Gala Auction Tips, Tricks and Musings

Bid Numbers

It may be convenient to sell pledge/multi-buyer items to guests prior to the event. Maybe it's a bottle of wine for their table, or some other special opportunity.  Guests need to have a bid number to purchase these items. 

We hear "but if I give them a bid number now, then I can't have the bid numbers for all the guests in perfect numeric AND alphabetical order." (When you auto-assign bid numbers to your entire guest list, Auction! happens to do it in alphabetical order.)

Truly, why does this matter?  Having bid numbers align with alphabetical order could be convenient, but there is no inherent need or requirement for this.  Give out bid numbers as you need to do so, and don't fret about the ones that "aren't in order."  In fact, when you have guests with similar first & last names, such as "Jane Bell" and "Judy Bell," assigning bid numbers in alphabetical order can hurt rather than help on clarity. 

Bid Sheets

Lengthy, cute, "flossy," and entertaining item descriptions are wonderful, but if your guests left their reading glasses at home, they'll appreciate short, specific and "to the point" descriptions in a larger font size.  They're more likely to bid when they can read what they're bidding on.  Consider keeping long descriptions reasonable concise.  This is especially important, since most guests won't spend more than three or four seconds reading your bid sheet before bidding or moving on. 

Priorities

Re-direct your targets for perfection--focus on:

• acquiring superb items for auction
• securing attendance of generous bidders
• creating a clean process for welcoming, seating and entertaining guests
• design a smooth and efficient flow for checking out
• graciously thanking your guests and donors for their generosity. 

Then your guests will be glad to come back to your event and continue their support next year! 

One of our clients put this in a great way at the end of her email

   "Blessed are the flexible, for they shall not be bent out of shape."

 (c) 2007, Auction Systems Inc, all rights reserved

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