Goodwill auctions,, !!

[mart]

Painting thats a repro from 1823 over $19,000.  I have been watching the listings and its amazing what some things bring at their auction !!  Especially since there is no way to verify any of them !!  Bidders seem to go nuts there and completely dead on ebay !!  I know many are probably dealers and some buy because its Goodwill and goes for a good cause,, but still,,,very few items go off without a bid !!  I was trying to see what was actually selling at decent price !!  But there,, almost everything sells at decent price no matter if its worth it or not !!  Many you can buy on ebay at half the price or less !!

[bigwull]

In our local paper on Wednesday...there was an article entitled....Auction Madness...and it was about what you are saying...they had a list of the 10 most popular things,that people buy...i.e. Samsung Galaxy..,...Ipads...Kindle,.Digital camera....etc.etc.. ..and ...out of 10 items...it was found that people were paying more on Ebay..for 90% of those items....than what they could be bought for....if you shopped around.....
The same thing happened to me a couple of  weeks,ago,...I bought an item on Ebay.for £25 +£6
I kept it for a week,got positive feedback...on the sale...then listed it back on Ebay with a low start price...and the same item sold for £56 + £7.99 postage...I have been paid for that item...the point i,m making is...that buyer will have seen what i paid for it through my feedback...yet he still paid me double what i paid.+postage......this same item could be bought new...for ..£70..postage free...which is only £6 more...and he would have got a brand new item with a years guarantee....its nuts.....

[ironlord1963]

      Wow 19k is that for that Dali they found in Tacoma?   Yea, you know how I see this everyday working for goodwill,  I have sold many items for goodwill then sold items at home that was about the same and Goodwill get more.    However let me tell you at the same time you can get some fantastic deal too.  As a rule we start all our auctions a 9.99, and many times I seen item sell for that, and they are worth about 100.00 on ebay.  Another one I have seen a couple of times is someone would win a item then email us and donate it back, I think this is a tax thing though.  Only real bummer I have working for the Goodwill Online dept. is we are not allowed to bid on the items, but we can alway get a friend too, and trust me this works     

[bigwull]

If you are not allowed to bid on any of the items listed,but get a friend to bid...which effectively is like shill bidding...in reverse....then do you think its wise to say so..on here..cos..after all...Goodwill bosses can be on here...and you would,nt know it......or am i being too suspicious.....

[cogar]

Just like all auctions, ...... that "no-bid" policy for employees is for the appeasement of the bidding public. Just a little assurance that an employee is not "runnin" the bid.

Now I use to go to 3 or 4+ auctions bout every week. And there were 3 auctioneers that helped each other out at their respective auctions. And of course, they would buy items from anyone and then put them "up for sale" in their auctions.

And I know for a fact, that when that "item" sold, whether it was in the 1st auction, or whether is was the 2nd time round all 3 auctions, ..... it sold for a profit for the auctioneer who owned it.     

[ironlord1963]

     Could be a goodwill boss on here but most likely not.  At least any of my direct bosses.    Not sure it would be like shill Bidding at all, cause the only one who get the profit on these auctions is the jobless and Homeless anyway.   

[bigwull]

Having given this some more thought...i now think that perhaps the only reason Goodwill do not allow employees to bid direct...is because ..if it were known then..that they did..and they won a particular item for less than it was valued..then Mr Joe Public could say that favouritism...had a hand in the sale....

[mart]

      Wow 19k is that for that Dali they found in Tacoma?   Yea, you know how I see this everyday working for goodwill,  I have sold many items for goodwill then sold items at home that was about the same and Goodwill get more.    However let me tell you at the same time you can get some fantastic deal too.  As a rule we start all our auctions a 9.99, and many times I seen item sell for that, and they are worth about 100.00 on ebay.  Another one I have seen a couple of times is someone would win a item then email us and donate it back, I think this is a tax thing though.  Only real bummer I have working for the Goodwill Online dept. is we are not allowed to bid on the items, but we can alway get a friend too, and trust me this works     

No that was for a repro of a Caravaggio (I think) that was done in 1823 !!  Can`t remember the artist or if it even told who it was !!  I just use www.shopgoodwill and click on antiques and it will bring the listing up !!  Prices just amaze me !!

[ironlord1963]

No that was for a repro of a Caravaggio (I think) that was done in 1823 !!  Can`t remember the artist or if it even told who it was !!  I just use www.shopgoodwill and click on antiques and it will bring the listing up !!  Prices just amaze me !!
[/quote]

    Yea shortly after I wrote that I had to go look.   Yea pretty amazing price.   In General at work Art can be a hard sale, but when you hit one it goes, we have seen some go into the $2000.00, and one did get 5K, but usually we start them at 9.99 and they sale for that or go untouched.   But still the biggest money maker is Video Games and Legos  .      And Bigwull  I should make this a bit clearer, only us who work in the Online Dept is not allowed to buy, other employees can and do all the time.  The reason we can't bid is we could down Play it, add too much shipping, or just misspell the Title tags, and get it cheap.   

[mart]

Since the money does go to a good cause and if everyone is honest, doesn`t make a difference who does the buying to me !!  I can see Goodwill`s point though !! 

[cogar]

OOPS, ...... another "sleeper" has arisen.

MILWAUKEE -- "Red Nose" just meant a reindeer named Rudolph to Karen Mallet until she bought a print by that name for $12.34 at a Goodwill store in Milwaukee. It turned out to be a lithograph by American artist Alexander Calder worth $9,000.

[wendy177]

OMG ironlord Legos!!! I have a house full of them!!! I flattened and stored all the boxes (like New) and stored all the instruction books in a separate box! All I would have to do is separate them back into there boxes from the HUGE bins!!  How much money are we talkin here ? 

[mart]

You may be sitting on a small fortune there Wendy !!

[jumpontopski]

I have seen the same thing Mart. I like to buy pocket watches and fix them, sell them, or keep them. I looked on goodwill and they are going for more than the price for gold and that is based on the weight of the movement as well which is not gold. I thought it was just a sought after piece but looked at other stuff and it was all the same.

Makes me want to open up a goodwill!

[mart]

Isn`t that the truth !!  Only downside,,, no profit !!