I'm not sure...Maybe if you have them change their shirts so we could have one representing each brand. :evilb:

We could put letters on them. A, B, C, DD & possibly E...:D

Over the years, I have come to the conclusion that the very best auction items are either A) experiences that people can't buy. (ride on the medivac chopper, grand marshall at local parade, date with somebody, vacation at private condo, etc.) These seem to be the things that people who "have everything" go for.
Or B) something that someone who has had a few drinks just MUST have, like a puppy. Have a cute girl walk around the event with the puppy.
Another good one is summer car lease for a fun car. They don't have to store it, depreciate it, only insure it for a few months. We had a local car dealer donate a 3 month summer lease on a mustang convertible, and it was so popular that the auction guy stopped the auction and asked the car dealer (in the moment) if he would do two if the top two bidders both stayed in. He said yes. They both got the deal.

Regular "stuff" doesn't seem to do as well, because it is more logical, and less emotional. You want items that elicit an emotional response. I wish you luck. I have seen some members have new signature that really discourage people from trying to help the kids, but I think that you are great for doing this. Some of my best memories are from these kind of events. Seems like the compensation comes in other forms than money, but as I am sure you know... a generous heart leads to a richer life. Best of luck.

That would be awesome, here in ohio where the weather is bad 6 months out of the year you dont get much use out of a sports car and i've often thought in the summer how much fun it would be to have corvette,ferrari etc.. but its just not practical enough. Well not as much as a boat anyway. What did they bid on the price of the lease for the 3 months? That is a great idea I would be down for that around here especially.

If memory serves, there was a minimum of maybe.... three months worth of what the lease would have been..... $1,000 maybe $1,500.

It went over well.

The thing that I have noticed is that if there is already a hobby/sport "focus" (ie: boat event, golf) people don't go for stuff related to that. In other words.... at a high end golf event... people already have what they want to play golf with. With a high end boat event.... I would expect people to already pretty much have what they need/want. What you provide as a boating accessory wouldn't be the right color, size, type, quality, whatever.

The items almost NEED to be non boat related (again, unless it's exclusive. Like a ride with a legend in a boat set up by a legend. There needs to be that element that you can't buy.)
They already have coozies, lines, fenders, flares, coolers, etc.)

JB: please feel free to PM if there is anything that I can do.

Again, good luck.

Exactly...I agree non-related boat items would be the hit

njppc does a huge auction at our A/C poker run party we buy shirts from merc they give them to us at cost there a big hit. ol cig nor-tec black thunder donzi all donated clothes and boat gear 1 marina even gave us electronics and 2 dry storage for winter in fla. other pr clubs give us pr packages to raffle off. lots of opptions

toys minature motorized scooters and such. Somewhere on here is a video of the make a wish poker run auction. You get a good idea off there what got more intrest.

I like the idea of the convertible. I didn't know you could get a 3 month lease on one.