What's lost is found, very cheaply

In our air travels this summer, we checked millions of bags, thousands of which we could have kissed goodbye, lost and gone forever.

But where do they go?, CBS News correspondent Bill Geist asks.

The answer: a remote spot in the Appalachian foothills, where indigenous peoples celebrate the misfortunes of air travelers and enjoy deep discounts on their losses in “The Land of Lost Luggage.”

Tribes of ravenous bargain hunters are drawn to the site, also known as the unclaimed baggage center.

Brian Owens explains that the “unclaimed baggage center was started in 1970 by my dad Doyle Owens as a part time venture. It started out with a borrowed pickup truck and a $300 loan, and he was off to buy his first load of unclaimed bags.”

Owens adds, “We got our start working with bus lines. We had card tables set up and had clothes dumped on the tables.”

Now, it’s a major operation stocked with tons of other people’s lost stuff. The airlines sell Owens the “mishandled” bags after they’ve tried for about 90 days to reunite them with their owners.

“We have contracts with most of the carriers in America and we buy these bags, sight unseen,” Owens says, adding that the luggage is brought by tractor trailers from across the globe to Scottsboro, Ala.

“It’s a little like Christmas every day. You have no idea what’s in them. We don’t have a clue what’s in them,” Owens admits.

Sales director Brenda Cantrell showed Geist a sampling she’d put together of newly arrived items, from digital cameras and iPods to souvenirs and state-of-the-art things.

Geist finds everything from emeralds to bras and pre-owned underwear. Of the latter, shoppers can rest assured: the unclaimed baggage center boasts one of the largest dry cleaning facilities in the state.

Although the goods are secondhand, this is hardly a yard sale. Prada loafers, Tiffany watches, Dolce & Gabana, Hermes and Gucci products all appear at the center.

“People tend to take the best things with them on flights, so we’re able to offer those things to our customers,” Owens says.

With prices usually at 50 percent of the original price, or less, that draws about 1 million shoppers a year.

“We have people who come in the store every day and some people come in multiple times a day,” Owens says. “They’re what we call our heavy duty shoppers.”

One such shopper, named Allan, comes three-to-four times per week. He says the store offers items you just won’t see anywhere.

“When Jesse Jackson was running for president his suits came in here. And one year when M.C. Hammer was touring, his backdrop came in here from his concert stage,” Allan says.

A new line offered at the store is the items airport security confiscates.

“Tons of TSA-seized items, things that get caught in the screening process. Pocket knives, nail files, nail clippers, sharp objects, blunt objects, tear gas, you’d be amazed,” Owens says. “We get firearms, too.”

“We always say if these bags could talk what a story they would have to tell,” Owens says.

One shopper says she has sympathy for the people who have lost their belongings. “Well, sometimes I think about it and I feel sorry for them that they lost it,” she says.

Here at the unclaimed baggage center, what’s lost is found, and the unhappiness of loss gives way to the joy of finding the perfect bargain.