I honestly felt bad for the poor fool who lost the first unit I ever bought.  With every unit I buy I feel less and less that way.  The last unit I bought was (at my best guess) a hoarder who'd run out of space and moved on to keeping it in storage units...  I do return personals, but that feeling bad for the poor guy has all but gone away.  Since this guy was such a bad hoarder I went out of my to NOT return too much.  He probably would have said everything was personal.  What I left at the facility was one small box with photos / birth and death certificates. 

I don't think his dead mothers utility bills from the 60's are really all that personal anyway...

I suppose I'm right with the rest of you as far as business practicality goes.  If I can pull it all out in one box that's marked it stays at the unit as I load.  If its harder to figure out what is and isn't worth leaving I sort it as I go through the unit, and it goes back when I'm in the area.

I've bought several units online, mostly when I first started buying storage auctions.  I don't bid online anymore. 

There's a fair number of problems that keep me from it.  First is transparency.  I payed 4350 for one good unit online.  It was worth the price, but it has me questioning who was my competition.  There's no clear bid history and no way to know I'm not being cheated / shill bid.  I have a strong feeling, but no proof that they may have either intentionally (or by a glitch) let me win at my max bid. 

Another problem is dishonesty by the facility.  I've won a unit that was infested with cockroaches.  You can bet things like mice, insect infestation, illegal items, toxic chemicals will be missed when photographing units.  All of these can be costly to deal with.

I don't see a problem with the industry moving to online auctions overall, except that the law needs to catch up if its going that way.   Specific rules for how units are photographed.  Required resolution of photos.  Specific rules that auction sites must follow.  Clear display of bid history.  Some kind of oversight.  (Dept of weights and measures review?) The attraction to storage auctions for me is that its a gamble with odds that I can see.  When the rules get shady its no longer worth playing.  You won't catch me in Vegas, I don't like the odds.

I've determined that any unit is staged / fake if it doesn't have a hot glue gun and a box of vhs tapes.

Funny about the Xbox / PS3...  I bid on one unit that had a PS3 showing and a flat panel about 40" showing (facing the wall)  Paid $425.   I ended up finding no less than 3 ps3's and 7 360's as well as a host of other video game systems.  The real kicker.  The previous owner was a tweaker.  EVERY SINGLE ONE had been taken apart messed up inside and pretty well broken beyond repair.  Made more money off the clothing in the unit than all the electronics combined. Couple pair of alligator skin boots kept it from being a total loss.

I'm sure I used to see deep fryers all the time.  Recently I decided I wanted one for cheap so I could expiriment melting plastic in it.  I'm not willing to pay much since I am going to use it once and probably destroy it.  Haven't seen one since.

So here's a strange one.  I've got setting in front of me a Fuel compartment rebuild kit for an MK46 torpedo.  (the big missile thing they fire out the side of submarines...)  My first instinct is to pitch it in the trash.  Likely hood of ever finding a buyer I'm guessing is near zero.  How do you all deal with strange military surplus stuff?

I've also got a bunch of aircraft stuff, more than half of which I can't identify.   Some of it is sealed in dessicant packs with military type numbers stencil painted on the packages.

Perhaps I'm sick... I like to use packing peanuts just because I know most people don't like them...  My inner child is a mean little brat.