Recycled Airbags

As I build the beginnings of this week’s blog post (three “b”s already for those keeping count) my screen distracts me with alerts for Cyber Monday deals. Laptops at 30% off retail. E-readers at 25% off. DNA tests at 70% off (which begs the question: do we really care about our ancestry anymore?) Cyber Monday is a sort of second chance for those who shunned the big box stores the Friday after Thanksgiving (good decision). But here’s what I wonder today. Why endure Black Friday or get distracted by Cyber Monday when you can shop through lost luggage any day of the year instead?

I’ve finally found a reason to visit Alabama.  A six-hour drive due west of my keyboard puts me in the little town of Scottsboro, of which an entire block is consumed by a business known as Unclaimed Baggage.  UB is exactly what you think it is: deep-discounted personal belongings made available to you by the traveling misfortunes of others.  Think of UB as one person’s trash becoming another person’s treasure only, of course, the original owner had no intention of throwing it away.

“Where’s my owner?”

Unclaimed Baggage is the kind of entrepreneurial enterprise I wish I’d thought up myself.  Consider the end-to-end process.  You and your luggage start at Point A, but sadly one of you doesn’t make it to Point B.  The airline (or the bus or the train) spends several months trying to reunite the two of you.  Failing that, they compensate for the loss (sometimes).  But what of your bag if it turns up later?  Dump it into a “Dead Luggage” office?  Actually, yes, and then Unclaimed Baggage comes a-calling.

Here’s an encouraging stat: 99.5% of lost luggage is reunited with its owner.  You wouldn’t think Unclaimed Baggage could make a business of the leftovers.  But those leftover are, on average, 7,000 items every day.  No wonder Unclaimed Baggage needs a city block to house all that it sells.  And the best part of the business?  UB never knows what it’s going to get because the airlines don’t (or aren’t allowed to) open the bags.  It reminds me of the show where bidders vie for contents of storage lockers without being able to raise the roll-up doors beforehand.

The most expensive item UB ever sold was a Rolex watch for $32,000 (50% of retail).  Visit the store today and you can purchase a diamond ring for $20,000 that surely appraises for more.  Some items are so strange they’re relegated to an area known as the “Museum Gallery”.  Wigs. Shark teeth.  A funeral casket key (?)  Items considered “unsaleable”, and items where you have to wonder why they were on an airplane in the first place. 

Treasures from chests suitcases

When I first learned about Unclaimed Baggage I thought, they have something of mine and I want it back!  No, I’ve never lost luggage.  Rather, I’m the passenger who keeps forgetting the little things in the seat back pocket right in front of him.  Reading glasses.  E-readers.  A rather expensive pair of noise-cancelling headphones.  Somehow my stuff gets left behind despite the pointed announcement from the flight attendant: “Please check in and around your seat for personal belongings, as you will not be allowed back on the aircraft after you deplane.”  Sigh…

Unclaimed Baggage has at least one example of an item unintentionally returned to its original owner.  At UB’s annual ski sale (which earned an LOL from me; I mean, just how many skis are left at baggage claim?), a shopper purchased ski boots for his girlfriend.  When he brought them home, she discovered initials on the inside of the boots – hers.  The airline had already compensated her for the lost boots so effectively, she re-owns her boots at a deep discount.

Time is cheap at Unclaimed Baggage

As you might expect, a good percentage of shoppers at Unclaimed Baggage are the same ones who troll garage sales and eBay for items they have no intention of owning.  They simply relist their wares online for purchase (and profit) from others.  It’s another enterprising way to make a buck but it’s not my cup of tea.  I’m the shopper who shows up at sales well after the best items have been picked over.

Unclaimed Baggage has cornered a lucrative market.  I don’t think they have any competition for the business of repurposing lost luggage.  I will say this: I’m less likely to leave my stuff on airplanes now that I know about UB.  I mean, do I really want some stranger buying my stuff for way less than I paid for it myself?

Final thought for the day.  Why don’t they call it Unclaimed Luggage?  Baggage?  Luggage?  Bag?  Lug?  Who the heck added two words into the English language when we only needed one?  The Oxford English Dictionary estimates we use 170,000 words these days.  I’m here to say that’s one too many.

Some content sourced from the CNN Travel article, “US travelers lose millions of suitcases every year…”, and Wikipedia, “the free encyclopedia”.

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Author: Dave

Five hundred posts would suggest I have something to say… This blog was born from a desire to elevate the English language, highlighting eloquent words from days gone by. The stories I share are snippets of life itself, and each comes with a bonus: a dusted-off word I hope you’ll go on to use more often. Read “Deutschland-ish Improvements” to learn about my backyard European wish list. Try “Slush Fun” for the throwback years of the 7-Eleven convenience store. Or drink in "Iced Coffee" to discover the plight of the rural French cafe. On the lighter side, read "Late Night Racquet Sports" for my adventures with our latest moth invasion. As Walt Whitman said, “That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse.” Here then, my verse. Welcome to Life In A Word.

21 thoughts on “Recycled Airbags”

    1. Jason Alexander! I watched the video until the first break and really enjoyed the dynamic between the hosts. I’ll save the rest for when I have downtime so I can learn even more about Unclaimed Baggage. Thanks for the link!

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  4. Hi Dave. A bunch of years ago, I remember reading about a classical musician who left his very expensive violin in a taxi. This was in New York City. I forget who the violinist was, but he was with a famous orchestra. Maybe the New York Philharmonic. Anyway, it all worked out very well. The violin and the musician eventually were reunited.

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    1. I like those kinds of stories. You think it’s going to end one way but, surprisingly, it turns out a whole lot better. Restores a little faith in the people of this world.

      Liked by 1 person

  5. It’s been years since I traveled by air, bus or train, but I never had the misfortune of losing any luggage. That’s just incredible so many people don’t try to reclaim their luggage that UB ends up with this bounty of baggage – what a business to be in! Sorry to hear about your items left in the pocket and are gone for good. My boss once left his wallet behind on a flight. Apparently it slid out of his back pocket and got lodged deep in the seats. How is this possible? Well, for one, he did not realize this fact until he got to the parking garage at Detroit Metro and needed to pay for parking. He called the airline that night and was told no one turned it in to Lost and Found after the cleaners finished with the plane. But THOSE cleaners made a poor job – the next flight’s cleaners found the wallet under the seat, turned it in, he was contacted and the airline FedExed the wallet to the office, after he spent a half-day cancelling all the credit cards and him going to the Secretary of State for a new license, etc., etc. Everything was intact, including the money. Patience is a virtue sometimes.

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    1. Like the story Neil shared in his comment it’s heartening to read about positive endings like this one. We typically assume someone along the line is not going to be honest. I’d say your boss was lucky but I’d also say there are plenty of decent people out there who still want to do the right thing.

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  6. Dave, what a find. It’s upsetting to think luggage goes lost, does not make it back to owner and THEN luggage and belongings get resold. Nowadays it seems, as airlines have more connections, it happens. Good reason to travel light.

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    1. You’re probably aware of the baggage-tracking feature on airline apps these days, where it reports the status of your bag every step of the way. I can’t decide if this is a good thing or not. Okay, so now you know if your bag was loaded onto your plane, but what if it isn’t? Now you’re stressed because you know, whereas before you weren’t stressed because you didn’t know. In the end, the situation is still pretty much out of your control.

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  7. Wow, something else I never knew was a thing. I would have expected that luggage that goes unclaimed would contain contraband and such, but probably not so much in the TSA era.

    I wonder if there is any technical difference between baggage and luggage? Probably not.

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  8. That’s amazing. Something has to be done with that stuff; might as well be this! The ski boot story is incredible. Your last paragraph made me realize/remember that baggage has an entirely different meaning, in a psychological sense. The store title is a little laughable to me now. 😛

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    1. I like it! Could be the catalyst for an interesting story. A place called “Unclaimed Baggage”, where you can deposit all of your cares and worries… for someone else to take and wreak havoc with?

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  9. I read about this place and am curious, but it’s not on my way to anywhere. I continue to print out a copy of my itinerary and put it prominently on top in every piece I travel with, even the ones that stay on my shoulder. I’ve followed this procedure ever since I had my luggage delayed for 3 days when I moved to Prague to teach. That time, I called the baggage dept in O’Hare airport to locate them!

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