Can you really make money doing this?

A buddy of mine said he used to go to these auctions and he said he made pretty good money doing it. Do any of you do this for a living and if so do you make a decent living at it?

I would say most of us that post here do it as a second source of income. You would have to be truly committed to this with an established network to move the merchandise if you wanted to do it full time. Buying is the fun and easy part, selling is the real work.

Yes, like most jobs if you are a dedicated individual it can be profitable.  With this business you also need to be patient, good at managing money, organized, have the space to store and sort large volumes of goods, have the means to haul things, have the help for moving large items, have the bankroll for the ups and downs, good at listing and dealing with Craigslist, good at listing and dealing with Ebay / Etsy, OK with spending hours at auctions and seeing dozens of units and not buying / winning anything, and have a positive attitude about going to the dump and donation centers every other day.

I'm like Alloro, where I do this on the side as a supplemental income.  Later in life I might do it full time, but right now it would be a stretch and pretty nerve racking if it was my only source of income (might lose the "fun" aspect of it).

It is not easy and profitability comes with very hard work and a little bit of luck. 

I havent had a 'regular job' in over two years, and I'm the only income supporting a family of four (wife/2 kids). But of course I work it like a job, constantly buying/selling/posting merchandise. One of the best things in life is being your own boss. I dont think I could go back to punching a clock or having someone else tell me what to do.

I dont think I could go back to punching a clock or having someone else tell me what to do.

I've been self-employed since 1991 so I can completely agree with you on that point. It's nice when the doctor asks when can I come in for an appointment and I can say, "whenever your next opening is", without having to check with someone at work first.

Can you make money doing storage auctions?  It depends.  It's very possible if you buy smart, extract every last bit of profit from a unit, hustle your ass off and keep learning.  However, if you're lazy, unmotivated, unorganized and expect every $10 unit you purchase to hold a container of $10,000 magic beans in it, you're in for a long and costly road ahead.

You can make money and many do make a living at it. We do make good money but it is not our primary source of income. I think because of that we can take some risks that pay off well. I would absolutely not want to risk a large sum of money (and don't kid yourself, it is a risk) that is needed to pay rent or bills. I have watched people that are trying to make a living at this buy a ton of crappy units because they HAVE to buy stuff to sell, and sometimes there are only crappy units.

Yes you can make a living at this but you will work your ever loving a$$ off! This is my only source of income so it can be done but it's a ball-buster. I can imagine a gifted person with incredible work ethic, sales skills, marketing skills, organization skills and in a large city with plenty of auctions and a large customer base with disposable income could make very good money. Like dbr831 mentioned, when doing this full time I really can't wait around for the great units. I have to buy every week and if it looks like it will make money I got to buy it. The bad thing about that is a person can get tied up in $100 units that only make $250 and get trapped in a "money in, money out" wheel until you get lucky and one of those $100 units scores $1,000-$2,000.

Part timers or hobbyist have the luxury of waiting around all month or several months for that one good unit. The bad thing is it looks good to everybody so a great looking unit might end up costing $2,500 and make $5,000 or it might only make $2,500 cause it wasn't as good as it looked.

Yes you can make a living at this but you will work your ever loving a$$ off!

You are allowed to say ass around here. If we didn't allow it then how could anyone tell their story of their storage unit auction buys where they load all their booty onto their ass and walked it home!

I've made great money on some units and broke even on others. There is money to be made but this is hardly a passive income. You really have to work for your money. The shows show people buying a locker, going to see an expert and collecting thousands of dollars. That said the reality is money is being made however your also spending your weekends at flea markets, having garage sales selling items for pennies. It truly is a hustle and hard work and I think thats why the fad of storage auctions and many newbies had such a short run. If you don't mind some dirt, hard work, and like networking you can make a nice side income.

The work never really bothered me (probably because I hired labor to do the heavy lifting  ). For me, it was always about the thrill of the hunt. Everyday is like Christmas. You're constantly opening new boxes and you never really know what you're going to find.

You're constantly opening new boxes and you never really know what you're going to find.

Yeah but sometimes that ain't so pretty.

I bought a unit with 50 beautiful tubs with lids all lined up, nothing else in the room.  figured each one could be worth about 20-30 depending on contents inside and went up to 600.  Every box was empty.

I bought a unit with 50 beautiful tubs with lids all lined up, nothing else in the room.  figured each one could be worth about 20-30 depending on contents inside and went up to 600.  Every box was empty.

That really sucks, but it could have been worse. Every box could have been filled trash. You probably made some of your money back on the tubs, right? Those tubs aren't cheap. 

They were the $20 tubs so I actually just ended up keeping them for the warehouse.  When that closes down I'll resell at $10 a pop.  With use and $500 buy out in the end it will be worth it but it was a tough day explaining that purchase to the wife.