Gold Medal Auction Items (i.e., great items) include once-in-a-lifetime experiences, special events, adult parties, kid activities/camps, getaways to special locations, gourmet restaurants, etc.
Near Misses (i.e., lower-grossing items) include sports memorabilia, used home décor, most artwork and homemade crafts. While these items may be unique and special, they often don’t sell or don’t command a good price because they don’t appeal to the masses.
Some suggestions for gold medal items follow:
- Unique Experiences: Do you know any celebrities, local or otherwise? Help put together a celebrity encounter…a basketball clinic with a Harlem Globetrotter…lunch with a local celebrity…a backstage pass to a concert or sporting event…a walk-on part to a show…
- Kid Events: Host an ice skating party…or an ornament-making party…what about a mother-daughter tea party…or take a group of kids camping...
- Family Events and Items: Host a family-based event or donate an item for other families to enjoy. How about a baseball and BBQ party…or a day sailing on the bay…what about offering a weekend at your vacation home…
- Adult Parties and Events: The parties offered to adults are often the most fun to purchase…Get together with some neighbors and offer a neighborhood progressive…join some other men or women for lunch and a golf or tennis outing…offer someone gourmet dinners cooked in the winning bidder’s home…organize a Mom’s trip to a Dude Ranch…
- Other Party Ideas: Theme parties are fun to throw for adults, teens or kids…what about a lip-synch contest…or a party based on an era like Breakfast Club or the 50’s…or a favorite movie like a Harry Potter sleepover…or a “pub crawl”…
- Getaways: Do you have access to a special place to get away from it all? A cabin in Tahoe…a Napa Valley home for a weekend…a timeshare in Hawaii…a condo in Florida…a hotel in Vegas…
- Camps: Did you send your child to an amazing camp this summer? Reach out to them and see if they will provide a week-long camp—it is great advertisement for them…think Touch the Earth…or a favorite sleepaway camp…what about a cooking or sports camp…or provide your own camp to the winning bidders for a week next summer…
- Restaurants: Everyone loves an evening out at a hot new restaurant. Dinners are always popular bidding items.
- Other Amazing Ideas: Do you have contacts to get a kid on the set of a Disney or Nickelodeon show (e.g., Suite Life of Zack & Cody, Hannah Montana)…or do you have floor-level seats to a Lakers game…what about a contact at a Napa winery that could provide a private tour and tasting…
Do you think your donation isn’t “good enough” or “big enough” to give? If you aren’t sure, give us a call. We are often trying to put packages together and your item might be just the thing we need to make it perfect! Please contact any member of the Benefit committee, email 2010benefit@hillcrestpta.org or leave a note in the Benefit Envelope in the office. Likewise, if you have a new suggestion or experience, let us know! We can always use another great idea!