What's the greatest act of kindness you have seen at a storage auction?

I once saw a former lkr owner let it be known he was going to bid on his own defaulted locker.

Generally the only response this gets was "Go ahead" and one of the buyers gets the locker anyway, but one time I saw a variation of this.

One of the buyers got the lkr and THEN turned around and gave all the contents to the former lkr owner !  And it wasn't a cheap buy either...I remember it being in the $200 area.  More power to that buyer...I wouldn't have done that...would you?

I wouldn't have done that...would you?

I guess it depends on the situation. If the person had gone through a hardship and the locker wasn't that much, I'd consider it. I'd at least set aside their personal/sentimental items. Now, if the person was obviously a drug addict, just plain lazy or if the locker sold for a considerable amount of money, I wouldn't even think about it. This is a business.

Not surprising this thread took two years to get a reply, I couldn't think of a single thing I would consider 'kind' being done in the cut throat world of storage auctions.

i would not have done that. I'm the guy that said i was bidding on my own unit hehehehehe

I've done that 3 times so far. In all cases I would not even have been bidding on the units had I been paying attention and realized the tenant was there bidding on their own unit. I sold them all back on the spot for basically what the winning bid was and maybe round it up to the next hundred dollar increment so I made a few bucks. I know a lot of guys who say they won't sell it back unless they double their money. It does amaze me though that they didn't have an extra $100 to win the auction but can find another $150-$200 within the hour to buy it back.

There are two instances I can think of. One time a couple was present and it was announced that they were planning to bid on their unit. One of the buyers knew the people and passed the word around that he knew them and they were good people. Bidding started and everyone but one buyer, a new guy that was kind of a jerk anyway, kept silent. The owners bid and the new guy bid, went back and forth until the new guy passed their limit of, I think, $400. They looked so sad. The guy that knew them then started to bid against the jerk and ended up winning the unit for around $500. Afterwards he just gave the unit to the owners. I would imagine they at least gave him the $400 that they had but who knows. Another time, same location actually, a women and her child were there and the auctioneer told us again that the owner was there to bid. The woman was obviously upset. The unit was very nice, probably would have gone for over 1k. Auctioneer asked for an opening bid. You could hear crickets. The woman just stood there. The auctioneer nudged her and said "this is where you say $10". She looked confused but said "$10". The auctioneer asked for $15, more silence then "sold for $10". The woman was stunned. Still crying she thanked everyone.  Owners show up frequently but most of them flunk the attitude test. This woman didn't.

Not being a big storage locker buyer, I've not ever run into this situation. If the owner is there, they usually do not bid or are lousy people.

That said, I see it sometimes at estate auctions.

The saddest was the estate of an old woman. She had suffered some sort of ailment (I don't know what, but as she wasn't dying and was of sound mind, I assumed a fall or stroke) and had been put in a nursing home by her family, who then took her items to the auction. The auction had 20-30 booths, each with items from a different dealer/merchant/owner and 3-4 auctioneers going down the line.

Sometimes at those places you end up talking to people. I found myself talking to the woman's friends, who were also elderly, likely living on SS and had little money to buy some of this poor woman's things. She didn't want the pricier items, just family photos, her old toys, etc. A few of the bidders (including myself) either bought the things for them, or ended up buying group lots of items and let them pick out the things they wanted. None of it was traditionally valuable stuff, not even for what it was. It was old rag dolls that go for less than $40 at flea markets, etc.

I do think they got most the things the woman wanted back, but it was still rather depressing. Imagine your family being so lousy that they don't even let you pick out personal items and you have to send your elderly friends to pick things up for you. That's when you cut the kids out of the will!

I suppose the kindness there comes in that bidders were willing to help them out.

Other than that, I recall seeing one man who was in his 60s-70s selling his mother's belongings. Apparently she had only recently died in her late 90s, and he was literally crying as he sold her items. No clue if he needed the money/space or just couldn't deal with having her things around due to the memory. He made a point of telling everyone who bought something the "story" behind it.

Nothing you can do there, but it was still sad to witness.