Here's how Goodwill works in RVA (Richmond Virginia). Items dropped off at the stores are sold at the stores. Items dropped at remote locations (ie trailers at shopping centers) are taken to a central location, and then either redistributed to the stores, sold at auction, or sent overseas. In addition, items that do not sell at the store are sent to the processing center and auctioned.

Bikes at the auction are strictly hit and miss. In the past (3-4 years ago) the auction would often have fifty or sixty bikes per auction, three times a week, with the perponderance being bike boom roadies and kid's bikes. Now you see sometimes as few as three to four bikes an auction, largely mountain and kids bikes. It used to be a real treasure torve-- I bought many a bike there for five bucks just for the brooks saddle. The regulars at the auction had come to the conclusion I was completely insane, as all I bought was roadies, which no one wanted. Amoung my finds were a Bridgestone RB2 (unridden, 40$), a couple of nice Shogun touring bikes (about 15$ apeice), my UO8 (5$), syke's Magneet ($5), two trek 410s, a trek 400, several Cannondales, a 1965 Raleigh Sports (5$), and much more; I would often buy a bike simplyfor a part.

Alas, with the coming of Craigslist and the fixie boom here in RVA, the source has pretty much dried up. It's turned into a bunch of CL dealers squabling over each and every bike that comes in, paying far too much-- and the flow of old roadies has dropped down to almost nothing. I rarely attend anymore; just not worth it. The dealers finally figured out I know what I'm looking at and pester me incessantly about the resale value of the bikes there; I've taken to telling them the frames are cracked or otherwise damaged on the rare occasion I go and there's a roadie there.

Your area may differ.