NEXT time an airline tells you your bags have been hopelessly lost, you may want to head for Scottsboro, Ala. That city is home to the Unclaimed Baggage Center, a halfway house for AWOL possessions. Or, if you want to save time, you can just get on the center's Web site (www.unclaimedbaggage.com) and sample the goods for sale.

''It's a little like Christmas every day,'' said Bryan Owens, 40, owner of the Unclaimed Baggage Center. The company's Web site says it deals in ''lost treasures from around the world.''

More than half the stock is clothing, but you can also find sporting goods, computers, camera equipment, jewelry and miscellaneous trinkets. Some of the more unusual items that have turned up include a diamond ring, ancient Egyptian artifacts and signed Salvador Dali prints, Mr. Owens said.

The airlines, Mr. Owens explained, sell bags and cargo by the pound to Unclaimed Baggage with no knowledge of their contents; carry-on effects are sold as is. (The airlines queried confirmed that they sold lost baggage and cargo but would not identify the buyers. And Mr. Owens would not reveal his suppliers.)