[ezl]

https://www.lost-item.com

I lose stuff a lot. It started as a URL (https://www.lost-item.com/eric/) that I can put on a sticker on my stuff so that when people find my phone, wallet, credit card, keys they can contact me.

I preferred that over my phone number or email address because I didn't want to put anything that identifies me on the items, so a form on the internet acts as a barrier.

In general, I find that people are really nice about it. I've recovered my full wallet at least 3 times and my phone probably 5 times.

Yes, I am forgetful. If I were smarter, I would just not lose stuff. But because I'm not, I have that.

Hosted on github pages and uses firebase, so basically it costs me $1 a year + the domain registration fee. So after I recovered my cell phone just once, I basically figured it's been paid for for life.

Lifetime revenue from strangers on it is less than $100. Value of items recovered to myself, probably $3k.

[tasuki]

> https://www.lost-item.com/eric/

The page shows for me:

> Oh my...

> It looks like this page has been lost

I tried to use your page to tell you that the page has been lost, but that didn't work!

[rolfvandekrol]

The trailing slash seems to be a typing error.

[ezl]

oops! Yeah, to be honest, i rarely type my own url... should obviously make the trailing slash optional...

[pulketo]

it's indeed a misconfiguration of the application and/or the webserver.

[stavros]

This seems great for my RC planes and other things! It would be nice if the site could generate a nice sticker-looking thing with a QR code, though.

[ezl]

yeah! Could definitely do that.

I built this years ago, before the pandemic. While QR codes existed, pre-pandemic, it didn't really feel like something that was ever going to get mass adoption.

Maybe just in my circles.

Now, it seems weird to imagine that people wouldn't know. :)

[HighlandSpring]

This seems like something that could have massive tail upside. You help someone with lots of resources recover something of sentimental value, they tip you couple $k.

[ezl]

Yeah i have all these ideas for what I would do to market this eventually. Life keeps getting in the way, but because at this point it provides me a lot of utility it doesn't matter to me that other people don't use it (i have stickers on my phone, wallet, airpods, etc. I have iron on patches in clothing items, my backpack, etc)

In a world where I have more time and energy for this, I would implement tipping systems, sell the actual stickers and iron on patches to users, try to partner with schools and PTAs so kids who lose their stuff can recover it, etc.

[jfim]

> Yes, I am forgetful. If I were smarter, I would just not lose stuff.

It's really not about being smart, some people are just more forgetful and distracted than others.

What I found helps is to do a regular check that you have your stuff with you. Whenever I leave somewhere I check that I have my keys, wallet, and phone.

[ezl]

Yeah, I'm just a careless person in some dimensions to be honest.

Last summer I lost my wallet on a golf course, and twice at bars. I do a "wallet , keys, phone, airpods" check when I leave the house, but it wouldn't have caught those events for me.

This solution isn't failsafe, but for a few hours of work and almost no ongoing costs, it makes it POSSIBLE for people to get things back to me (and significantly increases the odds)