Goodwill auctions 14-karat gold Lego piece for over $18,000
March 12 (UPI) -- A 14-karat gold Lego piece donated to a Pennsylvania Goodwill store was originally priced at $15 -- but ended up selling for over $18,000.
Goodwill officials said workers at the store in Du Bois were sorting through a bag of jewelry transferred from the State College Goodwill store when they found the Lego piece, a small Bionicle mask.
"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, told People.
He said the piece was initially listed online for $14.95.
"We didn't know it was worth anything until people started asking if they could buy it for $1,000," Smith told WPVI-TV.
Workers researched the piece and discovered it was an extremely rare "Kanohi Hau" mask. Lego created only 30 of the gold masks.
"It was a giveaway, and there were 25, I believe, that were given away and five remained for people who actually worked at Lego. So 23 years later, one of these resurfaces and it's really unique," Smith told KDKA-TV.
Goodwill auctioned the piece and it ended up being sold for $18,100 to an anonymous collector.
The gold mask is now believed to be the most expensive Lego piece ever sold, taking the title from a 14-karat solid gold 2x4 brick that sold for $15,000.
