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According to VICE, USPS auctions off $8 Million worth of mail annually but they have no idea what they are auctioning!
In 2020, as part of our special project on the USPS, Motherboard filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the USPS for a list of items auctioned by the Mail Recovery Center in Atlanta, Georgia, the USPS’s “lost and found,” a facility where some 67 million pieces of undeliverable mail annually are sent to. If the items are deemed to have a value of greater than $25, sentimental value, or otherwise possess “some material value,” the items are stored in case the USPS receives an inquiry from the person who was supposed to get it. After a period ranging from 30 days to “indefinitely,” the USPS either recycles, destroys, or auctions the item.