Tclane, I just have to ask why you recommend not calling when you live in an area of over 400K pop. I live in San Antonio, and there is more than that, I got my better units this way.
The average city with a population of 400K has a has 100-150 storage facilities within a 30 mile radius. In my opinion, 150 phone calls twice a month is reasonable for the average person. If you get into areas like Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Chicago, Atlanta, etc. it's just not practical. Subscribe to a service.
For example: I just finished the auction list in the Dallas Fort worth area. There are roughly 1100 storage facilities that need to be called twice per month. On average, it takes 6 - 8 hour days to accomplish this task. What auction buyer is going to invest a week every month to getting their information? It just isn't practical.
As far as getting better units from the less publicized auction, I totally agree that you can get better deals at auctions with fewer people in attendance. Heck, I founded my companies on this principle.