Auction Scene #12...December, 2012

hit about half of a 2 day ps caravan 4 locations yesterday and 2 today
had 20-30 people most of the day yesterday saw about 70 units in 4 locations , bought 2 cheap one for 25 one for a dollar
today started with 21 units and 6 buyers at the first location and jumped back up to 20 for the second location that had 5 rooms,
bought one unit for $5 at the first location
skipped the rest of the day to finish cleaning out what i bought yesterday

Do you think that this forum is an appropriate gauge?

I'm not dealing with forum stats per se (though our view is not as capable as yours) but with a gut feeling about what I'm seeing here and who is posting it. It's not the broad spectrum of people posting as it used to be even though the quantity of people available to post has gone up. I know that in general the number of members a forum has always seems to be representd by a much smaller number; so if we have 2,900 members it's not uncommon for 2,800 of them not to post.

Here's a GoogleTrend printout from 2 pm Pacific Time on 12/28/2012 respresenting the decline in the number of Google searches done on the words "Storage Auction". Overall it is down from Jan 1, 2012.

You may have to scroll to the right a bit within the graphic to see the late December figure is at 40 of the 100 figure on January 1, 2012.

I'm not dealing with forum stats per se (though our view is not as capable as yours) but with a gut feeling about what I'm seeing here and who is posting it. It's not the broad spectrum of people posting as it used to be even though the quantity of people available to post has gone up. I know that in general the number of members a forum has always seems to be representd by a much smaller number; so if we have 2,900 members it's not uncommon for 2,800 of them not to post.

Actually, your gut feeling would probably be more accurate than mine when it comes to assessing changes on this forum. Even though I participated in the early stages of this forum, I didn't visit much from March through October 2012, so I wouldn't even notice a decline in the "broad spectrum of people" posting. If that's the case, hopefully they will eventually get involved in the conversation again.

Today was crazy and I am still stunned! Auction this morning had 8 units available. Only one other bidder showed up. The manager went ahead with the sale. This was a silent bid (those don't happen very often around here).
I won 5 units!! (did I mention in an earlier post that I am trying to move soon?) What was I thinking?
Unit #1- $55.00 5X10 ok fishing gear, .22 shot gun, Yamaha drum set (my son is researching so far between $900 and $3000)
Unit #2- $100 10X10 Manager unit. I know your thinking Really? Furniture looks great!! Haven't gotten to go through all of it but I should make $300.00 or so.
Unit #3 $60.00 10X10 There are a couple of antique nightstands, several boxes and a nice metal shelving unit that I can use in the new store. I have't gone through this one at all yet.
Unit #4 $120.00 10X10 This is the unit I am calling the Dale Earnhardt Sr. unit. What I could see from the door. One display case with (and I counted) 250 cars all new in box, another display case that I could not see in, several new truck parts, and lots of boxes. I can't wait to get into this one.
Unit #5 $100.00 10X20 The manager need this one cleaned out right away or I would have waited. It was a mess but a couple boxes marked art caught my eye. This is the WOW factor locker!! My score for the year. First place I looked was under a rug in a wooden crate right up front. It was a  Frederic Remington Bronze statue titled Coming Through the RYE. Auction value is $7500 to $9000. One box marked art has two Thomas Kinkade signed paintings worth over $6000. There are two other paintings worth around $2000.00. 4 original hand drawn maps from 1884 that have certificates of authenticity. I haven't looked them up yet. So many boxes that haven't been opened yet.
I will try to get some pictures posted tomorrow evening. I'm still in total shock and have to wait until tomorrow evening to get back to it.

Today was crazy and I am still stunned!

Talk about a merry Christmas !  Lkrs #4 and #5 are fantastic !  You got TWO one-in-a-hundred at one sitting. You might as well stay at home for the next month....the chances of doing well in the next "x" lockers have just gone down.

This is what we all hope for...that and the small crowd. If the crowd had been bigger they still would have been great lkrs but the small crowd was icing on the cake.

Day 2 still in shock and tired as heck. I still have most of one unit to clean out tomorrow. It looks like most of the stuff in it was used to stage a home for sale. Most of it looks pretty good. Should be an easy sell. Manager said it belonged to the owner so maybe he was in real estate.

I had to rent a storage unit myself as I will never get all of this stuff in my store and still be able to sell out of there. LOL

NASCAR unit is awesome (yes I am a fan so that helps). Lots of file boxes that were loaded directly on a pallet to go to recycle. I didn't count but I am guessing 30 to 40 boxes of diecast in all different sizes. Also again I'm guessing 50 to 60 brand new model cars. If you need a bug reflector for your truck I've got it. LOL I think my son said there were a dozen new in box. I did bring 3 boxes of cars home to research and hope to get them listed on e-bay tonight.

My art unit keeps throwing out surprises. Tonight right before I left I opened a boxed marked frames. There was signed art in the frames but in the bottom of the box wrapped in several towels was a WW2 Army helmet. Lucky for me my art guy also dabbles in military items. He will be in on Tuesday to help me out with a lot of this stuff.

Unit #3 (as I have yet to give it a name LOL) Has a nice Crate and Barrel loft in it and all of the pieces are there. Only one of the antique nightstands is good. The shelving units are great and have already been put to use.

I did take a few pictures and will try to post soon.

While Calcoastgal is hauling in the greenbacks this week, anyone going to a December 31, 2012 auction as a last hoorah to the old year?

I'll be taking in a couple later in the week and am hoping for a good START to 2013.

It seems like most of the storage facilities in Texas avoided having an auction around New Years although there were a couple scheduled for the 31st. I'm sure everyone is ready to get back to business but from what I can tell, most of the auctions in the pipeline are scheduled after January 7th. I would imagine that would be true in other areas as well.

We are trying to hold off on auctions because I simply don't know where we would put anything else, and we already rent a locker ourselves for stuff.  However, the next good one is on Jan. 8 for Uhaul, and I don't think I can stay away:)

One week in and have paid for all of my units. Now into profit. I haven't put a dent into the inventory. I have another art guy coming in this weekend as my first guy likes older stuff and wasn't really sure of what I have because it is newer. I still haven't even taken an inventory of the NASCAR stuff. For that matter I don't really have a good inventory of anything except for the art. I have been through most of it and weeded out the trash. Tomorrow I start pricing and getting stuff on the floor.
I couldn't help myself and checked for up coming auctions tonight. LOL Lucky I found none right now.