I been watching some of the auctions that "Storage Battles" auction site has on it. To tell you the truth I think that I will stay away from online auctions. The pictures really are crappy. You can't smell what it's like and other people can run up your bid and never intend to pay. So what happens when you pay for the unit, open it up and find out its crap, but if you seen it in a live auction you would have walked away.
Sure, you can't smell a unit online, but I think there are pros and cons to both live and online auctions. In all fairness, not all photos are bad. On our site, we have an advanced zoom feature which helps you see into the unit like never before; however, it still requires the storage operator to load quality images for it to work properly. It's powerful enough to read a business card taped to the back wall of a 10' unit. You can't do that with the naked eye. This could come in handy if you need to read the shipping labels on boxes, model numbers on merchandise, etc.
Plus, online auctions allow you time to study a unit and research the value of merchandise before you bid; whereas, live auctions sometimes require you to make impulsive, uninformed decisions. I've purchased several units at live auctions which I never would have bought had I had time to research the merchandise. I've also lost out on some great units at live auctions because, quite frankly, I had no clue what the merchandise was worth and wasn't willing to gamble.