Episode 69: Auction Items and Packages with Kevin Spykerman

Narrator: Welcome to Elevate Your Event, your favorite podcast for transforming fundraising events. Join us weekly for expert tips and creative ideas to make your next event a standout success. On this episode of Elevate Your Event, we are joined by our friend Kevin Spykerman from AuctionPackages.com as we learn about different auction item types and how to incorporate them into your event.

Jeff: All right. Welcome back to the Elevate Your Event podcast. We talk about all the various ways you can make your next fundraising event better. And we've got Lori Makkai here in the studio with me. Say hi, Lori, to your fan base out there.

Lori: Hi, fans.

Jeff: And we have a very special guest online. Kevin Spykerman from Auction Packages.

Kevin: Thank you for having me, guys.

Jeff: Kevin, it is such a pleasure to chat with you again. We go a long way back, definitely in the auction industry, and I've always relied on you for advice on auction items and packages. So happy you're going to come on here so we can chat a little bit about that.

Kevin: Yeah. Well, hard to believe that I've been doing this for 17 years now, because I feel like I'm 18, so I don't know how that math works.

Jeff: You age very well, Kevin. I'd say if you guys are not watching the YouTube version of this, maybe you'll swap over and just see how handsome of a guy Kevin is.

Kevin: I wasn't looking for that.

Jeff: I'm just saying. We've been doing this for a long time together.

Kevin: We have.

Jeff: So tell us a little bit about what Auction Packages does and kind of how they got started and what you would consider to be the two or three things that set you apart from the rest of the options out there.

Kevin: Yeah. So Auction Packages, we put together travel packages for charities to put in their auctions, their galas, their sweepstakes. Really look at it as another tool to use to raise money and direct money to your organization. Auction Packages -- we have been around -- this August will be our 15-year anniversary.

Jeff: Wow.

Kevin: So, yeah, we're looking to do something.

Jeff: So you were three when they started.

Kevin: Right. Again, the math just doesn't seem to work out. Yeah, so Auction Packages has been around for quite some time now. Jeremy, he's the owner of the company. He started the company because he was doing some fundraising after his mother passed away. He was working with an organization that put together experiences and trips for kids who have parents that have either passed away or kids and family members who are sick. And so he kind of started there, putting these trips together. And he still does that. This August, he'll be taking 50 kids to Disney World. He doesn't like to talk about it much, but he brings 50 kids to Disney World that Auction Packages fully supports and funds the trip. It's kids ages 10 to 15 years old that have parents that have passed away or siblings that have passed away. People going through hard times.

Jeff: I love that.

Kevin: Yeah, and he was able to bridge business and fundraising and do that together.

Jeff: Because I've promised myself I'm not going back to the Magic Kingdom until I'm a grandparent. So good for him that he can make that happen every year.

Kevin: Right, right, yes.

Jeff: Maybe it's just too many people for me. It's just kind of a phobia, I guess. But that's awesome. What a great experience for the kids.

Kevin: And I think the other part would be what sets us apart at Auction Packages. We have about 250 trips to choose from. The typical process is you don't pay for anything up front. And I think what I'm really proud of is what our team has done. The products that we put together are top notch in that we're working with the best hotel providers in the space, some of the best vendors in the space. But then our marketing team does a phenomenal job really putting an emphasis on marketing these materials to these organizations. So you can have the best trip in the world, but if you can't sell it, if you don't tell people about it, they're not going to spend the money. And so in the next month or two, we have a whole campaign coming out where we're going to be launching our new resources for nonprofits, which we're super excited about.

Jeff: So tell us a little bit about that when you say resources for nonprofits. What's included in this? Or maybe you're not allowed to tell us.

Kevin: Well, by the time this thing airs, it'll be out. So go ahead.

Jeff: Perfect.

Kevin: Yeah. So we are putting together different sizes of big boards so that people can blow them up. Because typically it's just a take-our-PDF, blow-it-up, put-on-the-table situation. So we have different sizes of big boards, beautiful displays that you can blow up and put up. In the bottom right-hand corner there's a QR code. The QR code, if you scan it, takes you to a one-minute video so you can actually see the one-minute video of the actual property, the trip itself, all the details. And then that one-minute video can also be played during the live auction.

Jeff: Love it. And I'll tell you, video is powerful. We'll come back to that in terms of how you present these things at an event, because I just actually hosted my fundraiser two days ago. Still recovering from it. But in those types of packages, people -- there's a lot to explain and cover. And an image just doesn't do it, I don't think. Or even an auctioneer getting up and explaining it, which they do a phenomenal job doing. But how much color can you really give? Hey, it's four nights at this beachfront property with, day the breakfast is included. Whereas if you could play a one-minute video that shows the property, shows the beach, shows all the bells and whistles of the trip -- it makes their job easier. It's a better picture and hopefully gets a better return in the auction.

Kevin: I 100% agree. I mean, presentation I think is key for some of these things.

Jeff: So you're putting together this package. In terms of what sets you apart -- it's the quality of the packages that you're putting together, right? You're not putting them in a one-star hotel. These are people that are spending arguably lots of money at an event and they want to be treated as if they bought an $8,000 trip, not maybe the $2,500 the charity had to pay. And the marketing around it too, because you'll oftentimes consider consignment items and all you get is a little 8-by-10. I've worked with many people where they'll just get an 8-by-10 glossy and they're trying to get it into their mobile bidding software and there isn't even the capability to be able to do that. So to even have a more electronic way to view these trips -- I know for me, I wouldn't take a trip unless I saw a video first. That's just how I am. I want to see it. Sure, that's the picture, but show me the video.

Kevin: I agree. And maybe in the very beginning I didn't totally get that. And I remember one year we added a kind of odd package -- it wasn't from Auction Packages but it was from a vendor that's no longer around -- and it was like a pick-your-trip. So you bought it and then you could pick like Chicago, New Orleans, or New York City or something. And that was the first challenge -- most people, I think you should just tell them where they're going versus picking the trip. But then we just didn't have any good materials. And so people wanted to know, what does New Orleans look like versus Chicago versus New York? And we just weren't ready for that. We probably needed more information. And I'm reading the description they gave me. So you read the description, and then you show a couple of photos. Some of them are terrible.

Kevin: Terrible.

Jeff: And, no, I'm not saying yours are, Kevin.

Kevin: No. Stock photos. They're like, oh, go to New Orleans. It's got a picture of New Orleans. I'm like, I need to see where I'm staying. It's got a picture of Bourbon Street. I hope I am not staying on Bourbon Street.

Jeff: So anyway, there was a lot of that. And then we go to this auction. It's coming up again. And I guess I didn't realize how powerful video or experience can be. And okay, I'm not suggesting that everybody on the call has to do this. But the very first one they auctioned off was this Canadian ski trip in Banff or something like that. And they made the whole room snow. And they had videos on giant screens on both sides. And it's these guys skiing down the hill. And then they drone in to the hotel and show you what you're going to be doing for the week. And this fake snow is coming down. The auctioneer is getting excited. Everybody's getting excited. I was like, that is cool. They had, you name it, they had some sort of experience. They did some African trip and then these African drummers come in from all four sides and they're beating on the drums. Anyway, just to tell you, presentation does matter for sure. So do you -- would you bring the African drummers, Kevin, if I bought a trip from you to Africa?

Kevin: If you personally need it, I'll make it happen. Tell me what you need.

Jeff: Exactly. So, no, I think that's important. So give us a little bit of an idea of when charities are reaching out to you and they're trying to figure something out. What's the process you take them through to determine what are the packages that would do best at their event?

Kevin: Yeah. Well, I think the first thing that my team does -- and I'm extremely proud of the team that we have. Our fundraising consultants that I brought on since I joined the team back in November -- we've doubled the size of the team. Everybody has a fundraising background of some sort. So when you reach out to us, you consult with us, it really is consulting. It's tell me about your event. Tell me about the other items that you have donated. Tell me about your board. Tell me about what you guys are trying to accomplish, how much money are you trying to raise. Because I think with consignment, if you're lazy with it, you'll say, I'll just take 10 of them and we'll see how it goes. Or I'll take 20, and we'll just see how it goes. You're never going to be successful.

Jeff: 20 is a lot.

Kevin: Yeah, well, that's just it. When people want that, it's like, hold on a second. As I say, consignment is like a hammer. It can build a house or put a hole in the drywall. So consignment is a phenomenal tool that can be used and be a phenomenal asset if it's used properly. So consulting with us, we really kind of want to get you into the right products. One trip, two trips, maybe three. Because if you use one trip from us, you could end up having five winners because you can sell them multiple times. And so that is a nice feature of our products.

Jeff: So let me ask you, let's dive into the multiple sales thing. Do you think there's a practical limit to that at some point where maybe you've multiplied too many of your items in the live auction and bidders catch on and say, I'm not going to bid anymore because I know he's going to sell it five times anyway?

Kevin: Yeah. Well, I'm sure some auctioneers have some very opinionated opinions on this. But I do feel like if you start doing that too often in your auction -- if the first item has multiples and the second item has multiples -- people catch on and they're like, I'm not going to bid here because I'm just going to see if I can get it at a cheaper price. So you definitely want to strategically place that, not every single item.

Jeff: And we did that at our event. So we had five live auction items. And they all came together on Wednesday and my event was on Saturday. So that just tells you kind of how we play.

Kevin: Yeah.

Jeff: So anyway, we went down through the list and we were very particular with the auctioneer on -- you can sell multiples of these and these you can't. And part of it was the cost. And part of it was, I want a minimum price for this. And so one of them was a consignment item. And we said, okay, here's the deal -- you can sell two of those or multiples of those to the competing bidders, but it needs to be at least at $4,000 or you cannot do it. So I think it's important sometimes to give the auctioneer a threshold because, honestly, say the cost of the item is $3,000 and the auctioneer sells it twice at $500. You made a thousand and just spent six.

Kevin: Right, yeah. That doesn't make sense.

Jeff: Yeah. I think one other way that I've seen multiple sales used is as a kind of sweeper item, putting it at the end of the auction. So you have 10 live auction items, you've got 200 people in the room -- that means 190 people aren't going to win. So 190 people are walking out without buying something. So do you put something at the end of the live auction that is, a $1,000 cost, you sell it for $2,000? So you're making money and just say, hey, if anyone wants to buy this trip for $2,000. I've seen that sell for $46,000.

Kevin: I have to say -- now, I will tell you, it was an African photo safari, which, we all know, people don't realize how expensive it is to get to Africa.

Jeff: Right.

Kevin: And they sold it for $1,000. And I was like, oh my God, an African photo safari for $1,000. They sold like 13 of them. And then there was a little bit of a backlash when everybody realized that it's like a $2,000 ticket.

Jeff: It's still a pretty cheap trip to Africa, though, for $3,000.

Kevin: Yeah. Pretty good price. Well, and I think some of those trips out there -- I don't know who that provider was, but I will say when working with a consignment company, I'd be very careful if it's a 50-50 split. Hey, use this trip, whatever it sells for, we get half and you get half. Because I think there's some providers out there that will do that, like a sweep item at the end. We'll just sell it for a grand, and it's 50-50 or whatever. We take the stance that we as a company should not get more money because of the generosity of your bidders or of your donors that night. So if someone wants to spend 10 grand on this trip, why should we get five grand if we would have taken a grand and sold it for two? If you're going to use consignment, make sure it's at a set cost. So you know exactly what your price is. There are a couple players out there that do those percentages. And they confuse me. Oh, well, we get 20%, you get 80%, unless it goes for this, and then we get 40% and you get 60%. And all of a sudden I've got a headache trying to figure out exactly what I'm making. You don't know how much you're really making that night. You're just hoping for the best. And then at the end of the night, you might be a little bit disappointed. So I just want to caution somebody -- if you're going to use consignment, make sure it's at a set cost so you know exactly what your price is going into it.

Jeff: So next question for you would be around service. Because when we are asked by clients, who do you recommend for consignment items in my auction, we always are going to give them a very short list. And it's going to be people we know are going to service them well. And to us, it has a couple of criteria. One, if you can't get them into the package they originally bought, do you have enough of a portfolio that you can make it work? Or B, are you going to be around next year? Which, as we know, in this industry a couple years ago was pretty tragic.

Kevin: It really was. Yeah, and I think that's a great point. Anybody can put together a PDF. I can put together a beautiful PDF. I could sell you a trip. We could put it in an auction. We could raise millions of dollars. But what happens when the winner comes and they want to book their trip? What happens then. To me, that's where the rubber really meets the road. And so we have a team here -- we have a division that's our booking services team. They are all in-house in Miami, in our offices there. We have seven people, full-time employees. We don't outsource, so they're Auction Packages employees. And their sole job is to book these winners' trips. So when Mr. and Mrs. Smith reach out to book their Portugal package, they've booked it hundreds of times for other people. They're able to get them in, make suggestions, take care of them. If for some reason -- let's just say we've had something where a hotel provider isn't part of the program anymore -- we can either still get them in because we've negotiated that, or we'll put them in something better or similar. So to your point, the rubber meets the road when somebody wants to book the trip and make sure it's fulfilled as written. And that's what we go back to -- what was the PDF, what was the description. We will honor exactly what the description is that we provide you.

Jeff: Right. That you provide -- not the one that the charity might post.

Kevin: Yeah. When they leave out all the blackout dates.

Jeff: Yeah. But that goes back to all the promotion material that you provide -- the video, the big board, the PDF, the descriptions. We will stand 100% behind that. And our team's phenomenal. I love our team. Anna Rios on our team -- I think we have an unfair advantage. We have Anna. She helps put together the packages. She helps fulfill the packages. She's just a phenomenal source for us here on the booking services side.

Jeff: No, that's great. And the reason I bring that up also is because at Handbid we dabbled in the whole consignment thing years ago, maybe six or seven years ago. And we decided we would start reselling some of these -- not through you guys, but through some other providers. And what we found was kind of two problems. One, the provider thinks they sold a $3,000 villa in Costa Rica. Our client or the guest going thinks they bought a $9,000 villa, and they want to be treated like they bought a $9,000 villa, not like they bought a $3,000 one. So service was definitely something that we noticed right away -- some of our providers were not doing a good job of that. The other one was -- I'm curious what your thoughts are on this -- we wanted, not all-inclusive, but we wanted kind of all of the i's dotted and t's crossed. So if I'm going to sell you a villa in Costa Rica or Cabo, I want airport transfers included because I don't want you having to mess with that. And we just had so many providers that struggled with kind of putting the ancillary pieces together. Give them an option for a chef or give them an option for airport transfers so that they don't have to figure out how to drive an hour and a half from the San Jose airport to wherever this villa is.

Kevin: Yep. Yeah. So that's one thing that you'll see with Auction Packages -- we've made a conscious decision to remove airfare out of all our packages. So we don't provide airfare. We found that over half of our winning bidders -- we were refunding them the air portion of it because they had their miles, or they wanted to fly their own airline.

Jeff: Are you trying to put them on Spirit, Kevin? Come on.

Kevin: Yeah.

Jeff: My brother-in-law is a pilot for Spirit. Okay.

Kevin: Well, tell him I apologize for that bad Spirit joke.

Jeff: That's right. We give him enough grief already. He gets it from us.

Kevin: But we've taken that out. So what that does is it allows us to lower the cost of the trip to the nonprofit. Because if we're going to refund half of the winners the air, why not just pass that refund off to the nonprofit ahead of time? So yeah, you'll see that we've made a conscious decision to remove that. It also just helps with logistics, helps with the booking services team, helps with the winning bidder. If they want to go on United and they want to go first class and they've got thousands of miles and points -- yeah, we decided to do that.

Jeff: Oh, very cool. So let me ask, how do you find new places to go? Is this part of your -- I want this job, if this is part of your job, by the way. If you get to fly around the world and find new destinations, how's that process work for you guys?

Kevin: Yeah, how do we get that job? I'm not on that team yet. How do we get on that team? Yeah, so we have a team that does go out and source different products and services and locations. In fact, today, Jeremy, our owner, he's actually in Portugal looking at some properties to make sure that we're getting the right ones, the best ones, they're in a good location, they're not in a bad neighborhood. So we do send teams out to do some of this research.

Jeff: You're welcome to send us out.

Kevin: Yeah, I tried.

Jeff: We'll investigate some for you. But, no, that is important. I mean, it's interesting talking to you guys and some of the other providers in the industry about some of these properties around the world where you hear the horror stories. They show up and places are infested with insects or rats or whatever. It's in a dark, dingy area, or the photos just don't do it justice. And so that's why, again, we go back to working with providers we know are going to give you good service and a quality product. You guys are definitely on that list for who we recommend our clients use.

Kevin: Yeah. Well, we have a short list of hotels that we work with. Hilton, Hyatt, Fairmont, Four Seasons -- a certain caliber. We want to make sure that it's somewhere that you'd want to go and stay at. There are plenty of options in New York City, but there are also some bad hotels that look good on paper but they're not great. So Hilton Midtown, things like that are in the locations that we want to use.

Jeff: Well, cool. Let's transition our conversation a little bit from consignment items to really just chatting about items in general, like how to solicit items. So, yeah, of course, you can go out and find consignment items. If you are part of a nonprofit, we definitely recommend Auction Packages. But what if you are just chatting with your board and trying to get out there and solicit items? What kind of advice do you have for our nonprofits?

Kevin: Yeah. So I think what I tell people is in a perfect world, consignment doesn't exist, because everything is donated. In a perfect world, you have everything donated. Everything at the event goes to your cause. But I think using your board and using their network is really where it starts. And so, you and I were talking, I spent a year over at Charity Buzz working with that team and really helping coach nonprofits on their board. So I'd have nonprofits send me a list of their board members -- 15, 20, 10. I would spend a few hours looking at their networks on LinkedIn, looking at what businesses they own, what companies they support, and really putting together a short list for this board to say, hey, not sure if this is 100% on point, but let's start here. These are the 20 items that I think your board should ask for -- in terms of tickets to professional sporting events, or vacation homes, or things like that. But I think if you don't give your board any direction, you just say, hey, what do you have? Board members are like, I don't have anything. But if you can come to them and say, hey, here are the categories -- we need something in music, fashion, sports, travel, food and dining, entertainment, celebrity, arts and collectibles -- things like that that we know people want to spend money on. I think coaching them through, here's a short list to just get the ball rolling.

Jeff: Yeah, my first three years in the space, I worked for a guy who would go in and sit down with the board. He'd have a two-hour brainstorming session. And by the time they were done, they all had a list of 10 or 15 things that they were going to go ask for. And it's not that uncomfortable for them. There are connections I have that would be easy for me to solicit trips and stuff that might not be something that other people would feel comfortable doing. I think sometimes board members don't even realize the connections they have.

Kevin: 100%. Yeah. And I think it's also setting that expectation and accountability as a team too, where if you have a board and you get together and you're like, okay, so we got this huge list and Bob's going to get this and Bill's going to get this. And you come back and Bob hasn't done anything and Bill's rocking it. There's always that little piece of accountability.

Jeff: Have you been to my latest board meeting?

Kevin: Speaking to all the nonprofits out there, we know we're all on boards.

Jeff: Yeah. Well, I think with board members, I mean, a lot of times there's a give or get, right? You either need to give this or get this. I think being able to -- we probably could do a whole podcast on that in and of itself. But if somebody's not pulling their weight and they're not on the board and helping move the cause, whether through fundraising or by their network, what are they doing on the board?

Kevin: I agree.

Jeff: Well, you're very generous, because I have a give-and-get model with my board.

Kevin: Give and get. Yeah, but you're there for a reason. And for PWSA, I mean, most of our board members are parents of Prader-Willi kids, so they should be inherently, intrinsically motivated to do both. And they are. I think we have a very good board and a very generous board with their time and their effort, so it works out. But I sit on other boards where they look at you like you're crazy when you're like, I need you to go get these types of donations or these types. We start with sponsorships. So before you get me an auction item, how about you go to your company and try to secure a two or $3,000 sponsorship? And see where that goes. But yeah, on the item front, I like your approach. You're saying, okay, we're going to look at the profile of the board members, who they're connected with, what their network looks like. And then let's go out there and suggest 10 to 15 decent items that they should go get. And maybe not being super explicit on what it is, but say, hey, go to Fleming's Steakhouse and get us a chef's table donation or a donation for five or six people or something like that.

Kevin: Exactly. Something like that where it gets the ball rolling. Because they may look at that and say, well, I can't get that, but I can get something similar. It just starts the conversation of what are we trying to target. Because if you just go out and say, go get five to 10 awesome auction items -- what does that mean? Because that could mean something totally different than what you're looking for. And leverage their hobbies too. So on this board, we have an event coming up in September. I've got two guys -- three, arguably three guys -- on that board who are high-end wine collectors. So my suggestion to them was just go down in your wine cellar and get a couple hundred-dollar bottles of wine. Let's put a wine basket together of some really good high-end stuff.

Jeff: And they're kind of thinking, well, that's actually not hard. It's going to be hard for them to part with some of that wine. But they'll get over it.

Kevin: Well, they can buy it back.

Jeff: I said, fine. Then go to Cakebread, who you obviously are in their wine club, and ask for a donation and see what you get. So you can kind of go both ways with it. Or golf -- I mean, hey, go to your country club and ask for a foursome.

Kevin: Exactly. And I think giving them specific asks that they can go after -- it sets them up for success, but it also sets your event up for success. Because if you go and say, I gave you 10 phenomenal ideas based on your network, and you came back with nothing, let's have a conversation about what you can do differently. Or, hey, thanks for getting five of them. Perfect. And I would say, obviously depending on the city you're in, but for you, if you're on a board, someone probably can get Dodgers tickets or Chargers tickets. There's something there that someone's connected to.

Jeff: Here it's Broncos tickets. As bad as the Broncos are, people still want to go to the games. But it's important. You just have to ask. Hey, does anybody have season tickets or anybody know someone with club seats?

Kevin: Yeah, well, anybody who's listening, reach out to me. I can't do this all day, every day, but there are a few organizations that are looking for just a head start on, hey, here's my board, what should I ask for? It's actually quite fun to start looking through their networks and who they're connected with. And based on my time at Charity Buzz, working with and asking for all the donations of what Charity Buzz does, I kind of have a nice short list of things you could ask for -- things people are willing to spend a dollar on at auctions.

Jeff: So what do you think -- and maybe we'll mix in consignment or not -- but since you did spend some time at Charity Buzz and there's some really high-end stuff there, what do you think sells well in a live auction? Is it that experience? Is it like the CMAs or playoff games, or is it going to be a trip to the beach?

Kevin: It's a loaded question because it really does depend on the demographic in the room. But really, people are looking for that once-in-a-lifetime experience that maybe they can't buy somewhere else. If it's just a few nights in Mexico or a few nights in Chicago, I can go online two weeks from now and buy it myself at a great price. But now if we're talking about Tuscany with wine tours and tastings and maybe a helicopter tour -- something that is kind of all together, like I haven't done that before -- or tickets to the Masters or red carpet. And the Masters tickets are hard to get, and there are a lot of fake ones out there, as far as I know.

Jeff: Yes, you've got to be careful who you get them from.

Kevin: Yeah. So I think if you're able to deliver something to your audience that is unique, exciting, and speaks to their needs -- like Broncos tickets for your neck of the woods. If you could get playoff tickets -- well, we've got to get to the playoffs first.

Jeff: Baby steps here, Kevin. Baby steps. We've got a new quarterback. We're hopeful.

Kevin: A couple new quarterbacks, don't we?

Jeff: Hey, Bo Nix. We're hopeful. We like Bo.

Kevin: Except you beat Liberty, but we won't talk about that. But I think you could also pull your attendees beforehand and just say, hey, where are you looking to go this year? Send out a survey. What would you like to see in the auction?

Jeff: Actually, I do too, Kevin. I really do. Hey, aspirationally, where would you want to go? I like that. I think you also need to kind of understand what's the buying power in the room. Because honestly, I don't think at my event I could maximize Masters tickets, because they usually go for what, like 10 grand apiece?

Kevin: Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think that's a big piece of placing the right items at the event. But to your point, though, that 10-grand Masters tickets -- what if you got somebody to underwrite the cost of that? So you can put it in your auction and see what the spending is. Hey, I'm a lawyer and I can't donate my services to your auction, but I can go ahead and buy this trip for you. So I'm going to donate these $10,000 tickets and maybe turn it into $15,000 if the spending capacity is there.

Jeff: That's an interesting idea. That's a great idea. So having underwriters, I think, is a unique way. We work with an organization, a Boys Fund, where everything is underwritten. So all these companies actually buy the trips from us. They pay for them, and then everything in the auction is 100% given to the organization.

Kevin: Sweet. Like a trip sponsor. I like that.

Jeff: Well, you should start by getting a mobile bidding software sponsor.

Kevin: And then -- I'm not trying to steal sales from you, Kevin.

Jeff: No, hey, if you don't have the software, you're not going to be successful. So are you guys selling -- are you selling the BMW Championship? That's all the talk in Denver here. Is that one of your packages?

Kevin: I believe we have that one. Yep. We've got that one, we've got a lot of different golf packages. We've got either go-to-watch or go-play, like Scotland golf. We've got Pebble Beach. We've got a few others. Whether you want to play golf or go watch it, we've got it covered.

Jeff: That's awesome. So what is the most expensive item you've seen sold in a live auction? I'm just curious.

Kevin: So I've seen -- we've got an Auction Package, a Lake Como package for seven people, private home, a few experiences while there. But the nonprofit's cost is $14,000, and I've seen that sell for $30,000 plus. Again, that is not the norm. I think anybody listening to this -- most people are using trips in that $2,000 to $4,000 price point, selling them for five to six to seven grand. So that's really the sweet spot.

Jeff: Yeah. Well, we used to sell a Tuscany package, and you could either get it for eight or ten because they tried to match the number of people that are typically at a table so that you could see if you could split it. And I want to say our cost on that was $6,500 or $7,000, and we would consistently see it sell for about $14,000. So that was a good split with the consignment company. We were always kind of happy with that. But be careful, you sit next to it at the auction, because I really want to travel.

Lori: I was just thinking the same thing.

Jeff: Well, I ended up last year buying a Four Seasons package with two other people at my table, and we still haven't gone on this trip yet.

Kevin: Yeah, you have travel in your future. You do.

Jeff: What was the largest live auction item you've seen sold?

Kevin: Definitely one of our favorite ones -- a private jet to the Super Bowl with Peyton Manning. I think it was like $1.2 million it went for.

Jeff: $1.2 million.

Kevin: I want to say it went for that. But you also have to remember, I have one of the worst memories on the planet. So it very well could be $100,000. But it was a lot.

Jeff: I'm going with $1.2 million. Peyton Manning. Well, I remember entering the live auction item, and I was like, oh, no, am I accounting? Do I have enough zeros in there? Because we don't use commas or decimals in Handbid. So I'm like, make sure I put enough zeros on that one. I was a little stressed out. Didn't want to be like $160 million.

Kevin: I remember that one. You got to fly there to the Super Bowl and then you got to hang out with Peyton Manning and Kirk Herbstreit. And you got to have lunch with them. It was a whole really cool thing. I think it was for four people.

Jeff: Yeah. I mean, it was really a neat experience. And the Super Bowl -- I mean, how much are tickets just to go to the Super Bowl?

Kevin: Kevin, I stopped bidding at $500,000. I just want to point that out.

Jeff: I'm the one at those auctions that likes to just quickly at the very beginning -- paddle -- and then hide it for the rest of the time. Be careful. "Who wants to start us off at a million dollars?" and you're not paying attention. You raise your paddle.

Lori: I will do it too. I'm like that. I like the excitement of a live auction.

Jeff: Lori, just use the company card.

Lori: Totally.

Jeff: I think I saw last year Julie Roberts donated a lunch with her, a two-hour lunch, and I think it sold for $140,000.

Kevin: Yeah. It was great because it was fully donated to them. So the organization got $140,000 for two hours of time. That's fantastic.

Jeff: We saw Textron Aviation donate an airplane. And I want to say it went for maybe $600,000. It wasn't the Peyton Manning one-million-dollar item. But I was impressed. And they donated it. I thought that's cool. I love the idea of corporations donating big items. I would love for them to donate that to my charity.

Kevin: I'll work on that.

Jeff: A $500,000 airplane. Can you imagine?

Kevin: I don't think I'd have any buyers in the room.

Lori: I was just thinking -- I was going to buy a $500,000 airplane.

Jeff: Not in my event. I love my donors, but they don't have that kind of cash laying around, I don't think. That's why we were saying earlier, you've got to definitely know your audience and know what you think you can get away with. And we've sold -- I think the highest live auction item we've sold is probably $12,000 or $15,000, somewhere in that range, for a Thailand trip or something like that.

Kevin: That's great. Yeah, that's great. I think as you're working with your board too -- people want access. It doesn't necessarily have to mean access to a trip or access to an experience. It could be access to a person. So who is one of your top sponsors or donors? Do we have a celebrity who is one of our spokespersons? Have lunch with them. You'd be surprised -- people will spend five, ten grand to have lunch with somebody.

Jeff: Well, I sold $9,000 worth of dinners that I have to cook at my event. So gourmet dinner for eight with Jeff and Nate, my brother-in-law. He's a fantastic cook.

Kevin: I would have totally bid on that if I was there. I would have got some friends to go in on that. And then I would have asked for a really expensive meal.

Jeff: There was a lot of splitting of that item, but we sold three of them for $2,750 each. And it's fun. That's the labor of love.

Kevin: Those -- sometimes you're right. Sometimes the item that you need to sell is right in your back pocket. Yeah, but you don't think it is. Again, you're not thinking, what should I ask for? If people want access -- I want access to that celebrity who is your spokesperson. If I could have lunch with them. Politicians.

Jeff: Yep. Politicians.

Kevin: Well, our emcee was on American Idol. Do you think I should have sold him?

Jeff: Yes.

Kevin: He could have pulled that little ukulele out. He could have. We're sitting in his studio right now, so he's probably listening to us.

Jeff: That would have been cool, actually.

Kevin: Yeah, and I think about that. Voice lessons from Mark Labriola, what do you think? Maybe sell it. Yeah, sell it.

Jeff: It's so good. I tell you, this is the fun part. Kind of getting to dream up these items and put them together. And then we always put the little extras in there. I don't know how this one came together, but we ended up with Broncos tickets that evolved into a John Elway signed football with the Broncos tickets, and then a Coleman cooler and an entire tailgating package. And all of a sudden it was the ultimate Broncos fan pack. And it just started with Broncos tickets. But I think that goes to the power of suggestion. We have the tickets, so somebody else came in and said, oh, I can add on to that. And somebody else said, oh, I can add on to that. Because you gave them an idea. So they had that idea and they kind of rolled with that -- as opposed to just, hey, what do you got?

Kevin: And it works for your stuff too. I mean, we would say, hey, here's a wine tasting trip to Northern California and here's what the itinerary is. But maybe we could get some donations from some wineries in that area as well -- a private tasting or a barrel tasting -- just to kind of throw in to it. Those are easy phone calls, but no one wants to buy a barrel tasting at a random winery in Northern California without other things to do there, without the hotel and the experience and everything else. So yeah, adding those little extra things. It's easy to ask for those extras. If you already have a trip to Nashville, hey, we already have this trip to Nashville, we already have this dinner, would you donate a barrel tasting of some sort?

Jeff: We're working on that because I have a cousin that owns a couple of breweries in Nashville. And so we sold a Nashville trip and now it's like, my wife keeps bugging me. You need to call and see if he'll do a tour or something like that. Okay, I'll call.

Kevin: Yeah, tour and tasting. Come on. Give and get. That's what I told my wife. Come on, board member.

Jeff: So what is -- okay, since I have you both on here, what would you say as some of the not-best auction items that people come up with? What are the least participated-in type of auction items? Just from your experience, because you've both been around for a long time, so we know that.

Kevin: My head immediately goes to artwork. You know, it's so subjective.

Jeff: Yeah.

Kevin: Unless it's an art auction -- and then yeah, exactly, art auctions, go for it. But I think if it's a typical gala with a normal live auction and you're trying to put pieces of artwork in there, it's hit and miss.

Jeff: I agree. I think any household goods -- furniture.

Kevin: Furniture.

Jeff: I mean, there's this auction we do every year and random stuff starts showing up. And I'm like, this is not a white elephant. This is an auction. This is legit. Like, this is grandma's antique little coffee table with these drawers. I go, it's beat up. It's got chips all over it. I always like to think, your auction for a fundraiser is not an estate sale. This one felt like that. This isn't your chance for the whole board to unload everything they don't like. We got these -- Kevin, to your point on auction items and art -- at this same event, they donated these two ornately framed vases with flowers. Like, what the heck is this thing? And so they're like, oh, you got to put it in the auction. The person that donated it is a big donor. And I'm like, no one's going to buy this thing. That's just going to make them feel bad. I sent a picture to ChatGPT and said, what the heck is this thing? I got to turn it into an auction item. Give me a name and a description. And it was hilarious.

Kevin: So sometimes you're just going to have to do that. Along with art being tough -- again, unless there's an artist associated with the nonprofit or the event -- the other one I think is really a tough sell is just a gift card.

Jeff: I turn those into raffles. Oh, I'm not supposed to say that word. I turn those into drawings. Opportunity drawings. Yes. We just turn -- say you're doing a derby event, like buy a horseshoe for 25 bucks. The horseshoe has a number on it. You go to checkout, you turn in your number, you get a gift card. Or I like those gift card wheels where you pay so much and you spin the wheel and it could be a gift card from $5 to $200. That's cool. But just a gift card -- to me, if I'm in a silent auction and I'm scanning through and I see a gift card for 50 bucks, I'm like, I'm not going to pay more than $50.

Kevin: Those are generous. I mean, I had a $200 gift card to Fleming's in mine and I think it went for $300, because people, you know.

Jeff: But if I'm going to donate $300 bucks, we might as well get a good size gift card.

Kevin: Yeah. So I'll tell you the one that I think doesn't usually sell well for a few reasons -- services. Like chiropractors. Teeth cleanings.

Jeff: You looked at me when you said that, by the way.

Kevin: I didn't. Paranoia will destroy you. But teeth cleanings, photo shoots, and a lot of times it's because the people providing it way inflate the value of what it's worth. And so charities take that. They apply their formulas to it. And they're like, oh, here's a one-hour photo shoot. They say it's worth $1,000 because they're going to get a free 8-by-10. And so let's start it at $500 or $400. And everyone looks at it and goes, I'm not paying $400 for a one-hour photo shoot. And so no one bids on it. I usually go into the auction and if we're there and they give us carte blanche to fix things, I'm like, 100 bucks, 50 bucks. And then all of a sudden you start seeing people bid on it. You get it sold.

Jeff: I had marriage counseling in one of them.

Kevin: I was like, ooh.

Jeff: Marriage -- I've seen that too. And it was --

Kevin: Rehab.

Jeff: I was at a Christian school auction. They had marriage counseling. And then the guy came up to me. He's like, well, no one's bidding on the marriage counseling. And I guess it was another family who provided the marriage counseling, one of the parents. And I was like, Chuck, no one wants to know that they're going to marriage counseling. Well, they donated it. And I'm sure they're really good. I'm sure they're great, right? But they don't want their kids' school knowing that their parents are in marriage counseling.

Kevin: Vasectomies -- those have done well at school auctions as well. But it's all the guys that run out of the room and the women that bid on it.

Jeff: Did you just say what I thought you said? Oh, yeah. Well, so here's a funny thing at my event. We were sitting there, I was just talking to this lady, and she says, you know, here's the funniest story. She said, I was bidding on what I thought was your event. So I went in and I searched for "Derby" and I go into this Kentucky Derby auction and they have AR-15s and vasectomies. I was like, okay, well.

Kevin: Because those go together.

Jeff: Yeah. Was that a package bundle? So anyway, I don't know if Jeff would really have these types of items in his auction. And then finally, she's like, the guy next to me was like, oh, you're in the wrong auction. You're in a Kentucky Derby auction running on Handbid in a different state.

Kevin: But I think it's -- you're looking at your auction as basically your storefront. And so you either have a two-week storefront if it's an online auction, or it's in-person, so it's a two-hour window. But it's a storefront. So what do we want to put? And what are people on budget for? What do they want to spend money on? And so not just taking everything. Does marriage counseling belong? Maybe we need to say no to that item or sell it differently. But I think you just need to ask -- what's in our storefront?

Jeff: Do you like a mystery grab bag?

Kevin: Well, it's just like -- and you get marriage counseling.

Jeff: And you get teeth cleaning.

Kevin: I was in Nashville at an auction. This lady pulls this quilt out. She's like, I need some advice. And she goes, this has been in our auction for the last four years. No one ever buys it. It's one of our donors that made it. What should we do?

Jeff: It's like, you need to accidentally burn it or something.

Kevin: Oh. I'm so sorry. The item got damaged.

Jeff: Yeah, that's sad. No, it's tough. I mean, everybody has those obligatory items. And then you have the donor in the room and they want to know what it's going for and they're hovering over the item and they're watching it. We get all that. We understand that those things are tough.

Kevin: Yeah. And I think to your point of all the gift cards -- take the gift cards and put them together and have a date night for a month or dinner for a year. Instead of just one gift card at a time, package it together.

Jeff: I had Chick-fil-A for a year. I had 62 Chick-fil-A gift cards in my auction.

Kevin: There you go.

Jeff: Wow. You have to really like Chick-fil-A. You have to eat a chicken sandwich every week.

Kevin: My seven-year-old would love that.

Jeff: Yes, there are some teenagers that would do that for sure. Yeah, not me. And if you're going to put a gift card in your auction, put how much it is. How many times have you seen that? Gift card to Fleming's. And you're starting at $100. It's a mystery.

Kevin: Yeah. It's like the wine pull.

Lori: I'll take those Chick-fil-A gift cards because we do milkshakes. Every Monday I pick my kids up from school. We do Milkshake Monday and we go through the drive-through.

Jeff: Oh, I got 52 milkshakes too, Kevin. We all have to send you some. Let's go. Milkshake Monday, what a great idea.

Kevin: Awesome. It's fun to brainstorm about items and come up with the names. And then send them into ChatGPT, which one of our board members just thought was the best thing ever. She was so excited because she didn't know how to use it. So then I'm like -- she writes -- I said, tell it to shorten it. She goes, I can just say that? I said, yeah, shorten it. Two or three paragraphs max. So it rewrites it. I said, tell it to make it more fun and enlightening. She does. I said, tell it to throw a dad joke in there. So it throws a dad joke in there. We love ChatGPT.

Jeff: Yeah. I mean, look, this is not data that you need to protect. These are auction item descriptions. Use AI. Write them up. Now, hold on, we don't want people messing with Kevin's descriptions. Those are professionally written. We're just talking about all the other stuff.

Kevin: Yeah. And I will say, our descriptions are professionally written. We've got a gal on our team -- her name's Eva, fantastic writer. She wrote for Wonder Woman 1984. So she's a phenomenal writer. So you don't need to do anything with our descriptions because we got a trained professional that puts them together.

Jeff: So -- well, with Wonder Woman 1984, I think it's time to wrap up this section of Elevate Your Event. Oh my gosh, Kevin, it is so fun to chat with you about this stuff.

Kevin: Yeah, we love Kevin and AuctionPackages.com. So make sure you reach out to him. Tell Jeremy I'm waiting for my invite to Portugal.

Lori: Yeah, he's there right now. I want to head out.

Jeff: You can pay as much money as you want to go hang out with Jeremy in Portugal. Drink some Portuguese wine. I love it. All right. No, this has been great. Kevin, thank you so much for joining us on this fine Tuesday afternoon. Hey, if people need to reach out to Auction Packages, how do they get in touch with you guys?

Kevin: Probably the easiest way is to send me an email. Kevin at AuctionPackages.com. Super simple. Or you can go to our website to check us out. But if you have any questions, if you want to send me your list of board members and ask what should I ask for, shoot me an email. I'd love to see how many of those I can do for anybody.

Jeff: All right. Send it over. I'll take a look. All right. Sounds good.

Kevin: All right, guys. Thank you guys so much for joining us. We're going to wrap up this episode of the Elevate Your Event podcast. Until next time, happy fundraising.

Narrator: We hope you enjoyed this episode of Elevate Your Event and you learned a little bit about auction items and how to incorporate them into your event. A special thank you to Kevin Spykerman with AuctionPackages.com. If you enjoyed our show, please take a moment to leave us a review. You can find us on Apple, Google, and Spotify. Don't forget to subscribe for more great content. And if you're a fan of video, check us out on YouTube. Until next time, happy fundraising.