14K GOLD BLUE TOPAZ RING
$221
ONLINE GOODWILL SHOPPERS CLAIM THEIR ITEMS:
$4.94 winning bid, pink high-heels, Vanessa Smith, Nashville $6 winning bid, Raggedy Ann &
ARMADILLO PURSE
Andy dolls, Teresa Woodall, Pegram
The Sniders are among many people who only recently discovered that Goodwill sells merchandise online, even though the local Goodwill’s online store has been in operation more than a decade. The e-commerce platform, shared by other Goodwill affiliates, has been around even longer. Onlinegoodwill.com is an auction site similar to e-Bay, except that all of the merchandise was donated to Goodwill and is sold by Goodwill to the highest bidder. Revenue from those sales, like sales in Goodwill’s brick and mortar stores, funds Goodwill’s mission of changing lives through education, training and employment. “We’ve told lots of people about it, and none of them realized Goodwill sold things online,” Joe Snider said. (Continued on page 12)
$41 ONLINE GOODWILL FACTS: • 329,119 items sold at OnlineGoodwill.com during 2015.
• Less than 1 percent of donations processed by Goodwill Industries of Middle Tennessee are sold online.
• 60 donated bobble-head dolls sold on eBay marked the local Goodwill’s entry into online commerce in 2001.
• $1,800 was the winning bid for the most expensive item sold at onlinegoodwill.com in 2015: a 1963 Fender amplifier.
• 17,455 pieces of jewelry were sold online last year.
“We’ve told lots of people about it, and none of them realized Goodwill sold things online." – Joe Snider, Mt. Juliet
• Books, media and other miscellaneous items are also sold on Ebay and Amazon to raise funds Goodwill’s mission.
Ambassador SUMMER 2016
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