How do you determine what auctions to attend?

I have been lucky that I don't have to many auctions overlap each other.  If they do they are usually far enough apart in distance it makes the choice easy.

Well this saturday I have a auction in a city with 20 units.  It starts at 9am and then there is another auction in a better neighborhood with four units at 12.

I am going to start at the 20 unit auction and see how things go and then decide if I want to stay or move on to the other auction in the better area.

I was just curious how others decide what auctions to attend when more than one are going on at same time?

You're just going to have to attend auctions a both/every location a several times and see how they run their auctions and then only you can make that decision.

Some of the things I look for:

How professional are the auctions run?
Do the units auctioned match the notifications?
How well attended are they?
Is there a buyer's premium or sales tax?

Then comes the experience part:

What do the regulars say about the facilities?
What is the general quality of the units auctioned?
what is the quality of the units you win/what is your ROI?

I just follow two auctioneers right now.  I like their style.  Down side is I only hit auctions in a 15 mile radius of home.  Means with their circuit I only have auctions every other month.  Tho I do go downtown and hit the mini-storage.  Small units that are expensive as.....
People tend not to store junk in a 3x3 that's $75/month. 

So to answer you question......

I choose them by having gone to a ton and learning which locations have the best odds, are easy to deal with and hire professional auctioneers.


That said, maybe you shouldn't listen to me since I've really not done well this year.  Made some money, yet to lose on a unit but really.....ive only won a handful and nothing to write home about.  I go to auctions if I'm not doing anything else and bord.  I concentrate on picking.

We check the weekly schedules, look to see where, how many stops and then decide what is best for us. We go from Chico to Modesto area to Vallejo and Grassvalley area.  Anything around Sacramento is what we check within 50+ miles.  Now that NorCal has taken over some of the (or almost all) Extra Space auctions from another company, we will be joining them too. It's volume and location that makes us finally decide at times.

Personally i look at:

Area, past auctions, auctioneer reputation, facility reputation, talk with other buyers, follow a good auctioneer etc

@BigBizzz, that's good advice, and we have been doing a little of that so far.  Being new to the area (not new to bidding) we are still learning the areas from Northern to Central Calif in all directions. Have heard some bad stuff about Tiger Facilities Management and one National on Evergreen and that we should never go to the 40+ units advertised for San Francisco, that they are mostly homeless units. Haven't heard anything bad (yet) about an auctioneer other than personalities. Still trying to figure what areas in a 50+  mile radius of Sacramento area are decent and bad but that will take a while, no biggie there. Buyers in California all a whole, have been very helpful. We were surprised that they helped us with a bit of info so quickly. Have a great day and thanks for the advice.

:-)

If i were going out to sacramento from LA what i would do first
is talk with people at my regular places see if anyone there could point me to the answers in my
original response. then id talk to.my regular auctioneers to get any info.
then id go to my usual storage auction info places(here would probably be of them)
When i got there id scout the facilities and areas before hand. Id put.together the best
location/auctions and around those locations id find the resale shops, pawns etc and ask them
where the best stuff in their stores seem to come in.from the most.

then id go. an learn what i can from there.


but thats just me.