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Messages - VinceRN

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16
We mostly stay away from the ones with professional auctioneers, especially if they add a "buyer premium" as some do.  We go to ones from a nation wide chain that has their district managers do it, and to ones at a local operation that has a few locations and uses management as auctioneer.  Seems better when the auctioneer isn't getting a percentage.


17
Stories about Storage Auctions / Re: Making some money now.
« on: October 25, 2011, 10:05:40 PM »
This "whole life" unit is working out well for us.  La Creuset pots and pans, Kitchenaid, weight bench, decent furniture, nice freezer, golf clubs, tools, leather jacket, a small safe with something inside and a couple dozen boxes we have yet to go through.

It is a little sad too though.  Among the personals there is a framed folded flag with military decorations.  I'll make sure that gets returned.

I'm excited about the safe.  Probably just papers, but who knows.  Soon it will succumb either to my picks or to power tools, then we'll know.


18
Stories about Storage Auctions / Making some money now.
« on: October 25, 2011, 10:50:47 AM »
Our first three units didn't do much for us, they came up a little less than even.  The few furniture items did OK, but clothes and kitchen stuff aren't going for much if at all around here.

Then we got a unit full of tools.  It had several power tools visible and some big locked cases.  Everything we opened had more power tools in it.  Even though we paid to much for it ($675) we sold the stuff for about a thousand over about three weeks.

Yesterday we bought two units, one for $150 that will easily double or triple - sports stuff, toys, barbeque, tools.  That one we even sold stuff on site to other bidders.  The other was $575 and is basically someones whole life.  Furniture, tools, electronics, golf clubs, exercise equipment, leather jackets and we still don't know what else. 

It's nice to be making money on units despite the high prices.  Hope we can keep it up.

19
Stories about Storage Auctions / Re: Patient records ... Yeowza!!
« on: September 23, 2011, 09:17:15 PM »
Dunno if it's too late, but don't dumpster the stuff.  You could be violating HIPAA, especially since you've documented here that you know about it.  If they won't take it back, I'd leave with the facility as personals.  Also, certainly contact the local media as others have suggested.  They love that stuff, and that will either straighten out the clinic or destroy them.

20
Well, maybe it's not all that weird, but the last unit we bought had syringes everywhere.  We found maybe 40 or so in probably 8 or 10 different places.  Fortunately they were all capped.  Used, but at least they recapped them.

21
General Storage Auction Talk / Re: Got one today, but have a question.
« on: August 27, 2011, 08:03:42 PM »
A Ham radio unit is my dream unit, though I might keep too much stuff to make money off of it.  Being a ham myself I know the gear and where to sell it.  So far I've seen a few old CB radios, which are next to worthless, but no ham stuff.

Oh, and yeah, I'd go for a tote unit if it were cheap.

22
The "Other" Job / RN
« on: August 25, 2011, 09:27:03 PM »
My wife an I are both nurses.  She works two twelve hour shift a week and I work three 24 hour shifts every two weeks so we have lots of free time.  We're doing this business to make a little extra doing something other than health care, something we can do as a family.  We homeschool our kids, so they are involved too, there is a lot they can learn related to this business. 

23
General Storage Auction Talk / Re: Children at Auctions
« on: August 25, 2011, 09:09:26 PM »
In my area there are quite a few people that bring young kids, including us.  There usually seem to be 6-10 kids around.  There's even a couple families that seem too make their living at this.  The kids all hang out together and no one lets them delay the line to look in the lockers.  They seldom seem to be in the way. 

As for kids bidding, it's not done around here, I don't think it's allowed.  When one teenager bid yesterday the auctioneer wouldn't accept the bid until she knew he was 18.  I have seen a parent proxy for a younger teenager who wanted to use his money to get a unit he chose though.

24
Stories about Storage Auctions / First two lockers
« on: August 25, 2011, 08:54:54 PM »
We bough two lockers in the past two days. 

Yesterday we went to a bunch of auctions at a chain storage place, five or six locations.  We got a small one (5x8?) for $50, the guy was a mechanic, some tools including a decent cordless drill, and some parts (I think to a Honda of some sort based on some of the stuff that went to the dump).  There was also a lot of crap, a bunch of greasy mechanics clothes, a couple bags of actual trash, like fast food wrappers and such.  There was also a military flight suit in decent shape.  Depending on what I can find out about the parts there should be no problem making a little profit here.  There was also a great unit that went for $500 when I had decided on a limit of $500 for it.  Sucked to loose it over a small amount, but we are being firm about limits we set.

Today we went to an auction at one of those "pod" storage places.  We got one box out of a set of four for $450.  The first two went well over a grand, which was more than we had available, great stuff in them though.  Our box was full, and I think will make us some money,  The owner was a serious shopaholic, we got gobs of shoes and clothes, mainly from Nordstroms, mostly unused, and a couple dozen pair of shoes, also seemingly new.  Many of the clothes still have tags on them.  There was also a lot of kitchen stuff, mixer, bread maker, pressure cooker, pots and pans, all should be worth a bit.  Funny thing in this one was the lady that owned it was very into the motivational stuff like Anthony Robbins, unfortunately though it was all old, VHS and cassette tapes, which won't sell for much if they sell at all.

Anyway, at least we're fairly certain we won't loose money on these.  Another day of work getting it all sorted and then we start selling. 

25
That's the plan.  We are taking the advice of many people and setting a limit based on what we can actually see and what we think we can do with it, and sticking to that limit.  We're going to several auctions over the next three weeks, some of them poorly advertised and kind of remote, and two of them huge, so we hope to have at least a couple or three units to fill up our work space and hopefully make a little money.



Welcome! Don't get suckered into paying too much!

26
Welcome to the Online Storage Auctions Forum / New in Western Washington
« on: August 17, 2011, 11:41:02 PM »
We're just getting started in this business, been to a few auctions but not won anything yet.  We've only gone to bid seriously to three auctions, but we wound up watching people get carried away and pay absurd prices.  We'll keep trying though.

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