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Sherry Truhlar 8 Comments
This is a 3-part blog post, explaining why benefit auctions should identify guests with bid numbers instead of names.
- The first post looked at the benefits of using numbers in a Fund a Need.
- The second post examined the use of numbers in the live auction.
- Today we’ll turn to the silent auction.
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Why you should use silent auction bid numbers (not names) on your bidding sheets.
Why do this?
It’s an easy answer.
Because you’ll raise more money.
A big misunderstanding — especially among school auction committees — is that guests will intentionally bid against one another in a silent auction if they know whom they are bidding against.
That’s not true.
For each guest that *will* start bidding against others upon knowing the competition, 99 other guests will stop.
Your bidders are more sensitive to “being nice” in a silent auction than you think they are!
Once a guest knows who is bidding against them, I often hear these comments:
- “He has way more money than I,” she’ll share, “I’ll never win it anyway.” And she stops bidding.
- “I don’t want to bid against a teacher,” another says. And she stops bidding.
- “I’ll let her have it,” one says, “I don’t need it,” a third says. And she stops bidding.
To stop this behavior, stop using names.
When bid numbers are used, guests don’t know who is bidding against them. In your bidder’s mind, the competition is deemed to be at a level playing field.
But as soon as the identity of the other bidder is known, judgements start about who has more or less money or need for the item.
Don’t invite those judgements into your silent auction.
Instead, just ask for a bid number on the silent auction bid sheet. Don’t use names.
About Sherry Truhlar
Fundraising auctioneer and educator, helping schools and nonprofits plan more profitable benefit auctions. A prolific writer for her own blog and other fundraising sites, she’s been covered in The Beacon-News, Town & Country Magazine, The Washington Post Magazine, Northern Virginia Magazine, Wiley's Special Events Galore!, AUCTIONEER, and other publications.
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Comments
Calene saysI like the numbers instead of names on the bid sheets.
As the guests arrive, they pay for the dinner and then sign up on a sheet that includes their name and phone number. I also have a spot for other contact information if they want to leave it there. After paying and signing in, they receive the coordinating number that is preprinted on the sign in on a small piece of paper for the guest so they will remember their number. At the closing of the auction it is easy to collect the bid sheets and put them in numerical order for check out.
I have tried so many different ways of doing this and this has been the most profitable as well as easiest. You may ask how come more profitable? Because people don’t know who they’re bidding against so they keep the prices going up. My little nephew was bidding on a gift and one man found out it was a little boy so kept bidding higher just to have fun with him. The man then paid the total for the young boy. So much fun!
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- Sherry Truhlar says
Great story, Calene!
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- Dani says
Hello. I am late to the party. I took over our school’s silent auction by default two years ago and I have been looking for ways to improve the system and increase fundraising. With just a few small tweaks we have already earned more than previous years. I have a question about the bid numbers because I have heard some of the comments listed such as “I don’t want to bid against a teacher.” How are bid numbers assigned? Is everyone preassigned a number before the event? While we do have a small school, the auction is visited throughout the night by various people including relatives and community neighbors. It would be very time consuming with the short window we have to individually assign numbers as people arrived to bid.
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- Sherry Truhlar says
Congratulations on your silent auction success! Woot woot!
About your question: It varies by event type and (even moreso) your registration process. This gets a bit too cumbersome to analyze via this format, but I’ll share that most of my events pre-assign the bid numbers. They have the guest list (alphabetized by last name) and numerically assign bid numbers in advance. Even those events that don’t pre-assign can rapidly assign bid numbers (and track purchases) if they are registering credit cards at registration.
If you want to dive in deeper, take a look at my Simple Auction Checkout course. Registration is part of a checkout process (it’s the 1st step in a checkout process!), and you’ll get tips there.
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- Roger Devine says
Hi Sherry,
Well-argued, as always. May I offer two comments?
1) When I am volunteering at the front desk at an auction and I am entering sales from bid sheets into the auction software, I find it helpful to have both names and numbers on the sheets (although our customers can print them either way). Why? Because that’s data I can cross-check, in order to ensure that we’ve entered the sale to the right bidder. Plus, it’s two separate chances for the guest to write something legibly – that ups the odds that we can read what’s been written.
2) Signup Party sheets are a little different. Since these are not competitive items, and since the party is more attractive if the other guests include people you want to hang out with, having names on those sheets actually increases the participation. Do you agree?
Roger
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- Sherry Truhlar says
Yes Roger, it’s a common fear! “How will we ever read the handwriting?”
* For groups that have severe handwriting issues, stickers are issued instead. Guests have fun placing bid stickers on the bid sheets.
* For some sign-up parties (e.g. dinners versus lectures), I agree that signing up by names is more apropos, given that guests are likely wanting to attend with friends.
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- Anna says
We include a column for phone number. This way if the bid number is illegible or if the item isn’t picked up the night of the event, we can always call the bidder. No name on our bid sheets. I do like the idea of stickers!
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- Sherry Truhlar says
Somebody’s thinkin’! 🙂
That’s an option, too, Anna. I like it from the standpoint of tracking, though it can be monotonous to write the full number if you’re bidding a lot.
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