Designer clothes and jewelry, sporting goods and electronics; you can now shop online for other people’s lost things.
The vast majority—99.5%—of domestic airline passengers’ checked bags arrive at their intended destination and are reunited with their owners. But what about those that aren’t?
If an airline can’t connect an unclaimed bag to its owner after 90 days, it’s considered orphaned. That’s where the Unclaimed Baggage Center comes in. For fifty years (yes, fifty!) it’s had a monopoly on purchasing orphaned luggage from all domestic airlines, plus other travel and transportation companies.
UBC buys the orphaned bags sight unseen and sorts through their contents. A third of the items are deemed resalable, with the rest being tossed or donated to charities.
UBC’s 50,000-foot store is crammed to the rafters with clothing, sporting goods, jewelry, musical instruments, electronics, and anything else people pack into their checked luggage. (They claim to dry-clean the clothing and wipe electronics before making them available for purchase.)
Sometimes people come in and find their own stuff. (A few years ago, a man bought a pair of ski boots for his wife. When he gave them to her, she thought they looked familiar. She was right; on the inside of the boots was her name where she’d written it.) If people find something they’ve owned and want it back, they have to buy it, as it’s considered abandoned. (Besides, they probably already received compensation from an airline or credit card company.)
Previously, you could only shop UBC’s inventory by making the trek to its Scottsboro, Alabama location—something more than a million people did last year. Now UBC has launched an online store to showcase a fraction of its wares.
The site organizes items into department-store-like categories, such as Women’s Apparel, Men’s Accessories, Health & Beauty, Sporting Goods, and Electronics.
There are also curated selections, including Unusual Finds, Collectibles, and Luxe Finds. The latter category includes jewelry (I spotted an $8k diamond bracelet) and designer bags and clothes, while the first two feature unique goods – moose antlers, autographed baseball bat (Ozzie Smith and Whitey Herzog), or leather lederhosen, anyone?
UBC also sells gift cards, in case you can’t decide whether Mom would prefer a Lionel Train Grain Elevator kit or a Cleopatra costume (asp not included) on her next birthday.
Twist’s Take: The Unclaimed Baggage Center is the ultimate garage sale for occasional bargains and unique finds.
