I didn't see a single person turn away and leave because of the dollar.  A lot of people made jokes about it, but they all paid.  

I only got one donut, so I guess my admission was only .50?

There is an auctioneer up here that charges everybody a dollar to get a bid card.  He's been doing it for years, and he still gets pretty large crowds.  

Thrift Store = cheap buyers that want something for nothing

Estate Liquidations = buyers that expect to pay more for hopefully nicer stuff


I don't know how "retired" you are, but expect to be putting in some really long hours.  It takes a lot of time to acquire, sort, research, stock, and price all that inventory.  You have to keep putting fresh inventory on the floor or people quit coming in......they don't want to see a bunch of stale merchandise that they have seen every trip into your store for the last month, they want new stuff!  It is a hell of a lot of work and a major time commitment.  Done right, it can be very profitable........but you can also burn through a lot of cash during your "learning curve", and there will be one!  Good luck!

Some pretty good looking units in that bunch.......I'd love to bid on a few of those if they were local!

Cool, hope you get some good stuff!  Were these on the MLK run? 

A little tip for everyone. Find a small business that has a large dumptser, ask them what they would charge you to dump your stuff there. Most will say no to it all. However there are a few that may take you up on that offer.

Smart tip....I have a friend with a business that barely uses any space in his dumpster normally, so if I'm around he'll let me dump garbage in it for free just before it get's picked up.  One of the storage facilities also lets me dump garbage in their dumpster on Monday nights because it gets picked up on Tuesday mornings.  As long as I don't make a mess and make it overflow,they are happy to let me do it.  It saves me a lot of money!

Went on a run today, about 45 people showed up.  Bought the first locker at the first stop and glad I did!  I had a friend along with me that nobody knew, and I told him to go up to 400 and I would just sit back in the crowd.........he got if for 385.  Prices got stupider (word?) from there on out!  One unit went for 1800 today, and lot's of 500-800 lockers.  Dropped out with two facilities left and dug through the one I bought......so far some black and decker battery tools, dishes, a bunch of old models in the boxes, lot's of small tools, grinders, sanders, drills, etc.  Still a lot I haven't looked at, but so far I think I'll at least get my money back, and hopefully a small profit.  On the plus side, it doesn't look like I'll have much garbage!

I've partnered up off and on over the years and it can be good.  But, one guy I partnered up with a couple of years ago soured me on partnerships for the most part.  We bought a large, commercial type locker full of building materials from an out of business contractor.

Well, first off, when it came time to pay, he was a little "short".  Okay, I kicked in the rest and we got to work.  Well, he starts picking through it and grabbing stuff.  "I want this and this and this...." on and on, grabbing key items and some tools that he wanted to keep personally.  We get a bunch of stuff moved that first day, and when it's time to go back the next day, oops, he has to work!  So I end up having to clean out most of the rest of the locker myself.

Okay, so now we have the locker cleaned out and it's time to sell stuff.  "Uhhh, I don't have a camera that takes good pics", he tells me, "so you are going to have to take the pics and do the craigslist ads".  Okay, so now I take the pics, run the ads, meet up with people to sell stuff, don't keep anything out of the locker for myself, while he keeps quite a few valuable items, and I paid for almost the entire locker in the first place.  Hmmm, wtf do I have a partner for?  I guess the only good thing about me doing the selling was I made sure I got my money back before he got any money!

I pretty much go it alone, with exceptions.  Sometimes there is a really nice or really large locker that I would like to have, but goes for too much money or seems like too much work.  It does soften the blow if you buy a thousand dollar locker that turns out to be crap, and you only lost 500 each instead of the full grand yourself.  Just keep in mind though, if there turns out to be a 4k profit in that unit, you are only getting 2k instead of the full 4k!