I found out about an interesting service recently called StuffBak. It’s a business that helps people return lost items to their owners–sort of a global 21st-century Lost & Found system. The basic idea is that you put their stickers on valuable things you might lose, like cell phones, PDAs, MP3 players, portable electronic games, laptop computers, backpacks, flash drives, cameras, eyeware, keychains, briefcases, sports gear, luggage, etc.–anything you move around that you can stick a label on, in short. The labels have a serial number and StuffBak’s phone number and web address. You register the serial number with them and provide your contact info. If you lose the item and someone finds it, they have a way to return it to you. StuffBak makes it even easier for them to do so by providing free services for sending your stuff back to you.
It’s a clever service in that it makes it easier for someone to do the right thing if they find your stuff. Sure, they can still decide that they’d rather keep an expensive camera (for example) than return it to its owner, but if you’re not so jaded or disgusted with your fellow humans that you assume everyone is greedy and completely self-centered, odds are the finder would rather help you. (You can also offer a cash reward via StuffBak to help motivate the finder to decide to act in your favor if you wish.)
The StuffBak site is elaborate, nicely designed, and laden with information and testimonials about their service. I found out about them after receiving one of their labels as a freebie with a PDA charger cable I ordered recently. I was impressed enough with the system that I signed up for the Premium service (I am, after all, about to travel to Japan with a laptop computer, a camera, a video camera, a PDA, an iPod, etc.) and got some extra labels. While completing the order I was amused to discover that the StuffBak Corporate HQ is a short drive from my house! I ended up picking up my new labels in person and enjoyed a brief chat with the friendly and helpful… uh… StuffBakkers? Not sure what they call themselves. Good folks, in any case.
[That image is copied from the StuffBak website and probably covered by their copyrights. Hopefully they won’t mind me presenting it here for illustrative purposes.]
