Written by Alexandra Saavedra Marketing Manager at Greater Giving Imagine a scenario where you revisit previous years’ auctions and pay close attention to what types of auction packages sold well. You arm your procurement team with a list of items to ask for because you know what will be profitable and desirable. You only use the quality items or one-of-a-kind auction packages. Your silent auction is smaller than last year, but bidding starts at sixty percent of value and everyone is excited about the auction items. Since you've done your homework and know what they want, most packages sell for their value or higher, and with a much smaller auction, item pickup is a breeze! Sounds great, doesn it? A general call for donations is a common practice. The problem is feeling like you have to use everything you receive. Worse, we want to accept every donated item into our auction so nobody’s feelings get hurt—and we end up with a silent auction that looks and feels more like a garage sale; lots of non-unique small packages. It’s still important to feature a wide range of auction packages in terms of starting bid price so all bidders can participate. But focusing your efforts on a few, stronger packages can save you time, effort, and generate a higher return on investment (ROI) to put your organization’s auction on the map. So how do I do it? First, you have to determine what sold well in previous years. What was popular with your organization’s particular crowd?