The secrets of lost luggage auctions: I bought four bags for 100. What would I find inside?

"A yellow suitcase draws me in like a beacon. It is stacked on a dark shelf at the back of Greasby's auction house in Tooting, south London, and looks brand new, with a hard exterior and wheels that Richard Stacey, a Greasby's regular who is dressed in shorts, a plaid shirt and a cream bucket hat, tells me to test. So I test them and they work. If I was just buying a bag, that is all I would need to know."

"In all, I bid 250 for five suitcases way too much but Stacey has been to the auction house 10 times before, and tells me I probably won't win if I bid less than 40 on each. The next day, adrenaline races through my body as I refresh my emails to see what I have won. I have got four of the five suitcases for 100, including the yellow, blue and black bags as well as the fake-looking Louis Vuitton roller."

A buyer finds a locked yellow suitcase at Greasby's auction house in Tooting and learns the zip hides a stranger's belongings. The buyer places multiple bids on five suitcases, spending 250 and ultimately winning four for 100, guided by advice from a regular attendee about minimum bids. The experience produces an adrenaline rush while revealing the gamble inherent in buying unknown luggage. Auction shoppers and onlookers treat the practice as 'suitcase gambling.' Unpacking lost suitcases attracts massive social media attention, with individual haul videos reaching millions of views and turning finds into viral entertainment.

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