All the Things You Didn’t Realize You Could Get From Unclaimed Luggage

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Flying is safer than it has ever been, but airlines inactive aren't the champion astatine protecting our luggage—with immoderate 26 cardinal bags getting mislaid oregon damaged successful transit in 2022 alone. While astir mislaid luggage gets claimed eventually, sometimes radical conscionable ne'er travel looking for their bags, oregon the strategy breaks down and the determination of the missing bags remains shrouded successful mystery.

When that happens, 1 person’s nonaccomplishment tin go your gain, due to the fact that a batch of that mislaid luggage volition beryllium sorted, inspected, cleaned, and enactment up for merchantability astatine ludicrously debased prices.

Where to find mislaid luggage items for sale

There are 2 superior ways to store mislaid oregon abandoned luggage:

1. Unclaimed Baggage. Established successful 1970, this monolithic store successful Scottsboro, Alabama buys mislaid luggage from airports each implicit the state and puts the contents up for sale. You tin sojourn the carnal determination (many folks see it a amusive tourer activity), store the website, oregon hold for 1 of the occasional auction events the store organizes successful other locations. The store opens each bag, cleans and tests everything they find, and has a unit of experts to appraise items. You tin prevention an unthinkable magnitude of wealth arsenic agelong arsenic you’re consenting to deterioration oregon usage someone’s mislaid items.

2. GovDeals. The different extremity of the luggage bargain spectrum is seized items—as in, the worldly airdrome information won’t fto you instrumentality to the gate. You usually person immoderate options here: You tin enactment the point successful a checked bag, message it to yourself, oregon manus it to idiosyncratic who’s not traveling. But a batch of folks instrumentality the easiest option, which is to surrender the point to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), which yet puts the items up for auction astatine GovDeals. This is an auction site, truthful you’ll beryllium bidding connected lots—often bizarre lots, similar random collections of scissors—and it besides offers items confiscated by different authorities agencies.

Between these 2 sources, you tin bargain astir thing you tin deliberation of, often astatine unthinkable discounts.

Things you tin bargain from mislaid luggage (a sampling)

Clothes

The astir evident worldly you tin root from mislaid and unclaimed luggage is clothing, arsenic that’s usually the bulk of what radical battalion for a trip. You tin find everything from underwear and lingerie to men’s suits, boots, women’s dresses, and each the accessories you could ever want. The covering is cleaned and checked for harm earlier being sold (underwear is lone sold new, with oregon without a box). You tin besides find a batch of designer stuff there, and portion it’s not precisely free, it’s often sold astatine a discount.

Luxury items

Speaking of luxury items, you tin find everything from watches and jewelry to designer handbags of each types. You mightiness deliberation pricey worldly similar this would motivate folks to find their mislaid bags, but you would beryllium wrong. It’s important to enactment that Unclaimed Baggage knows the marketplace worth of these items, truthful getting a large woody isn’t ever easy—they often terms peculiarly fashionable decorator goods close to marketplace value. But adjacent a tiny discount is worthy the trouble, and you tin often find uncommon oregon discontinued items determination astatine comparatively bargain prices. (Check the clearance section astatine Unclaimed Baggage if you’re seeking bargains.)

Wedding dresses

Although not consistently stocked (because who packs their wedding formal successful luggage?) it’s not unheard of for wedding dresses to turn up astatine Unclaimed Baggage astatine steep discounts. While your chances of uncovering 1 successful your size and benignant are a spot steep, it mightiness beryllium worthy checking successful regularly if you’re trying to snag a bargain formal for the large day. (One mates really took this to the utmost and really got joined astatine Unclaimed Baggage, but that mightiness beryllium a span excessively far.)

Sports equipment

While not arsenic plentiful arsenic covering and different items, you tin snag immoderate large deals connected sports and athletic equipment by buying mislaid luggage, and the GovDeals tract often offers everything from bicycles to basketball backboards.

Electronics

One of the astir almighty uses of mislaid luggage buying is each the electronics radical permission behind. Want a laptop for little than $100? You got it. iPads? Yep. Phones? Both super cheap and super expensive. Airpods, game systems, astute watches—anything you need, you tin astir apt find successful someone’s mislaid bags.

Everything else

You tin find astir thing astatine an unclaimed luggage site—from books to perfume, pet supplies to gaming dice. Basically, if it tin conceivably beryllium packed successful rolling luggage, you tin astir apt find it astatine the unclaimed container store. And prevention immoderate wealth portion you’re astatine it.