Photo Gallery: The World’s Biggest Ski Swap Is in...Alabama
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More than 99 percent of luggage gets claimed as soon as it’s unloaded from the plane. The remaining 1 percent is sold to the Unclaimed Baggage Center, a business in Scottsboro, Alabama, that runs a 40,000 square-foot store where 5,000 of these forgotten items hit the sales floor each day. Over a million total items pass through their inventory each year.
The warehouse gets lots of electronics and clothing, but truly weird products show up, too. (Think a full suit of armor and rare musical instruments.) There’s also a lot of ski gear—and not just rental junk either. There’s high-end AT boots, top-notch skis, and plenty of Gore-Tex, all steeply discounted. Jackets go for roughly $15 to $200, boots for $15 to $100, and skis for $50 to $225.
The result: a ski swap on steroids, with 6,500 buyers waiting hours to get inside.
Photo: Nathan Reed, left, drove down from Chattanooga, Tennessee, for the eighth year in a row to attend the sale. Next to him (left to right) stand twin brothers Tyler and Taylor Kidwell, Sean Floyd, and Michael Bowen.
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