Japanese fighting sticks, chewing tobacco, a picture of footballer Simon Black, and an iPod Nano will all go under the hammer today in Queensland as Australia Post seeks to offload 460 unclaimed mail items.
Those items, which will be auctioned off at Pickles Auction House at Archerfield from 9am, were just some of the 200,000 pieces of mail that go undelivered every year in Queensland each year due to incorrect addresses and missing return addresses.
Australia Post spokeswoman Nyssa Black said the unclaimed mail auction should serve as a warning.
"[This] is a reminder for people to correctly address their cards and parcels this Christmas, so their mail does not suffer the same fate," she said.
Australia Post figures showed more than 550 items a day were sent to Australia Post’s Mail Redistribution Centre because the sender used the wrong address and did not include a return address on the back of the parcel.
"That number increases significantly at Christmas time, and it‘s a shame when people go to the trouble of sending family and friends cards or presents and they don’t check the address is correct," Ms Black said.
Australia Post staff at the MRC have special permission to open undeliverable mail in order to check for names and addresses that might be inside.
Items without any identifying details are kept for three months and auctioned for charity if unclaimed.
Australia Post will donate the proceeds of today's auction to Kids Under Cover, Cancer Council Australia and Cerebral Palsy League of Queensland.