Audio Goodwill sells its treasures on the Internet (story audio) Photos A Goodwill teapot Jan King of Goodwill Industries The Bollinger violin View full slideshow (5 images) Resources Shop Goodwill.com Your Voice Join the conversation with other MPR listeners in the News Forum.

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Goodwill sells its treasures on the Internet
by Mark Steil, Minnesota Public Radio
November 9, 2003

This old teapot is one of the Goodwill items to be sold on the antiques market. (MPR Photo/Mark Steil)

Old fashioned benevolence is teaming up with cyberspace at your local Goodwill store. Tons of clothes, applicances and household goods are donated each year to Goodwill. Most of it sells for bargain prices. But occasionally something really valuable comes in. When that happens, Goodwill uses the Internet and other options to get top dollar.

Sioux City, Iowa — Many of the items sold by Goodwill are useable, but not worth a lot of money. At Goodwill's Sioux City, Iowa, warehouse, Jan King stands in front of large bales of clothing. She says the company gets so many donations they can't sell it all here.

"Those clothes are things that we have determined we can't sell in our store. So we bale them. We get eight cents a pound for it. And it will actually be shipped overseas," says King.

The clothes are part of a rising tide of consumer goods flowing into Goodwill's warehouses. But King says mixed in with thousands of common items, are a few special things.

"Our sorters, the people that work in the stores, have really become attuned to what looks like something that someone else should take a look at," King says.

	Jan King of Goodwill Industries

Among the items they spot are glassware, pottery, silver tea sets, books and jewelry. Some of the antiques are sold at a special in-house shop called the Treasure Chest. Others are auctioned on the Internet.

"One of the most hotly contested items that we had was an old microphone. If we had put it out in the store, they probably would have put two or three dollars on it," King says.

The microphone sold for $50 on an Internet auction site.

King says that's a nice profit, but she hopes for even bigger payoffs. It's a little like public television's Antiques Roadshow. When the Roadshow arrives in town, people bring hundreds of items to be evaluated.

Many have little value, but a few are extraordinary, worth thousands of dollars. King hopes some of the items donated to Goodwill will produce that sort of "Roadshow moment." Her best hope right now for that to happen may be a donated violin.

Robert Sweeney of Sioux City has bought, sold and built violins for a good part of his life. Sweeney studies the Goodwill violin and says it was made in Europe.

"A Joseph Bollinger instrument, that Joseph built in Germany during the first part of the 19th century," says Sweeney.

	The Bollinger violin

He says Bollinger was a good one violin maker, though not well-known. The wood on the back of the instrument has tiger stripe markings. Sweeney says it has a nice tone.

"In my opinion, without deeper research, the instrument should be evaluated somewhere between $4,000 and $6,000," says Sweeney.

Goodwill's Jan King says she's thrilled by the appraisal. She says the money brought in by the violin and other antiques will help fund Goodwill programs, including job training and housing assistance.

The company could make a lot of money on the old items. Harry Rinker appraises antiques on television, radio and in newspapers. He says he knows firsthand that Goodwill should pay more attention to the value of donated items.

"I recently did an appraisal in Portland for a woman that went to a Goodwill store and bought flatware at 99 cents apiece. Sterling silver flatware. She got a service of 80 pieces for 80 bucks. And we valued it at $1,200," says Rinker.

But Goodwill's Jan King is realistic. She says antiques are a sideline. The company's main income source is the everyday consumer goods stored in its warehouses.

"If its been made or manufactured, or even thought of, in the United States, Goodwill's sold it," says King.

It's a neverending stream of clothes, lamps, cookware and applicances. Watching the flow with increased attention are Goodwill workers. Like gold miners, they sort through the stuff, always looking for something that sparkles.

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