Karin Gustafson leads her 15th annual estate sale

Karin Gustafson works hard on her collection.

She's been collecting eclectic items since she was young, and her hobby has only intensified in recent years. Gustafson has led the Karin’s Causes estate sale — a three-day event offering all sorts of items and oddities for collectors and customers — in Sarasota for years. 

It’s tough to mention what kinds of items are in Gustafson’s collection — it’s probably easier to say what isn’t. 

A collection of fine art from regional Florida artists? She has that. Jewelry? A roomful.

African carvings, vintage Americana decorations and 1990s Star Wars figures? Have them, she does. 

The items are all carefully cultivated by Gustafson and researcher Rebecca Goldthwaite, who spend months and months picking out items for the big sale. The event has raised more than a $100,000 for various nonprofits over the years, with last year’s event bringing in more than $15,000.

After months of collecting, it’s time for Gustafson to put her collection up for sale once more. The 2022 estate sale will open up at the Scottish Rite building across from VFW Post 3233 on Jan. 27-29. Gustafson, Goldthwaite and volunteers are clearly thrilled at what they've collected and what they'll be showing people. 

“All of this stuff sticks to my shoes,” Gustafson said. “I’ve been a collector since I was a little kid.”

Karin’s Causes was born out of Gustafson’s longtime passion of picking up collectibles and valuables. Goldthwaite met Gustafson while volunteering for the Y Foundation’s estate division — Gustafson was president of the organization for more than two decades — and the pair quickly became friends. Goldthwaite, a Longboat Key resident who has worked as a museum docent and researcher for years, was already a fan of collecting and sales and took to Gustafson’s work.

“She was holding sales in her garage and dealers would come from miles around,” Goldthwaite said. “One day she called me with the idea asking ‘Do you think we could take this bigger and make some money for charities?’”

Karin’s Causes has grown ever since, each year providing money for a number of nonprofits.This year’s event benefits the Animal Rescue Coalition, the New College Foundation’s scholarship fund, and the Scottish Rite Foundation’s “Helping Children Communicate” program which assists children with communication issues. 

Gustafson and her friend Donna Hardin collects the many items, but it falls to Goldthwaite every summer to organize the items and look into their rich backgrounds.

“Every Sunday, the barrage of photos (of items Gustafson has purchased) start coming in,” Goldthwaite said. “My job is to find the treasures and hidden values. I enjoy it and try to go to any lengths to find out what something is.”

Her process involves consulting with professors, museum curators, appraisers over the months and sometimes contacting a specialist when looking at foreign artwork. The steady progress of finding, cataloging and discovering hidden value to be sold for a good cause is what energizes Goldthwaite through the endeavor. 

Gustafson tries to keep her selection eclectic, sometimes picking up Energizer Bunny plushies and tequila bottles and other times acquiring thousand-dollar bracelets. 

She looks for items at garage sales and consignment shops over estate sales as the latter often price things too high. Goldthwaite says they try to apply “out the door” pricing for their items when the estate sale comes around. It’s all money raised for a good cause at the end of the day, both Goldthwaite and Gustafson reason. 

“The whole idea is to connect people to worthy causes via the sale of items they love,” Goldthwaite said. “We want people to leave here happy.”

Given both Goldthwaite and Gustafson’s passion for fine art, it tracks there’s a rich selection of artwork at each sale. The group has procured painted works from Syd Solomon, Kasper Zimmerman, Beth Arthur and artists inspired by the Florida Highwaymen. Gustafson collects art from Florida women artists and is bringing a couple pieces from her own collection to the sale.

It's thrilling to find new gifts and collectibles throughout the year, but the hardest day for Gustafson is when she brings the hundreds of items to the event space. 

On that day, amid the hundreds of boxes and packages that she's trying to organize and display before the weekend, Gustafson says she’s usually ready to never have a sale again. 

But after the sale has ended — and much of their inventory has been depleted — she feels the pull the head out and start looking for items for the next time. 

“After every sale, I say I’m never doing one again,” Gustafson said. “But after a month, we’re back out there and we find things.”