By TAIPEI, TAIWAN— Yesterday, on February 22nd, approximately 300 people gathered at the Taiwan Railways Administration’s (TRA) Shulin Station (樹林站) in New Taipei for an auction of unclaimed items from the station’s lost and found.
The auction took place in the station’s main hall, starting at 9:30 a.m. and featured over 100 items up for bid, ranging from designer bags and watches to a Giant-brand bicycle and a full set of golf clubs.
According to Stationmaster Wu Chia-yang (吳佳陽), the items being auctioned had gone unclaimed during the mandatory two-year retention period and were being sold as-is, without any type of after-sales service or warranty.
The station officers were surprised by the large turnout and competitive bidding, given the lack of quality guarantees in the unclaimed items offered for auction.
During the auction, cameras emerged as one of the more hotly-contested items, with several bidders standing up on chairs and shouting questions about each product’s model number and specifications.
A video posted on a local community Facebook page shows locals gathering at the station, waiting to bid on their favorite items.
Ultimately, nearly everything on the auction listing found a buyer, except for a damaged Chanel bag deemed unfit for sale.
A portable blood pressure monitor was pulled out from the auction due to laws regulating the sale of medical devices.
The set of 14 golf clubs sold for only NT$5,500 (US$180), while a bidding war over a Nintendo Switch console and seven game cartridges pushed its price up from NT$7,000 to a sale price of NT$13,000.
Other items snapped up during the auction included a non-stick frying pan, an electric rice cooker, several electric kettles, badminton rackets, video game consoles, and portable phone chargers.