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What Every Charity MUST Know Before They Entrust A Third Party Supplying Autographs!
Kenny Lindsay Fundraising Auctioneers is the only benefit and charity auction service in the country that has the professional experience and background to provide authentic autographed sports memorabilia for your live or silent auction event.
Why Us For Sports Memorabilia?
For over two decades, our parent company TCM has been one of the longest standing vintage sports memorabilia and autographed memorabilia firms in the state of Michigan. From convention promotions and show exhibitions, along with private and public autograph sessions with top athletes, no benefit auction company in the world can match our expertise in providing truly authentic, autographed memorabilia for your live and silent auction event.
Our credentials are unsurpassed and proven time and time again.
Kenny Lindsay has assisted authorities in forgery operation stings. He has also been used as an expert witness and has single handedly discovered and exposed multiple forgery operations. In addition, Lindsay is a former sports promoter and National Convention exhibitor who has written numerous articles and studies in the field of autographs. He was also the founder and editor of Autograph Discoveries investigative newsletter.
We endorse the statement released by the FBI that states, "70% of Autographs Sold Online Are Fake."
Why is this important to your organization? Because integrity is everything.
It always amazes us how so many highly esteemed charitable organizations are unknowingly playing the game of Russian roulette with their autographed consignment merchandise.
Did you know that the FBI warns consumers that 70% of the autographs sold on the marketplace are forgeries? That's seven out of every ten items that are accurately deemed as fakes! Take a few minutes and visit the FBI website and read more about the reality of this $100 million dollar a year forgery market.
Now that you are aware of these staggering statistics – are you still willing to gamble the integrity of your organization by dealing with someone who isn’t reputable? And, can you afford to? All it takes is one of your supporters to take an item that they purchased from your live or silent auction to a professional autograph authenticator. If the item is deemed as a forgery, you can be assured that a lot of finger pointing will be going around.
The Inside Scoop On Autographed Merchandise
The “Certificate of Authenticity” is one of the greatest sales tools ever invented. Time and time again, these elegant pieces of paper that are created on a home computer deceive thousands of trusting buyers year after year. The fact is, in most cases, the “Certificate of Authenticity” is nothing more than a blindfold to the customer.
The Infamous “Certificate Of Authenticity” – The Blindfold To The Customer
The ultimate goal of your fundraising event is to ideally retain 100% of the total dollars bid at the auction. The more consignment merchandise you carry, the less profit your organization will realize. In other words, your auction committee should be procuring 90-95% of your donations that will realize 100% profit for your organization.
The purpose of our consignment service is to put the finishing touches on your live and/or silent auction. We’ll give your event a polished look and feel with premium sports memorabilia that is sure to be a big hit with your attendees, however, consigned merchandise should NEVER exceed 5% to 10% of your total auction selection.*
*Exception: Please see “Instant Silent Auction" section below.
Consignment Merchandise – The 10% Rule
Beware Of The Wolf In Sheep’s Clothing
The wolves are lurking and most likely you have been contacted by them on multiple occasions. We are referring to the countless benefit auction “consignment” services that are popping up faster than Beanie Baby dealers in early 2000.
These consignment services use a hook to lure unsuspecting clients with an abundance of product for your live and silent auctions with an Absolutely No Risk proposition.
The Dangers of Accepting Goods And Services On Consignment
What Your Organization Must Know
First of all, there is a significant risk when dealing with these outside entities, which can be detrimental to your bottom line and your reputation.
For instance, these auction consignment providers use the common pitch that your charity will receive a percentage of the proceeds. In most instances, they will retain all funds up to a certain amount. Once that amount has been reached they will give your charity a portion of those proceeds. Such items include elaborate vacation packages, celebrity and sports memorabilia, and unique experiences.
On too many occasions, we have witnessed charitable organizations offer an all-expense-paid trip to Hawaii, a ski vacation to Vail, Colorado or a cruise to an island in the tropics.
We conducted a fundraising auction for a well-known school and the auction committee went against our advice and decided to give two elaborate vacation packages "a try" for their live auction event. However, neither package would be sold to the highest bidder unless they reached a certain amount. In this case, the Florida Keys vacation had to reach $2,500 and the trip to Paris, France had to reach $6,500. Neither package sold which not only hurt the momentum of the auction but also looked very tacky for the charity.
Here is the other “problem” with such packages. Your supporters! One of the quickest ways to make your loyal supporters irate with your organization is when they realize only a small percentage of the hundreds or thousands of dollars they bid went to benefit the charity.
The other problem is consignment merchandise literally removes hundreds and thousands of dollars from the room. In other words, the consignors are that ones that are benefiting from your event rather than your organization. This is another reason why you should consult with Kenny Lindsay Fundraising Auctioneers. We have the experience and expertise to rid you of this very common problem.
Under no circumstances should any item in your live or silent auction break the Brick Wall Rule.
What is the Brick Wall Rule?
Reserve prices on live auction items. If the item must receive a certain amount before it can be sold then it should have no place in your live auction.
Why Is This Important?
Like running into a brick wall, it is a momentum killer.
The majority of auction consignment vendors generally have astronomical Brick Wall (reserve prices) prices on the merchandise that they consign to your event. In many cases, the items will not sell and when these items do sell, the vendor is walking away with hundreds or thousands of dollars and the charity receives a paltry amount.
What about those situations where one of your supporters offers to donate their vacation home or timeshare package to your benefit auction event? But there's a catch. The item must obtain a certain amount during the live auction or the deal is off.
Before you scrap that timeshare package that someone has donated to your event, get in touch with us! We have the ideal solution for these circumstances that will make your donor and your committee jump for joy!
The Brick Wall Rule
Instant Silent Auction
Are you having an event but don't have the time to produce a silent auction?
If this is your situation then something is better than nothing. Kenny Lindsay Fundraising Auctioneers can produce a state-of-the-art professional silent auction on a moment’s notice!
- Money Falling Out Of The Sky – Book our service and we'll split the proceeds with you the same day.
- Exclusive Products – Many of the memorabilia items we provide are unique exclusives that you won’t find anywhere else!
- Presentation Is Everything – Our professional setup and merchandise will instantly add curb appeal to your event
- Zero Hassle – Book us and we'll handle all aspects of your silent auction.
- Zero Risk – You have everything to gain and nothing to lose with this program! It's a guaranteed added revenue generator for your fundraising event
- Piece of Mind – Our reputation and track record speaks for itself. All autographed memorabilia is accompanied with the TCM Certificate of Authenticity, which carries our industry original and exclusive, Double Your Money Back Guarantee pertaining to the authenticity. NOBODY and we mean NOBODY can match our experience in this specialized trade.
The Kenny Lindsay Fundraising Auctioneers “Cure”
Sports memorabilia is a ONE BILLION dollar industry in the United States of America and it's always been a high revenue producer for charitable organizations. This means your organization must proceed with extreme caution whenever you are considering autographed memorabilia for your live and/or silent auctions.
Be sure to consult with us any time autographed memorabilia will have a role in your event. Auctioneer Kenny Lindsay is an industry recognized expert in the field of autographs and has personally authored many studies and articles on this very subject.
Over the years, Lindsay has uncovered major forgery rings and was instrumental in busting up the largest autograph forgery scam to ever hit the metro Detroit area in history. Lindsay was also the authenticator who uncovered the shocking reality that the so-called autographed books that former First Lady and now Senator Hillary Clinton was distributing during a national book signing tour were actually not signed by the First Lady.
DON'T PUT THE INTERGRITY OF YOUR ORGANIZATION AT RISK! When it comes to authenticity, Kenny Lindsay Fundraising Auctioneers will remove all risk to your organization.
Contact us right now for a free, no obligation phone consultation on what you should be doing to incorporate autographed memorabilia into your benefit auction event.
Contact us right now at: (734) 223-3277.
"More professional auctioneers are hired by charity organizations. Instead of hiring a local celebrity as in the past, many groups are learning that the professional auctioneer can raise more money, provide greater entertainment and protect the organization from problems and legal liabilities that can occur from an amateur's ignorance of how to run a fundraising auction."
- Official Harris Interactive study
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