely prompt them with some examples. 

When procuring your live auction items, remember these tips:

• Cater your messages: Tailor your ask to each person. This should be a mutually beneficial partnership, and you should inform them of the advantages they’ll receive. For example, if you are talking to a local business, emphasize the level of promotion they will get. For individuals, share the mission of your organization and its impact. 
• Avoid apologies: It can be uncomfortable to ask for item donations, but make sure to be confident in the mission you are supporting and in your conversations with people. You have nothing to apologize for. 
• Share your excitement: Positive emotions trump negative emotions every time. Get them excited to be part of your organization’s success. You might even want to talk about how you’re expecting lots of attendees and you really need this one item to round out your auction.
• Ask for multiples: Depending on the type of item, your donor may have the ability to offer more than one. This will always make it more appealing and command a high perceived value.

#4. Promote the Items

Marketing your live auction items is a vital part of a fundraising auction, but it’s often overlooked. You don’t need to make it complicated. Sometimes, just having a good photo and simple description can make all the difference. Just make sure to avoid flowery language and make the information easily skimmable.

#5. Determine the Details

Now that you’ve gathered your items, it’s time to start finalizing the event details:

• Choose your starting bids: Long story short, you should start out at 30% of the fair market value of an item. If it’s an experience that can’t be purchased any other way, determine a reasonable starting bid. Then, set your bidding steps to increase by 10% in most cases. If the item is really expensive, you can set the bidding steps at 5%.
• Determine which items make up the live auction: Analyzing the performance of your past auctions is a good way to determine which items should be included in live bidding. If it still isn’t obvious, think back to what makes an item “good” and choose from the best of those items.
• Consider making themed baskets: If you have a lot of lesser-valued live auction items, consider grouping them together to increase the perceived value. The idea here is that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. For example, if you get a golf hat and golf glove, it may be worthwhile to purchase a sleeve of golf balls and add that to the set. When they are added to the basket, it will feel complete. Examples of other basket themes could include “Miscellaneous” or “Mystery.”

#6. Enjoy Event Day

Up to this point, you have completed most of the hard work. Event day is all about securing high bids for your live auction items. Once bidders win the items, your first priority should be getting the items to these winning bidders in a timely manner. For experience-based prizes, such as vacation packages, you should connect the winning bidder of the experience with the person who can make it happen. 

After the event day, don’t forget to thank all of the winning bidders and the donors who provided your live auction items. It’s vital that the donors leave the experience feeling as if they made a difference. Communicate with them how much their item helped and how successful the auction was. A well-written thank you will make future contact with these donors a lot easier. Plus, you will probably find yourself asking them for items again next year.  

Common Auction Items to Consider Offering

When you’re requesting live auction items, what examples can you provide local businesses or people within your network? Some high-value examples include:

• A vacation home rental
• Concert tickets (bonus points for getting multiple!)
• A week of catered meals
• Tickets to your local sports team (maybe even a chance to throw the first pitch)
• A signed book
• Free music lessons
• Landscaping services

You might notice that most of these are experiences. Those tend to be some of the most sought-after live auction items, so try to incorporate them when possible. Look for experiences that people may not otherwise purchase for themselves—but would still really enjoy.

Unique Live Auction Items to Stand Apart

Many auctions offer similar items that are available to bid on. But what if you could delight donors with unique live auction items they haven’t seen before? Consider these ideas:

• Private chef dinners
• Behind-the-scenes tours
• Day with a celebrity
• Helicopter rides
• Rare wine or liquor selections
• Expert-taught master classes
• Naming rights for a community space
• Become “mayor for a day”
• Lifetime memberships to a museum
• Season tickets to a team

Gain the Confidence to Curate Your Live Auction Items

Securing great live auction items requires a lot of work. Oftentimes, the biggest hurdle is getting over the fear of networking or cold calling to request the items. You can overcome this fear by starting with your existing connections, and then asking them to reach out to their own network. Rely on your team and the people around you to help you curate high-value live auction items. You don’t have to curate your items alone. Plus, working together with your team will build even more excitement for your upcoming auction.

Ready to Show Off Your Live Auction Items?

Once you’ve nailed down a lineup of unique live auction items, you need a robust platform and signage to showcase them to potential bidders. ClickBid is ready to help you have a crazy simple auction experience—whether hosting an in-person or virtual event. Get in touch with our team to take your promotional efforts to the next level.