Lost parcels: where to buy them by weight

A gift, a piece of clothing, an electronic gadget, a pair of shoes, a perfume: no one knows exactly what's inside. But buying lost packages, sight unseen, has become a business and a trend. Hundreds of people, for example, lined up on the morning of Tuesday, January 14, 2024, on the second floor of the Roma-Est Shopping Center on Via Collatina, to attend the event organized by the French startup King Colis. The process is as follows: the company purchases undelivered and unclaimed e-commerce packages at rock-bottom, discounted prices. First, those bearing the Amazon brand, which frees up a bulky item that must be recycled or disposed of after destroying it. Then, without knowing the contents, they are put on sale by King Colis (www.king-colis.com), through its platform or in its pop-up stores. The price? Prices start at €1.99 per 100 grams for unbranded packages, and €2,79 for Amazon-branded ones. In practice, a set of anonymous boxes totaling 5 kilos costs around €100, while a mysterious 10-kilo Amazon package costs almost €280. Thus, the purchase becomes a gamble, and everything depends on the contents of the box.

The deal, on paper, could be twofold. On the one hand, the French company certainly collects its profit margin, the difference between the price paid to the e-commerce company, and on the other, the consumer could find himself with the pleasant surprise of an item purchased at a price significantly lower than its value. But with the risk of wasting money if it's something he doesn't need.

There are also other platforms, which, however, only periodically make this type of offer: eBay, which organizes real auctions; Mercatopolis, which in some Italian cities sells, even in lots, lost or unclaimed items. Finally, those who are good at surfing the internet can find WhatsApp groups of people buying and selling surprise packages that are unsold, undelivered, or lost.

The images are taken from the Facebook page of the startup King Colis

Read also:

• I'll give it to you if you come and get it: the network for donating items with a Facebook post
• Useless things to eliminate or trade
• Solidarity Toy House: toys, clothes, and schoolbooks in Varese