When checked baggage gets lost and can’t be reunited with its owner – or someone just doesn’t pick up their luggage – airlines sell the bags after 90 days to the Unclaimed Baggage Center which has built a monopoly in the niche business of selling used items out of luggage.
The store is in Scottsboro, Alabama. They buy bags sight unseen. They comb through the bags to find what to sell, and claim to dry clean clothing they plan to sell and wipe electronics before making those available. The store is a tourist attraction.
They’ve recovered moose antlers, wedding rings, and even Rolex watches as well as “a suit of armor, a 40-carat emerald, a Chinese dragon kite and a puppet created at Henson’s Creative Workshop.” Once in awhile customers have come in and found their own stuff which has been forfeited. (They’ve likely already received payment from the airline or a credit card, and it’s considered abandoned in any case.)
Well now Unclaimed Baggage has an online store. So you can buy phones, luggage, jewelry, someone else’s bikinis…
Can you find any deals there? Anything you’ve lost?
The prices seem high. Interesting, though.
Welcome to the 2000s. Even Goodwill thrift stores have had an online store since 2007.
Some of the electronics prices were more than you would pay new…
If there were any deals to be had, I surely didn’t see them!
I imagine they would get a better return if they put items up for auction. People get ownership when bidding and often pay way more than the actual value. At least I find this true in my online used golf ball sales. It’s just nuts. Perhaps the airlines should reinstate the auction process at the gate.