Storage Auctions
The Storage Locker => New to Storage Auctions? => Topic started by: TonyT on February 15, 2011, 10:42:52 AM
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Ive had a lot of success finding auctions in my area (Western PA), however, most are on week days, particularly Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays. Since I am a teacher, I am looking for auctions on the weekends to hold me over until summer. Are weekend auctions harder to come by, am I searching wrong, or is it just a coincidence that I am having this problem right now?
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In my area there's very few weekends auctions, normally only when it's a large auction in the city like 40 units plus.
I try to take a day off on days with a lot of auctions. I also normally have a weekday off every other week which I can choose so I choose good auction days and go those days. If you can't ever be free on weekdays your not going to get to attend many auctions.
If your a teacher what time do you get out of school? IN my area on those circuit auctions where you follow around from burb to burb there's normally auctions running until five or six at night, you could probably hit the last 2-3 auctions each day.
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Yea weekend auctions are few and far between on weekends. If you are by a big city you should be able to find a few auctions on Saturdays.
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Unfortunately I can't really afford to take any days off.
I get off most days around 2:30. I'll def start looking into going to a later auction. Thanks for the advice!
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I went to a weekend auction on the 5th, only 6 bidders showed up. Units went for a reasonable price.
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Yea if you get out that early you should be able to find some auctions to toto in the weekends
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In my area (Central California) there are very few weekend auctions...maybe 2 or 3 places accounting for about 4 to 6 auctions a year. I think ...around here anyway... the property managers realize the big buyers of lockers are people who often sell on Saturday and Sunday, so the crowd would be smaller than during the week.
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In my area (Central California) there are very few weekend auctions...maybe 2 or 3 places accounting for about 4 to 6 auctions a year. I think ...around here anyway... the property managers realize the big buyers of lockers are people who often sell on Saturday and Sunday, so the crowd would be smaller than during the week.
I never thought about it like that, but it makes perfect sense.
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In our area I only see one in the next two months on a weekend, and it is actually a moving company, auctioning off "containers" that I guess were never claimed/paid for. I would guess of all the auctions that one will be packed (since it is a weekend, I can see moms, dads, and little kids crawling all over in my head).
Orlando
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I have a rare Saturday auction this week, but I'm thinking it's going to be a waste of time. They've had it advertised on their reader board for the last month. But, I'm still going, because you just never know!
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Hello I have a question for all bidders....In my area I see listing for auctions where the lock has already been cut by the managers and they list a general description of whats in the locker. How safe are these to bid on, meaning how can i be sure that the property manager or the storage staff have not taken out the valuables from the locker?
Thanks in advance for all the info... :)
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The short answer is YOU CAN'T tell if something has been removed.
The longer answer is that generally speaking a locker tenent can pay right up to the locker door being thrown open, so if THAT happened and then the lkr owner found something missing, it would be a problem for the property manager/staff to answer as to why something was missing.
It does't happen that much (imho) but it does happen.
The property managers can manipulate the time aspect of when auctions happen and they have a pretty good feeling about whether someone would show up or not (sometimes they have corresponded with people in jail for instance).
Also, if there are multiple cut locks on the ground it means they have paid up at least once, have gained access and may have removed quality items, then defaulted again. If there are three locks on the ground they've had access twice after defaulting and have defaulted a third time. What does THAT tell you?
There are so many combinations of possibilities that there is no ONE right answer. You have to trust what you SEE. If you are willing to gamble on anything else, that is on you.
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Well said Movie.
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I agree well, said movieman. I know that managers do go look around in lockers. If they took anything they didn't say. The tenant can come and pay up at the last minute. If his treasure is missing who's to blame. If you where behind on your bills and knew you had a coin collection, jewelry or other valuables in your storage locker, what would you do?
I guess my advise about this game would be this. You can do okay at it. You are not going to get rich. And if paying to sort through, what somebody else, decided wasn't worth paying to keep, isn't fun for you. Then it's not going to be any fun. Plus you got to enjoy selling at flea markets and yard sales. That's where you are going to sell most of your stuff. when was the last time you saw a mr coffee on ebay?
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Thanks for the help.....another is this phrase normal at all auction..."Seller has the right to refuse any bid and to with draw any property from the sale"....it just worries me that i buy a locker and find somthing valuable and then it gets taken from me.
Thanks!
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Hey I think that phrase is pretty normal Ive heard it a good bit.
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Check the auction contract with the storage facility. I am pretty sure once they take your money and you start going through the unit, it is yours, you official "own" it, and no auction house can then take it back or refuse your bid.
Orlando
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Thanks for the help.....another is this phrase normal at all auction..."Seller has the right to refuse any bid and to with draw any property from the sale"....it just worries me that i buy a locker and find somthing valuable and then it gets taken from me. thanks!+
I think this might mean they can take an item out BEFORE the auction commences. For instance, in California guns are not to be sold in auction units. If the door goes up and they see a gun case 5 feet back, the autioneer or prop manager will go in an get it, open it up and if its a gun it gets taken out and -supposedly- gets turned in to local authorities. (except for the time I saw an auctioneer sell one off before the lkr was sold ... and that's a federal offense).
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Check the auction contract with the storage facility. I am pretty sure once they take your money and you start going through the unit, it is yours, you official "own" it, and no auction house can then take it back or refuse your bid.
Orlando
I bought one once, a 10x10, fairly tumbled but with a few good things showing. I loaded a video camera and a nice set of speakers into my truck and left. Coming back the next day the prop manager stopped me and said the woman wanted to buy back her locker. I called the former owner and told her I had already taken some stuff out without mentioning what. She said that was all right; it was mostly the personal stuff she wanted. So, since I had only paid $50, had taken out a couple of good items, I offered the remains to her for $75 and she took it.
This is a bit of a variation on your statement Orlando, but it happens now and again and is yet another chance to make money in this biz.
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Thanks for the help.....looks like I have all my info....now I just need to go. :)
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Thanks for the help.....looks like I have all my info....now I just need to go. :)
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In my experience when the door is opened you are bidding on everything in the locker.
The storage company has the right not let the unit be auctioned .
or they can also bid on the locker.
The auctioneer can also bid.
But they can not say everything but that safe is for sale.
It is everything or nothing.
They can do what they want.
But! They also know the next auction will not have bidders.
The other day they opened the door and nothing but file boxes on shelves. It was obvious this was construction company's file room.
They declined to sell the unit.
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Great Question!
Yes, the weekend storage auctions are harder to find. I own and operate a storage auction information service in the Houston area. We actually call over 1400 storage facilities twice a month in order to find every storage auction event in our coverage area. Most of the major storage companies do hold their auctions on weekdays. These facilities have larger advertising budgets and typically put their public notice in mainstream newspapers. What I have found is that a majority of smaller independent facilities, especially in rural areas, hold their auctions on Saturdays. Our storage auction schedule (http://auctionstx.com/) usually lists several auctions on Saturdays every week. Most of these independent facilities advertise their auctions in smaller local newspapers and unless you happen to live in that specific area or you subscribe to our service, you would never know they were occurring.
My advice to buyers that live in areas that don't have storage auction information services that cover 100% of all auctions, is to call all of the facilities in your immediate area and get on their auction call list.
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generally there are about 5-10 storage auction in the Metro Atlanta area every week