A little inspiration

For all those who don't believe people keep high value items in storage units.....


As I've posted elsewhere, I've been on the look out for a Hoosier Cabinet to restore.  (to keep for myself)

Old co-worker/ pseudo girlfriend (still good friends) called last week and said her deceased mother has one in storage that I can have if once they load moving  truck I'd drive it....they are scared to.

Wasn't what I was looking for but helped out anyway.....

Turns out they didn't even know about storage unit until the lawyer was going thu old bills and called facility.  It was just going into the process to be auctioned.   

So open it and it is trashed.   This did not look good.  Lots of stuff but all boxes were water damaged. Place smelled.  I'm thinking this is, just from being so full, a $500 locker.

Hidden behind stacks of boxes;
there is the Hoosier ($700-$1000). Which you could see part of but didn't look like anything good
Brand new leather couch, still in original shipping plastic, and delivery reciept with price of $6500
Antique leather topped end tables with not even a scratch on them!
And.....the ladies safe.  Which ended up great for my friend since it was all investment papers.  Bonds. CDs.   Nothing we could have turned in.    But had about $400 in coins (retail, not sure what she'll get for them)

But the boxes?
OMG!   Thirty high end purses in like new condition.  23 pairs of high heals still in box and lowest price tag was $180.  Big box of scarves that my friend said sell used for $20-$30 each. 

Ton of other stuff.  Clothes, household, high end kitchen stuff...



And some of your holy grails was found too!   Gold and guns!

Okay, not much.  Piece here and there.  Few Tiffany pieces but the dime-a-dozen, low price stuff.  Pretty sure one bracelet is even fake.  But all told I'm guessing at $500-$1000 in resale value.....no clue on scrap value.

And same with guns.  Got a big smile when I found a derringer ....but it's new. They sell for $150 on the high end.
Other was a .380 that you can get for $100 used.



Anyways, we did a mental price count, totally conserviive, low end, price to sell......and still we figure she has an easy $10,000


Ton to go thru.  So much is water damaged.  Top boxes are all mice dropping and chewed up stuff.

Thought I'd give a little inspiration that thre are still good units out there slipping thru the cracks.
Another month or unobservant attorney and this one would have been ours!



Now it's just negotiating price on my services to sell it all!   

For all those who don't believe people keep high value items in storage units.....


As I've posted elsewhere, I've been on the look out for a Hoosier Cabinet to restore.  (to keep for myself)

Old co-worker/ pseudo girlfriend (still good friends) called last week and said her deceased mother has one in storage that I can have if once they load moving  truck I'd drive it....they are scared to.

Wasn't what I was looking for but helped out anyway.....

Turns out they didn't even know about storage unit until the lawyer was going thu old bills and called facility.  It was just going into the process to be auctioned.   

So open it and it is trashed.   This did not look good.  Lots of stuff but all boxes were water damaged. Place smelled.  I'm thinking this is, just from being so full, a $500 locker.

Hidden behind stacks of boxes;
there is the Hoosier ($700-$1000). Which you could see part of but didn't look like anything good
Brand new leather couch, still in original shipping plastic, and delivery reciept with price of $6500
Antique leather topped end tables with not even a scratch on them!
And.....the ladies safe.  Which ended up great for my friend since it was all investment papers.  Bonds. CDs.   Nothing we could have turned in.    But had about $400 in coins (retail, not sure what she'll get for them)

But the boxes?
OMG!   Thirty high end purses in like new condition.  23 pairs of high heals still in box and lowest price tag was $180.  Big box of scarves that my friend said sell used for $20-$30 each. 

Ton of other stuff.  Clothes, household, high end kitchen stuff...



And some of your holy grails was found too!   Gold and guns!

Okay, not much.  Piece here and there.  Few Tiffany pieces but the dime-a-dozen, low price stuff.  Pretty sure one bracelet is even fake.  But all told I'm guessing at $500-$1000 in resale value.....no clue on scrap value.

And same with guns.  Got a big smile when I found a derringer ....but it's new. They sell for $150 on the high end.
Other was a .380 that you can get for $100 used.



Anyways, we did a mental price count, totally conserviive, low end, price to sell......and still we figure she has an easy $10,000


Ton to go thru.  So much is water damaged.  Top boxes are all mice dropping and chewed up stuff.

Thought I'd give a little inspiration that thre are still good units out there slipping thru the cracks.
Another month or unobservant attorney and this one would have been ours!



Now it's just negotiating price on my services to sell it all!   

The MOST important part of your story is this unit did NOT make it to auction. It's not that we don't believe people store valuable things in units, it's that the most valuable units never make it to auction. Sure, there are always a few that slip through the cracks, thats why we talk about 1 in 100 units or 1 in 500 units, but TV shows make it look like 3 out of 5 units look like the one you just described.

Heck my 1 in 100-200? unit was in the first 25 units I bought so I get spoiled! 

Super cool ! 

The MOST important part of your story is this unit did NOT make it to auction. It's not that we don't believe people store valuable things in units, it's that the most valuable units never make it to auction. Sure, there are always a few that slip through the cracks, thats why we talk about 1 in 100 units or 1 in 500 units, but TV shows make it look like 3 out of 5 units look like the one you just described.

Heck my 1 in 100-200? unit was in the first 25 units I bought so I get spoiled! 

So your a "half-glass-empty" type.  Noted.    


"One always looking for flaws leaves too little time for construction." -  qoute from some dude talking about what I just quoted.

Sofa and cabinet sold!
Sofa got $1500.  Priced low since we had no where to put it.  Standing on end in hallway....

and antique dealer bought Hoosier for $300+$300 store credit. (basically if he finds a small one like what I want he'll give it to me)

Guns are on consignment at pawn shop and coin shop gave $280 for coins.


She's ready now to start to actually research things and list properly. Try and make money.

We had to grab the easiest high dollar items first and sell low because she needed money fast.  Cost of paying off locker, truck, dump, gas....she ran out of savings and was starting to use credit cards.  Still about $300 in the hole but handing her $2000 relieved a lot of her stress.


 

I agree with Cobia. The locker didn't actually go to auction and shouldn't be considered an auction "Find". Thank goodness for sharp attorneys... them folks might have lost it all...

Understandable.  Not a find.  Why it's not posted in Treasure Chest.   

One we dream of tho...

Have a pile of Sunglasses now.  Kenneth Cole. Louis Vuitton. Jimmy Choo.....
Three nice watches. DNKY. Can't remember the other two.  All three the cheaper ones you find at Ross.

And seemed to love Ed Hardy stuff!   There's a trend that died fast.  But confident it will sell fast at yard sale.

I'm actually wondering how much is fake.  Already found a bunch of knock off stuff.
This lady wasn't rich.  Well off but nothing major. However, was in major credit card debt. Most of the purses have reciept inside but three I know are fake.   Bunch of True Religion jeans Im pretty sure are fake.

She lived in LA for forever.  Lots of places to buy fakes there......


I was waiting to dig into the kitchen stuff and sadly disappointed.  Lady spent on fashion only I guess.

Pulling out stuff and was ....crap...that's crap....put that in crap pile......more crap.....   

Hi, I'm from Alberta, Canada.  I have an interesting storage locker/auction story to share.

I attended an auction sale that included contents from a city bus depot.  I got some cool stuff, mostly clothes tho. 
Up for bid came an old vanity case...like from the 60's.  It was about 12x6x8 and was used by women to carry their toiletries while travelling.  It was light blue in color, hard shelled, clean and from where I stood, it looked to be in good shape.  I won the bid at $5 and added it to my stack to take home.

Going thru my 'treasures' at home, (most boxes/bags/luggage are not opened and you buy sight unseen), I opened my 'new' vanity case only to find a vase with a lid stuffed tightly in it.   I pry the vase out and take off the lid.  To my surprise, the vase was filled with....ashes and small pieces of bone.  It was a cremated somebody!!  Yikes, what do I do with this?

The next day, I returned to the auction site where there were still people coming to pick up the items they'd bought the previous day.  I tracked down the people who held the auction and told them of my dilemma.  They were not interested and suggested I talk directly to the auctioneer.  The auctioneer told me, "You bought it.  It's yours!" 

I then took the vase, (urn actually), to the local RCMP department and again explained my dilemma.  The cops wanted nothing to do with it either. 

Now, I was stuck with this person who had been turned to ash and wondered how in the heck did he/she end up in an abandoned locker auction.  I couldn't just 'garbage' it. 

So, my husband took it to a bridge and dumped out the contents into the Freeman River.  I think that was a good idea. 

No, I did not keep the urn nor the vanity case.

What's your theory on how he/she ended up in my hands and what would you have done in my place?

Interested to hear your comments.

Thanks.

Zeeann....

I am sending a message to our administrator and asking that he move your post and my reply to a NEW thread in the Storage Auction Stories section, as your story deserves its own space and not an offshoot of this one.  If this happens, I'll then modify my post and give you my thoughts on the urn your bought.

Hi, I'm from Alberta, Canada.  I have an interesting storage locker/auction story to share.

That's an oxymoron since nothing can be from Canada and also be interesting. 

Heh, heh, just kidding. I think what you did with the ashes was admirable. There are so many that would've just dumped them in the trash without a second thought and that they represented a once living being.

Hi, I'm from Alberta, Canada.  I have an interesting storage locker/auction story to share.

I attended an auction sale that included contents from a city bus depot.  I got some cool stuff, mostly clothes tho. 
Up for bid came an old vanity case...like from the 60's.  It was about 12x6x8 and was used by women to carry their toiletries while travelling.  It was light blue in color, hard shelled, clean and from where I stood, it looked to be in good shape.  I won the bid at $5 and added it to my stack to take home.

Going thru my 'treasures' at home, (most boxes/bags/luggage are not opened and you buy sight unseen), I opened my 'new' vanity case only to find a vase with a lid stuffed tightly in it.   I pry the vase out and take off the lid.  To my surprise, the vase was filled with....ashes and small pieces of bone.  It was a cremated somebody!!  Yikes, what do I do with this?

The next day, I returned to the auction site where there were still people coming to pick up the items they'd bought the previous day.  I tracked down the people who held the auction and told them of my dilemma.  They were not interested and suggested I talk directly to the auctioneer.  The auctioneer told me, "You bought it.  It's yours!" 

I then took the vase, (urn actually), to the local RCMP department and again explained my dilemma.  The cops wanted nothing to do with it either. 

Now, I was stuck with this person who had been turned to ash and wondered how in the heck did he/she end up in an abandoned locker auction.  I couldn't just 'garbage' it. 

So, my husband took it to a bridge and dumped out the contents into the Freeman River.  I think that was a good idea. 

No, I did not keep the urn nor the vanity case.

What's your theory on how he/she ended up in my hands and what would you have done in my place?

Interested to hear your comments.

Thanks.

Ive known people to take urns right to the flea market and dump the ashes and bone fragments right under the tables and sell the urn that day! Just sayin! As that cool new term goes...

By-the-way, it could have been a cremated pet, so don't beat yourself up without having all the facts. No reason to assume the worst, there's all kinds of strange stuff you will have to get us to when doing storage auctions. Why complicate things?

Homemade VHS & DVDs? You gonna watch them and see something you wish you hadn't? Not me, straight to the dump!
Bags of vegatative matter? You gone call the cops and have it test? Not me, "thats strange, they stored lawn clippings." Straight to the dump!
Who spilled red ink all over this underwear? Straight to the dump!!

I was waiting to dig into the kitchen stuff and sadly disappointed.  Lady spent on fashion only I guess.

Pulling out stuff and was ....crap...that's crap....put that in crap pile......more crap.....   

So I see your a glass-half-empty kind of guy. Noted. 

about TV making it look like 3 out of 5 lockers hit the jackpot.  I think most educated people understand its a TV show so are they going to hold peoples interest showing the stars of the show finding nothing all the time?  No they are going to show the lockers where they do find something.. Just like watching the shows and theres 50 people there it looks like the only people that ever win lockers are the stars of the show but its called EDITING, they show the lockers auctioned where a star of the show did win it.
Now that would explain all that but all that said, I am still skeptical if these shows are real.  For one thing, for a few weeks Dave Hester was not allowed to go to auctions because he was in that lawsuit with that rapper over the use of the word Yupp(how ignorant), yet the show runs a clip of Dave supposedly saying while my competition is at so and so, i decided to come to this aution instead.    Also, especially Dave when they go thru the stuff and say ok this is worth this amount, I will price this at such and such.  and says see, i've all ready made my money back, the rest is just benjamins.  when actually when he said something was worth 500 dollars, it often looks to me like he would be lucky to get 125 dollars.   and what happened to Daves thrift shop, supposedly he had to sell it?  Did he go broke from saying YUPP too much?  I sure hope so, I hate that guy, Jarrod should have knocked him out.

So I see your a glass-half-empty kind of guy. Noted. 

You know I hate you.  You know that, right?   
I'm gonna search for you.   I will find you.  And when I do.....ohhhh, MAN!....you are gonna get One STRONGLY worded letter!   Mark my word!  Your going to need a dictionary.  Your gonna need a therapist!
And most likely gonna need a hand writing expert.....I'll admit...my penmanship could be better....um....I'll type it.....yeah....that would be best....

And while your reading it I'm gonna switch all your lightbulbs to long life florencent bulbs!  So, there!

I don't know what that has to do with anything ...but the environment is important....I mean....as long as I'm there...... 



 

Zeeann....

I am sending a message to our administrator and asking that he move your post and my reply to a NEW thread in the Storage Auction Stories section, as your story deserves its own space and not an offshoot of this one.  If this happens, I'll then modify my post and give you my thoughts on the urn your bought.

Good idea and thank you.