A Goodwill in Pennsylvania listed a small lego piece for $14.95 on its auction site, by the time the auction ended, the winning bid was $18,101.
Why would anyone pay so much for a lego?
Simple market economics.
The 14-karat gold Kanohi Hau mask comes from the discontinued Bionicles line, and only 30 of the golden masks were created. 25 were given away in 2001. Five were reserved by Lego.
Goodwill says that they received the tiny mask in a box of jewelry.
"You wouldn't think anything of it," Chad Smith, the vice president of e-commerce and technology for Goodwill in North Central Pennsylvania, says "It came in a little old-looking Lego box.
"We didn't know it was worth anything until people started asking if they could buy it for $1,000."
The highest bid for the golden mask was $30,000, but the bidder failed to pay, so the next highest bidder won the auction at $18,101. The next highest bid was $1 short of that at $18,100.
The mask has officially become the most expensive lego piece ever sold, knocking the rare golden brick off its $15,000 pedestal.
But at least the money will go for a good cause.
"All of the money that we get from selling the item will go back into our mission," says Goodwill spokesperson Jessica Illuzi. "It'll help provide jobs and training opportunities, and everything else that our wonderful plant specialists do to build people's competence and [give them] the skills that they need to succeed."
And the lesson of the story?
Double check what you're donating to Goodwill, folks!
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