18. A rock:
I don’t work at a Goodwill but my brother once bought a rock he found on the shelf there for $11. There was nothing special about it, it was just a normal rock.
17. A bat:
A Blazer Vest with a LIVE BAT comfortably nestled inside it, cute little guy.
Never got pictures, was before the age of smartphones I’m afraid. Got the thickest pair of gloves to carefully grab him and release him outside.
16. A bible for the…hm:
A book with “Bible for the deaf” written across the cover while the rest of it was written in Braille…
They kinda missed the point with that one.
15. Convenience store machines:
I used to work at Value Village and one day somebody brought in an entire truck load of machines used in a convenience store. Those hot dog rollers, slurpee machine, warming cases and surprisingly that ended up selling them.
14. More fetish stuff:
An S/M collection. There was a whip, a fur glove, several heavily illustrated insanely violent novels from the 70s, and other stuff I’ve forgotten. My manager let me take most of it for .99 an item. She kept the fur glove.
13. Propaganda:
Haven’t worked at Goodwill (in Australia) but did volunteer in an op shop for 8 months. Most interesting thing by far was a piece of East German Propaganda from 1967 about the Berlin Wall. Included lots of info about how the West Berliners were smuggling weapons and criminals. Interesting read for sure.
Edit: I didn’t manage to get the book (this was a while back) but I did get a few pictures of it for those interested:
12. Model cellphones:
A briefcase of about 20 display model cellphones.. this is pre-smartphones. Just fake cellphones, display models, from a cellphone store. They don’t turn on, they don’t have batteries, no electronics.
Also used underwear with streakmarks.
11. Antique instruments:
I have a different take on the goodwill gold…and also, after reading this thread…ew, gross.
My area of expertise is instruments and occasionally people donate INCREDIBLE antique instruments. There are many dealers who watch these so it’s not like you can go find one on the shelf for $50.
But recently for example someone donated an amazing German cello from a respected maker made around the 1750’s. Even without being able to take a good look at it, at auction it could have gotten anywhere from $5k-$30k.
But beyond the monetary value, imagine the history of an instrument that old. Outliving so many of its players. Being played in courts and concert halls before electricity could light them. Being made completely by hand. Even the source trees were cut down by hand and horses pulled them to a mill. Performance after performance for over 2 1/2 centuries all to end up being given to the goodwill. It sort of short circuits my mind a little bit to think about how we lived then and how we live now…and then sometimes how those times intersect at the goodwill. Kind of sad, kind of beautiful.
10. An actual human skull:
Worked there one summer at a satellite drop-off area by a bar.
Weirdest was a medical study skull made from a real human skull. It came in a legit medical study supply box. The top of the skull was cut and hinged.