Auction Scene #10...October, 2012

First day of October, 2012 and looking to be a hot one (weather wise) in California's central valley...predicting 100 today !

Meanwhile, will October be "hot" in the storage auction business, or will this month be like September, 2012....HO HUM, edition #2 ?

Starting off as Ho, Hum month (again)...

Went to one auction yesterday. Crowd OK. Maybe 15 total but 7 were regulars. Of the 4 lockers, one new guy got two, 1 regular got one and I forget who got the other one. I didn't bid once. Best one went for $400 and looked like it might double...I just wasn't inspired.

Forgot to go to one today. Oh well, apathy breeds memory loss !

eBay slow, Clist slower.  Ho, Hum doesn't describe it...may ZZZZZzzzzz is better.

Went to a caravan auction yesterday for Public Storage.  Total of six facilities and roughly 30 units between the six locations.   Crowd was one of the smallest I have ever seen (less than 25 people) mostly regulars.

Not many good units bid on two won none.  Girlfriend paid $75 for one (her first unit ever) that had nothing in it but a king size bed, couch, coffee table, and small microwave.  She sold the bed today for $75 to a friend. I think she will get $100 for the remaining items.  I still do not know why she bid on that unit but she gotta start somewhere I guess.

Two auctions tomorrow.  First one has 19 units and is silent bid format, second one has four units but in a much nicer area. 

Off on fall break decided to hit up va for a auction. Units sold for 5,5,60,670 for the first four Units. I got the last one for $180 (195 with Bp). It's was a 5x5 with a 3ft mini fridge, 19 inch bulk tv, truck, bed suite in bag. Turned out truck full of school supplies paper,white out, pens etc. The 1 mystery box had a hp printer, ps2 with games, zippo lighter and some type of speakers. I may make a little on it but not a killing.

Hit up a usually productive auction on Monday.  This place has mostly escaped the crush of newly minted auction "experts" that are going to make their fortune, but something happened this time.  I showed up and there is a large crowd there, including a couple of the "whales" from the monthly PS runs.  WTF? 

So, two pages of bidders signed in and 13 units up for auction.  12 mostly crappy lockers that all went to noobies......not a single "seasoned" bidder bought a locker.  The 13th had some Harbor Freight tools in it and sold for $850.  Me and another guy there were adding stuff up and being generous, I saw $400 tops!  Probably only the second time in a year and a half or more that I haven't bought at least one locker there.

It seems like every month, these new people come in, spend a ton of money on junk lockers, and then you never see them again.  But, the very next month, there's an entirely new group with gold in their eyes!

Oh yeah, and my biggest pet peeve isn't even the pricing......an auction that normally would take up a half hour took two and a half hours by the time everybody filed by all the lockers and the new guys figured out how it works.  OMG!

When to auction today with 2 units and 8 buyers one that is a local smart A$$.  First locker has been almost emptied has bed frame, tote of VHS tapes, DC to AC inverter no cord, accounting text book, and trash clothing.  One local offers $10 Mr. SA goes $11 and local gets it for $12.  The other unit has a Yamaha dirt bike minus the cylinder, head, and carb.  Same buy goes $10 and Mr. SA runs him up to $12 again.  While the guy is loading the first locker I stop by and show him where to sell text book online.  First auction this month for me sold some more books from $10 locker will be posting final total soon.

Went to 3 auctions Thursday, Oct 11, 2012 all by same auctioneer.

Small crowd (maybe 12 to 15) and better than half were regulars, but it was a fairly quiet scene as the lockers were mainly crap.

First place had 5 I think and I got one of them (a 10 x 10) for $100 and looks like it might net 600 or so.

Second place had 10 lkrs and a good 7 of them were trash. I think 3 of those went for $1. One good 10 x 10 went for $350 and it did look pretty good, but I didn't want to go higher on it.

Third place had one locker...sold for $65.

A theory that there are fewer good (or even average) lockers due to people paying up their locker bills might be right in my area at least. A result of the tv shows might be that lkr owners are seeing that their stuff will be sold if they don't pay. 

A theory that there are fewer good (or even average) lockers due to people paying up their locker bills might be right in my area at least. A result of the tv shows might be that lkr owners are seeing that their stuff will be sold if they don't pay. 

That's my theory too.  Not only are the "get rich quick" crowd watching the shows, but so are the people renting the storage units.  I think they see that their stuff could be sold, so many of them are not putting their best stuff in there like they used to.

Overall, I see the quality of lockers has declined dramatically.  I hear this from other seasoned bidders, property managers, and even the district managers.  Even some of the newer buyers that got in at the beginning (or was it really the end?) have mentioned that the quality has really dropped just since they started.

Went to one of 4 auctions by the same auctioneer on Friday the 12th. Didn't bid on any of them. Crowd was about 30 with half of those being newbies....never seen any of them before !

Next place I never go to as IMO they steal stuff from the lockers AND set up the others !  Then skipped the next two as well preferring to work in the lkr I bought Thursday.  Will talk to other attendees next week and report back if anything special went on or was found.

The auto auction isn't much better. 

Went yesterday to try and get a 1998 GMC truck.  Only 32,000 miles but beat.  Work truck.

Figured I could get it for under $2000 if auction went hard.

How I was wrong!   Went up to $3500 in a flash and kept going up slowly.

Guy ended up paying $5400 plus auction fees for a truck that sells on a lot for $4500 on the high end!
And this one was dented and interior trashed.  Blue book on it, in it's condition, is around $3000 IMO.

Someone else paid $6000 for passenger van.  Rear end damage and didn't start.
Guy next to me laughed.  Said he had that exact same van on his lot, fully loaded with DVD system thru out.....$7000.     

Why go to auctions to pay retail (or above retail in these cases)?
I gave up after that.

I ended up at the Casino for the $5 lunch special and played penny slots where I won $10.75.
That's right. Step aside. High rolla come'n thru......   

Went to an auction today that advertised 14 units but ended up with only 11 on the day.  Crowd was easily 50 people and prices reflected just that.  Even garbage units were bringing $200+

The steal of the day was a machinist unit that went for $1650.  I saw at least $8000 in this unit "IF" all the machinery worked.

Only reason I see this unit went so low was the work involved in moving the equipment.  Not going to be able to use the typical ATV trailer I am used to seeing people bring.  Also some of the equipment weighs over 1000 pounds.  Gonna need some help with that stuff.

Shame on me for only bringing $1500.  If it would of been a credit card auction I would of owned that unit. 

You know how labeled boxes in storage units ALWAYS actually contain what the label indicates ?

I think this one is accurate; see if you can read the label on the top of the box and then fill in the last word
on the label on the side of the box. HINT: it deal with CLOTHES.

I would guess "washed" and if the clothes are anything like the ones I found last Saturday in a unit it should really saw "TOSSED" 

I would guess "washed" and if the clothes are anything like the ones I found last Saturday in a unit it should really saw "TOSSED"  

You would be right...on both counts !

Also, the word on the top of the box says "drity".  No child left behind !

Today I went to a moving company auction.  They had 14 crates up for auction (For a total of 6 households).  Crowd was small (around 15 people) and prices were not horrible (Between $200 and $500 a crate).  I didn't buy anything but a friend bought three.  Got a text a hour or so ago letting me know they had yet to find anything good.

I would like to say I won't attend another one of these but the truth is if no other auctions are going on I will come again.