If your event is an annual one, don’t forget the valuable resource of historical data. Knowing what sold and who your key buyers were can help your silent auction profits soar. A program like Pearl Bids, which allows you to view which items were bid on and what the bids were can prove invaluable.

So, what can you do once you have the data?

You don’t want to turn away any donation, even if it only received a few bids in the past. Why not take the items that were not as popular in the past and combining them into an eye-catching basket? Or turn these items to raffle prizes, increasing the appeal of your raffle while not significantly reducing your silent auction revenue. Having one or two “top” raffle prizes can pull in the cash, but having additional items (or prizes) can pull in additional players. Place a separate ticket jar in from of each item in your raffle, providing the players the opportunity to choose where to place their bets (i.e. tickets). Some will go for the more popular items, but some people will be attracted by the pleasure of winning and, even if its not their top pick, will choose the items with better odds. You know that whoever wins the donations will be happy with what they take home.

With historical data you will know what brought in top dollar. Your procurement committee can concentrate their efforts into securing more of the”sought after items” and, while accepting less popular items, put all their effort will it will produce the most gain.

Having the historical data is a win win situation; Pearl Bids makes this information easily accessible and usable.