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Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama. Five looks styled from Travellovefashion.com

Shop Designer Items From Lost Luggage + Tips To Keep Your Bags Safe While Traveling

If you have ever lost your bag while traveling, someone else (perhaps me) could be wearing your favorite dress. That’s right, when baggage is mishandled by an airline, the company attempts to find its owner for 90 days, and if the owner can’t be found during that time, the luggage is sold to Unclaimed Baggage Center (UBC). Making this one-of-a-kind shop in Scottsboro, Alabama a true gem for unearthing incredible finds at discounted prices.

 

Walking into Unclaimed Baggage Center feels a bit like entering a massive, albeit very organized, thrift shop. Here’s the thing though, everything being sold in UBC, is stuff people loved and wanted to keep. Not the stuff people are actively parting with that you would find at any other second hand shop. On top of that, everything is professionally sanitized and dry cleaned.  UBC is home to one of the largest dry cleaning facilities in Alabama, so rest assured you will not be purchasing anyone’s dirty vacation laundry!

 

Unclaimed Baggage Center Found Treasures Travel Love Fashion

 

It is unbelievable the stuff uncovered in lost luggage. Over the years, UBC has unpacked full suits (yes plural) of armor, a puppet from The Labyrinth movie, and a $65,000 Rolex! What’s the craziest thing ever found? A live rattle snake!!! Which means that snake was alive and chilling in a suitcase for 90 days! This is on top of countless wedding gowns, high end cameras, and more designer shoes than you could ever want – Ok, I want them all, but that is beside the point.

 

At 2:30pm, daily, UBC does a demonstration of opening an unprocessed piece of luggage. A customer volunteer can help showcase the procedure of how the processing team sifts through the contents, and decides what to clean, donate, or throw away. I had the chance to help out in one of these demos, and was amazed when opening the suitcase, I promptly pulled out a pair of Louis Vuitton shoes (watch the video here)!

 

I recommend at least five hours to shop at UBC. That may seem like a ton time to shop at one store, but with the amount of interesting merchandise to browse, you could easily turn the outing to Unclaimed Baggage Center into a weekend experience. There is a café in-store serving up breakfast, lunch, and dinner, making treasure hunting for the whole day easy.

 

Unfortunately, I had under two hours to shop. I never even made it to the jewelry or electronics section. However, I was still able to style FIVE ENTIRE LOOKS IN UNDER TWO HOURS! This is a testament to how many fabulous items there are waiting to be discovered. Because the inventory comes from random traveler’s bags, there is something for everyone, at every price point. And even if you are unable to devote an entire day to shopping, the density of truly great buys, evident through my shopping experience, rewards even the shortest of stopovers.

 

Below are the five looks I put together, along with some tips on how you can keep your precious cargo from ending up at Unclaimed Baggage Center.

 

Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama. Five looks styled from Travel and Fashion Blog Travellovefashion.com. Heels Giuseppe ZANOTTI $299 (Retail $1,150), Purse COACH $96, Dress $13

 

Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama. Five looks styled from Travel and Fashion Blog Travellovefashion.com. Shoes CONVERSE $29.99, Dress LOVE $8.25, Purse COACH $30, Jacket Elf Sak $15.59

 

Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama. Five looks styled from Travel and Fashion Blog Travellovefashion.com. Dress WOW COUTURE $12.59, Heels Steve Madden $10.59, Bag Rebecca Minkoff $130 (Retail $295)

 

Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama. Five looks styled from Travel and Fashion Blog Travellovefashion.com. Bag Michael Kors $99.99 (Retail $348), Heels $6.29, Dress glare $8.29, Scarf Born Free $60.99 (Retail $120), Necklace $4.25

 

Unclaimed Baggage Center in Alabama. Five looks styled from Travel and Fashion Blog Travellovefashion.com. Backpack Betsey Johnson $29 (Retail $98), Booties LANIN $129 (Retail $1,115), Dress Parker $99 (Retail $298)

 

Tips to help you find your baggage, should it be mishandled while traveling.

 

Take detailed photos of your bag. Make sure you know the brand name and model type. This will help enormously when asked to fill out a detailed description. You need to know more than a “medium sized black roller bag”.

 

Take photos of everything you pack. (We knew flat lays were good for more than just a pretty photo!) If, in fact, the airline cannot recover your bag, having these photos will make all the difference in being reimbursed correctly.

 

Put your information – name, phone number, address- INSIDE of your luggage, as well as on the outside. Tags on the outside go missing. Having your info inside your luggage is your best and easiest chance of getting your bag back!

 

Photos by Matt Pittman.

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Shop ALL items from Lost Luggage at Alabama's Unclaimed Baggage Center!

16 Comments

  • Matt Pittman

    16.05.2017 at 13:16 Reply

    GREAT write up!! Loved working with you on this! Two hours AND we knocked out a mini shoot. Nailing it!

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    16.05.2017 at 20:13 Reply

    […] SHOP DESIGNER ITEMS FROM LOST LUGGAGE […]

  • Nam

    17.05.2017 at 02:46 Reply

    This is so fascinating! This is definitely going on my US bucket list – I love a good thrift store!

  • FallPhototrips

    20.05.2017 at 16:38 Reply

    Great post- like a treasure hunt for fashion lovers!! Love it ! Worth adding to a mini trip sometime! Found you thru the GLT page on FB – 🙂

  • Erica

    21.05.2017 at 05:15 Reply

    I live within 2 hrs of it, but haven’t been in a while. You put together some great looks.

  • Ketki

    21.05.2017 at 05:33 Reply

    Omg I did not know this! You’ve unearthed a treasure. I am not sure if such shops exist across all nations and I’m gonna try and find the same in my country – India.
    On another note I think this is a fabulous way of sustainability. Thank you for sharing.

  • Liz

    21.05.2017 at 06:07 Reply

    I didn’t know that you could do this. This is a totally new world to me!!!!

  • Hilary

    21.05.2017 at 06:19 Reply

    Wow! I had no idea! This is facinating, a rattlesnake! People are strange aren’t they?! Part of me feels a. It bad for the people who lost their stuff, however, it seems like a pretty neat pace to shop!

  • Alina

    21.05.2017 at 08:43 Reply

    Too bad I didn’t know about this place when I visited Alabama! I just wonder, if they cannot locate the owner for 90 days and it’s unopened, won’t it mean that the tag inside the bag will never be found up until the moment someone starts to look through the things to decide which to sell and which to trash?

  • jin

    21.05.2017 at 15:25 Reply

    wow, i had no idea this was a thing! other people’s ‘trash’ is other people’s treasure!

  • Katie

    21.05.2017 at 16:59 Reply

    Wait a second! I have never heard of this before now! How cool!!! I soooo want to go!

  • Marisa Martin

    24.05.2017 at 03:49 Reply

    One day I’ll make it out here so I can look for lost treasures myself!

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    12.06.2017 at 17:17 Reply

    What’s up friends, pleasant piece of writing and nice
    urging commented at this place, I am in fact enjoying by these.

  • Stacey Billingsley

    21.06.2017 at 22:56 Reply

    I didn’t know that this was even a thing! I would love to go there. The discounts on the items were amazing; maybe I could afford some designer pieces if I shopped there!

  • Laryssa Gobets

    28.06.2017 at 00:40 Reply

    Wow they have some amazing stuff there. I love the first outfit those shoes are t o die for. I had wanted to go to TBEX but was unable to Maybe Next year. Great post

  • Katherine

    28.04.2018 at 16:17 Reply

    It’s got to be the best second hand clothing and accessory store around! LOL, how awesome!

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