Sydney Airport auctions off thousands of items of unclaimed left luggage

Sydney Airport auctions off thousands of items of unclaimed left luggage, news.com.au reports in the following article:

"Airports are stressful places. Lots of rules, forms to fill in, queues everywhere. And all the time we’re carrying around precious cargo from priceless jewellery to expensive electronics. No wonder, in our haste, we leave the odd invaluable item in the departure lounge.

Ever left a book at the gate? Some scotch by the carousel? Or your microwave at check in (yep, it appears someone did this)?

If you didn’t pick it up, it’s about to sold off to the highest bidder next week.

One person’s left luggage is another’s loot. If you missed the Dick Smith fire sale you might want to make a beeline for Sydney Airport’s massive auction of all the stuff its 40 million passengers forgot they were carrying.

It’s a sale of thousands of items — from iPads to Penfolds wine — with a starting price of just $1.

It only happens once a year and to bargain hunters it’s better than Christmas.

Airport bosses hope to raise a cool $250,000 for charity during the online auction, meaning potentially millions of dollars’ worth of merchandise is up for grabs.

“People can be in a bit of a rush to get to flights and we find items everywhere from the bathroom to the food court. While we try everything we can to return them, we have 5000 items under the hammer, things that have been left and never picked up by our passengers,” Emma Mellow of Sydney Airport told news.com.au

Some of those things are pretty weird and wacky. In past years those odd items have included a sleep apnoea machine, a karaoke boom box and even a wooden leg.

WEDDING DRESS LEFT BEHIND

“We had a wedding dress left behind too but thankfully we were able to return it to the owner before the big day,” Ms Mellow said.

Alongside piles of laptops, a forest of phones, a deluge of duty free booze and a plethora of perfume are some oddities including a remote control helicopter, Chinese tea set and even a violin.

While the starting price is just $1 don’t expect everything to sell for that price. Jewellery, forgotten by its original owner, can fetch a hefty price at the auction, said Ms Mellow, while in 2015, a Canon SLR camera complete with lenses sold for more than $4000.

Also, there’s an admin fee of 16.5 per cent on every item and you’ll have to pay for delivery.

A public viewing day is being held on Monday 10 October but all the bidding is online.

There’s no guarantee of quality either with the airport warning the public to be “buyer beware”.

So what are some of the curious collectibles ...

THERE ARE A LOT OF KINDLES … AND IPADS, AND PHONES

Electronics is so portable these days, and so much easier to leave on a seat or at the gate.

The auction included piles, actual piles, of kindles as well as iPads, iPhones and laptops.

Of course, people usually keep their cables separate to their devices, so you’ll need to pick some up to power up your buy.

But one thing’s for sure — a lot of people got on some very long flights and then realised they had nothing to read as their poor Kindle didn’t come with them.

ADOPT A STUFFED KANGAROO

The poor plush kangaroo. Clearly the tourist’s toy of choice, but some never make it onto the flight home judging by the number at the auction. Either dropped by kids in the departure lounge or too big to stuff into a suitcase.

That’s probably why there’s quite a few unopened jars of Vegemite also available with passengers realising the yeast extract maxxed out their luggage allowance.

“It’s hard to tell what has been lost and forgotten and what has just been left behind by passengers,” said Ms Mellow.

When asked if the microwave in the auction was possibly also dumped when someone realised Jetstar wouldn’t allow it on as hand luggage, Ms Mellow said, “You may think that. We’ll just never know.”

BOOZE, LOTS OF IT

Smirnoff vodka, Absolut vodka, single malt scotch, Cointreau. So much alcohol it’s like a duty free shop but with bad lighting and lacking shop assistants constantly trying to spray Yves Saint Laurent in your eyes.

If you’re going to lose a bottle of wine at Sydney Airport, Penfolds seems to be the brand. News.com.au couldn’t find any Grange but there was something called ‘Rare Grandfather’ in a box. So that must be good.

HIGH HEELED SHOES

Some poor flyer lost some very statuesque shoes at Sydney airport. A huge pair in mustard yellow and another encrusted with what, we assume, were real diamonds of the finest quality, wouldn’t have looked out of place on a Wednesday in a bar on Oxford St.

But subtler footwear can be found as well as jewellery, jackets, shirts and the odd pair of slacks.

ALL GOING FOR A SONG

Want to make sweet music? Well, the auction’s your opportunity with guitars and even the odd violin up for sale.

The public can view the items up for grabs on Monday, October 10, from 8am — 4.30pm at Pickles auctioneers, Milperra, Sydney. The items can also be viewed online at pickles.com.au with the auction taking place online from Tuesday 11 — Thursday, October 20."

Read more here.

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