Unclaimed Baggage sells lost luggage items at significant discounts

Live snakes, a mounted ram's head, a Halloween card signed by Richard Nixon.

These are amongst essentially the most intriguing items to be present in lost luggage in 2023 without anyone seeing them, in keeping with a brand new report from Unclaimed Baggage, a store that buys lost items from airlines.

The company also found a 13-foot vaulting pole, gruesome props from the “Saw” film series and a pair of Louis Vuitton Nike Air Force 1 sneakers valued at $12,000.

These and other points are described intimately in the primary a part of the corporate.Find Report: A Look Inside America's Lost Luggage,” published April 1st.

“We thought it would be fun to release an annual report that captures the most common items, the most expensive items, and the weird and wonderful,” CEO Bryan Owens told CNBC Travel.

The costliest items found this 12 months, in keeping with the listing, are a diamond ring (estimated at $37,050), a Cartier Panthère watch ($26,500) and a Hermès Birkin 25 bag ($23,500).

The company has long-term contracts to buy unclaimed items from airlines in addition to hotels, trains and rental automotive corporations. It processes tens of 1000’s of things per week; About a 3rd is sold, one other third is donated and the remainder is recycled, he said.

“We live in a world where everything is lost,” Owens said. “It’s a little like Christmas every day.”

The company was founded by Owen's father, Doyle Owensin 1970 after Doyle received a tip that a neighborhood bus company was fighting a growing variety of passengers' abandoned bags.

So he borrowed $300 to purchase the unwanted bags, taped price tags to the contents and sold the products from his home in Scottsboro, Ala. – population: 15,700.

After that, “it was off to the races,” Owens said.

Today, Unclaimed Baggage's retail store in Scottsboro is larger than a city block and the corporate employs greater than 250 people, he said. The thrill of the hunt – the sheer possibility of what you’ll find – draws people from near and much.

“We have a million people every year … from every state in America and in 40 countries,” he said. “We have customers from the West Coast who fly there a few times. I remember there are a few from the UK who fly there once a year just to shop.”

Discounts range from 20 to 80 percent depending on the item, Owens said — more on clothing and fewer on Rolex watches. The company desires to offer customers a proposal without creating incentives for resellers, he said.

One customer, believed to be a cruise ship worker, bought “a ton” of Kindles and resold them in port cities, Owens said.

“We want someone to get a deal that they can’t get somewhere else, but … we’re not in the arbitrage industry.”

Out of AirPods for $54 to a HP 15.6-inch laptop for $175“Electronics sell the fastest,” Owens said.

But high-quality jewelry also sells well – even online, he said.

The company has purchased about 20 Rolex watches this 12 months alone, Owen said. One of his favorite pieces was a 40-carat emerald that was found wrapped in rags in a nondescript bag.

Authentication is a vital a part of the business, Owens said, for Louis Vuitton luggage or a pair Balenciaga sneakers. He likened identifying items in lost luggage to an “archaeological dig.”

In rare cases, items are returned to their rightful owners, he said.

“We had a man from Atlanta who … bought his girlfriend a pair of women's snow ski boots,” he said. “She withdrew her tongue… and deep in the trunk was her name. She had lost her boots and had been paid by the airlines. Then he found it at Unclaimed Baggage and brought it back to her.”

The company also finds items with unclaimed baggage price tags, meaning they were once lost, purchased by the corporate, sold to a brand new owner, after which lost again.

But what about disgruntled travelers who claim the items in the shop are their lost possessions?

“By the time we get the property, it has gone through a pretty extensive search process and they have settled all of their claims,” Owens said, adding that this typically takes about 90 days.

Owens has also found some gems through the years, including the jacket he wore when he spoke to CNBC Travel. He said he discovered it while talking to a customer in the shop.

“I looked at the rack and thought, I really like this jacket,” he said.

It turned out to be a jacket from the Italian luxury brand Chiton.

“I would never pay for this on my own, but it’s a jacket worth $10,000,” he said.

The price in his store: $999.

According to this, 7.6 pieces of baggage are handled incorrectly for each 1,000 passengers SITA's Luggage IT Insights 2023 Report. Of these, 80% are delayed and ultimately returned to their owners; 13% are damaged or stolen; and seven% are lost or stolen, it said.

“The airlines are actually doing a good job of matching passengers and baggage,” Owens said. “It’s a fraction of a percent of the bags shipped that end up getting lost.”

According to Unclaimed Baggage's Found Report, essentially the most common reason for luggage loss is an absence of identification on or in the bags.

The company recommends travelers attach a durable luggage tag to their suitcases and place a chunk of paper or business card inside with their contact information and itinerary.