to be honest, i don't know that she did, but i am thinking of one woman that i know that has 5 kids and the youngest is a boy, i am betting she took it and i don't blame her. that is the incentive to help with the sorting, they get first dibs on the stuff that comes in and i am sure that she gave a nice amount of $ for it, though nothing like what it was worth.
Well, about the Thomas set....try to look at it from the point of view that it will be loved by another child, and that you are blessing someone else with it.
I help with the Parish white elephant table, and last year the older ladies that I work with made me buy (for $1.50) a very "loved" (read, dirty) American girl doll. My daughter already had one that she never played with....but they insisted that I needed to buy her. Well, I brought her home, cleaned her face with a cotton swab and alcohol. My daughter named her "Mallon" and it is her favorite doll. (What do I do with the one I paid $80 for????)