[Tohopekaliga]

Yes, all items donated are kept in the Exchange inventory, and those are selected against for the exchange options. At present, you can only exchange Jack-O-Loot items, but after the event, I'm going to open it up to all special items (event, RIG, crane) for exchange. You give one of those ,you get a random other one that's been given to the exchange.

Also, you can exchange commons for other commons (meaning, aurum-purchased items), but I think it's mostly just underpants in that selection right now.