Kevin Copelin may just be the best treasure you will find when you visit the Bargain Barn. He might be the best bargain, too.

Copelin has sent only six items to the landfill since he was hired at the Bargain Barn in October last year. He has the usual concerns for the environment, but adds, "It’s a shame to see stuff get thrown away when there are people who really want it and can use it."

As the Bargain Barn’s customer-service representative, Copelin serves as not only recycling champion but comedian, singer and philosopher as well. Mary Fields, Copelin’s manager, credits him with an increase in foot traffic through the Bargain Barn and says, "People come here just to meet him."

Copelin began working in the Storehouse of the Materiel Management Department 13 years ago before taking on his role as the "Bargain Barn Guy."

"There are real long aisles there [in the warehouse]…and I’m a people person. I got lonely," he says.

He can’t claim that now. On a typical day, Copelin rarely sits at his cluttered desk inside the Bargain Barn. In between answering the phone and helping people carry items to their cars, he greets his customers by name at the Barn door. The usual customer response is a familiar smile and a playful joke -- many know Copelin through his monthly newsletter, "Bargain Barn News," or because they are some of the 350 people listed in his e-mail address book.

Office cubicle euphemisms

Along with the latest acquisitions, Copelin manages to put himself into his e-mail messages to customers. Corny jokes, a list of how to say "I love you" in various languages including Klingon, and "The Top 10 ‘Other Names’ for Your Office Cubicle" are only a few of the extras one might find in an e-mail.

Mika Tolson of the Toxic Substances Research and Teaching Program says she looks forward to Copelin’s e-mails and opens them right away. "He has made the Bargain Barn come out of its little hole in the wall at Storehouse," says Tolson.

UC Davis opened The Bargain Barn door in the mid 1970s as a way of handling the disposal of surplus items from various departments on campus. Discarded items get channeled through the store in order to ensure departmental compliance with state mandates for the unbiased disposal of state property. The law requires that interested parties be afforded equal opportunity to purchase surplus goods. In addition, departments must send cast-off equipment and furniture through the Bargain Barn before they send it to the landfill.

Typical items one might find include computers, TVs, filing cabinets and desks. Some not so typical finds include otolaryngology equipment and an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. Items are tagged with two dates -- "departmental sale only" and "public sale." If items are not sold to departments within one month, then the sale opens to the public for the following month. If the merchandise remains after the initial two months, then the Bargain Barn will accept offers on the items.

"We’re supposed to advertise for three months. I usually let it go a little longer because I’m such a softy -- and I think I can sell anything," Copelin says.

Filing cabinets most popular

Computers and Steelcase filing cabinets are the most popular items at the Bargain Barn. Filing cabinets are popular, he says, because they are "the cockroaches of office furniture -- they would survive a nuclear holocaust. You could park your car on them."

He explains that, even though computers do not retain their value, there is a market for low-end products. The Bargain Barn stocks its shelves with computers as old as 1988 and as new as 1997 and ranging in price from $5 to $300. Copelin has one customer who buys Mac Classics and won’t pay more than $5 for them because she is a teacher and buying them for her classroom. As far as bargaining goes, Copelin says, "You need to decide what it’s worth to you."

Bargain Barn customers include departmental representatives, campus employees looking for items for home use and, of course, those who just love to rummage through junk.

An aunt’s advice

Copelin says he leaves some items in piles for that very reason. He recalls helping his aunt with a yard sale when he was a young boy. He hung a pole up across a tree and began hanging up the clothes neatly. His aunt promptly yanked all of the clothes down and stuffed them in a box and said "There! And take all those price tags off there, too!"

Copelin says his aunt taught him that bargain-hunters like discovering jewels in a pile of junk. He credits his aunt for teaching him to work with each person as an individual. "It’s amazing the value people will assign things," he says. "Value is different with each person."

Denise Forestek, an employee at Words Express, recently proved his point. Last week, she visited the Bargain Barn in search of a birthday gift for her husband. Wandering through the narrow aisles lined with desks stacked three high and shelved monitors waiting for adoption, she spied a hefty, office-sized electronic mail opener that Copelin said he’d been having a terrible time trying to sell. "An electronic mail opener," Forestek said, "wouldn’t that be a great present? My husband sells things on E-Bay. He only gets about three letters a week, but he loves to open his mail." She smiled as though she had just discovered a wonderful treasure. Copelin found an envelope for her to try. After running it through the machine, she exclaimed, "It did it! All right, you have a sale!"

Forestek paid $15 for her husband’s gift. Copelin helped her load it in her car.

Copelin says, whether it’s a mail opener or an 8-foot 1960s gold brocade couch, "Bring it to me before you throw it away." You can reach him at kgcopeline@ucdavis.edu.

Virginia Whitney Weigand, a senior majoring in English, is Dateline’s spring intern.