Goodwill just struck gold!
A Du Bois, Penn. Goodwill store received a rare 14-karat gold Kanohi Hau mask from Lego’s Bionicle line. The store auctioned off the 1-inch-tall piece for more than $18,000 on Feb. 21, per the store’s site.
The gold Lego piece was found after the State College Goodwill store transferred a bag of jewelry to the central Pennsylvania store earlier this month.
“You wouldn’t think anything of it. It came in a little old-looking Lego box,” Chad Smith, the vice president of e-commerce and technology for Goodwill in North Central Pennsylvania, tells PEOPLE.
Smith tells PEOPLE that the store manager first put the piece on the Goodwill site for $14.95.
“[The store] didn’t know it was worth anything until people started asking if they could buy it for $1,000,” Smith told ABC affiliate 6ABC.
After 48 bids, the new owner — who wishes to remain anonymous — took the Lego piece home for $18,101. Meanwhile, the second-highest bid was $18,100.
Goodwill Industries of North Central PA, Inc.
Smith confirms with PEOPLE that Lego is the highest a piece has ever sold at the Du Bois store and the highest “any Lego piece” ever sold.
He explained that he spent the night watching the auction and revealed how it went up to $33,000, but no one submitted a bid at that rate. The second-most expensive Lego ever sold was a $15,000 14-karat solid gold 2×4 brick, reports Local 12 News.
The discovered 14-karat gold collectible weighs a total of 9oz. The price of one ounce of gold averages $2,035 per Monex; consequently, the buyer received the piece for what a gold item would currently be priced at.
“All of the money that we get from selling the item will go back into our mission,” Jessica Illuzzi, Social Media and PR Coordinator for Goodwill Industries of North Central Pennsylvania, told USA Today.
Goodwill Industries of North Central PA, Inc.
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Illuzzi confirms with PEOPLE that the piece was first released in 2001 as a part of a giveaway of a total of 30 Legos — which also included silver and platinum pieces, per WTAJ.
“Five remained for people who actually worked at LEGO. So 23 years later, one of these resurfaces and it’s really unique,” Smith told CBS Pittsburgh.