AirPods, Rolex watches, Louis Vuitton bags: A company selling lost luggage items attracts worldwide fans

Live snakes, a mounted ram head, a Halloween card signed by Richard Nixon.

Those are some of the most fascinating items found in lost luggage in 2023, according to a new report by Unclaimed Baggage, a store that buys lost items from airlines, sight unseen.

The company also found a 13-foot vaulting pole, gruesome props from the "Saw" movie franchise, and a $12,000 pair of Louis Vuitton Nike Air Force 1 sneakers.

Those items and more are detailed in the company's first "Found Report: A Look Inside America's Lost Luggage," published April 1.

"We thought it'd be fun for us to publish an annual report that captures the most common items, the most expensive items, and the weird and the wonderful," CEO Bryan Owens told CNBC Travel.  

The most expensive items found this year, according to the list, are a diamond ring (appraised at $37,050), a Cartier Panthère watch ($26,500) and a Hermès Birkin 25 bag ($23,500).

The company has long-term contracts to buy unclaimed items from airlines, as well as hotels, trains and rental car companies. It processes tens of thousands of items per week; about one third sell, another third are donated, and the rest are recycled, he said.

"We live in the world of all things lost," said Owens. "It's a little bit like Christmas every day."

The company was founded by Owen's father, Doyle Owens, in 1970, after Doyle received a tip that a local bus company was struggling with a growing number of bags left behind by passengers.

So he borrowed $300 to buy the unwanted bags, slapped price tags on the contents, and sold the goods from his home in Scottsboro, Alabama — population: 15,700.

After that, "it was off to the races," said Owens.  

Today, Unclaimed Baggage's retail store in Scottsboro is larger than a city