Unclaimed Baggage Turns Into A Very Profitable Business

  • Howard Koplowitz
  • Life, it turns out, is more like lost luggage than a box of chocolates.
  • Unclaimed Baggage, the Alabama business that buys lost luggage from airports sight unseen, released its inaugural Found Report: A Look Inside America’s Lost Luggage, detailing the weird and wildly expensive items it discovered inside suitcases last year.
  • Among the finds documented in the report, the Scottsboro-based business has uncovered a pair of live snakes, masks and body parts from the “Saw” movie franchise, a Halloween card signed by former President Richard Nixon and a $37,000 diamond ring, among other items, from lost luggage.
    Unclaimed Baggage CEO Bryan Owens, whose father, Doyle Owens, founded the company in 1972,
    “Each bag is like a time capsule,” Owens said. “Twenty years from now, we can look back at the Found Report and see what people packed in 2023. It’s an exciting and curious way to take a snapshot of our culture.
    Most of the items that made the fascinating list were put up for sale either at Unclaimed Baggage’s Scottsboro storefront or on its online store.
    But others, like the live snakes or a voodoo box that happened to have the name of an Unclaimed Baggage employee written on the bottom, never made it to the sales floor.
    The business’ Top 10 Most Expensive Items list included:
  • A 14-karat gold diamond ring appraised at $37,050
  • A Hermès Birkin bag appraised at $23,500
  • A Cartier Panthere watch appraised at $26,500
  • Louis Vuitton Nike Air Force 1 Mid sneakers valued at $12,000
  • A silk-blend Givenchy gown valued at $9,990
  • A Chanel black solid tweed blazer valued at $5,450
  • A men’s Kiton sport coat valued at $10,000
  • A FLIR T530 professional thermal camera valued at $12,119
  • A Shure H50 quad-channel digital wireless receiver valued at $6,453
  • A Gibson Hummingbird acoustic-electric guitar valued at $4,000
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David DeMarco