If it wasn’t your own regretful mistake, we surely all know someone who’s left something of value at the boarding gate, realising only after their plane has taken off or landed in an entirely different state or country.
With so much racing through our minds when we travel (mostly panicked ‘where the hell is my passport?!’ moments), people often leave their valuables behind at the airport in strange places, never to be recovered again.
Airport staff are usually first to discover lost property, and when such items are found, they’re stored away safely on the off chance someone comes looking for them. But after a year, Sydney’s airport lost property storage reaches capacity, and so it looks to auction off the items and donate the funds to charity.
Pickles is hosting the annual Sydney Airport Lost Property Auction in 2020. Live now on the site, the online-only auction is bringing down the hammer on thousands of lost items, including clothing, wine and spirits, cameras, perfumes, jewellery, artwork and toys.
The auction kicked off on December 13 with cameras and headphones, with the handbags the final collection to be listed on December 22. Savvy shoppers could score an amazing deal on brand new and lightly used items. There’s Apple Macbooks, an unused Chanel handbag, Marc Jacobs, Chloe and Chanel perfumes, supplements, and heaps of clothing and accessories.
There’s also stacks of unopened booze, both wine and spirits (likely purchased duty-free), an Hermes bracelet, digital cameras, Apple AirPods, vinyl records, Bluetooth speakers, guitars, and a couple of Didgeridoos.
All proceeds from the auctions will be donated to the Sydney Children’s Hospital Foundation to fund music therapy programs at both The Children’s Hospital at Westmead and Sydney Children’s Hospital, Randwick.
“The program supports patients in the neonatal and paediatric intensive care units to help improve the physical, mental and emotional states of young patients and their families,” Pickles says.
Since the annual Sydney Airport Lost Property Auction began in 2013, it’s said the auctions have raised $1.2 million for local and national charities. In 2020, despite travel bans, the lots available are estimated to be worth around $100,000.
You can browse the full range and put in your bids now at the Pickles site.