Auction Scene #5...May, 2012

Well for me this week is auction week.  Have a 3 caravan today at 4pm.  Single place that normally don't hold auctions Tuesday.  Then my 7 facility caravan on thursday.  Today's auction is unusual as it's normally the 3rd Monday of the month but they skipped last month.  Next week is a semi-busy auction week also.  Then it slows down to maybe 1 a week.  It's normally the 1st and 2nd weeks that we have multiple auctions.  Just rare to have any multiples on the same day to thin out the crowd .

Well today the crowd was what I expected.  A good 50 people with most of them newbies or new (last 2 month) people.  A few of the older regulars came back today to test the waters.  Units were mostly furniture and prices all over the board.  I didn't get a unit today but my daughter did.  She loves this facility as she can make the auction with me after school.  A 10x10 or so opened up with a scattering of cloths, shoes, a pillow pet in a walmart bag, a barbie car (think old pedal style - didn't get a good look), etc.  Auction guy asked for bids and my daughter calls out $5.  She almost had it also till one of the newbies said $7 at the 2 count.  Daughter said $10, noobie $15, and at this point she calls out in a strong voice $20.  At this all the regulars are cheering her on.  They know her from past auctions and always joke with her.  Noobie calls out $25, and my daughter goes $30 in a strong voice once again quickly.  At this point even the auction is rooting for her and makes a comment.  She gets the unit for $30 bucks and used her money.  She may actually make money off the unit.  We will see tuesday afternoon when we go to clean it out.

Congratulations to your daughter Craig.   

Would have liked to see the newbies faces...

Congrats to your daughter craiglst!!
I love it~hope she makes a nice profit!

12 hour day today, Wednesday, May 9,2012.....

Went to 4 auctions. Got the last locker of the day, a 10 x 30 (Yikes !) 3/4 packed....paid $1900 for it and the last $1,000 in bidding was between I and a fellow who has been doing it for about a year. Of late he has been stepping up his bids, but didn't go all the way.

I've worked up a spreadsheet showing 64 items totaling proposed $3,100 in sales making this (so far) a $1K profit IF all goes well.  Given that I've only looked at the top 5 feet all the way around, I think it's safe to say this is going to be a winner.

Here are a couple of pics and over the next few days (for relaxation !) I'll start a thread and post more pics.  A super locker from a 50 year old couple who also had good stuff from grandpa !  

Waiting for the right ones paid off this month...got one for $825 a couple of weeks ago that is panning out nicely too.

The doll house shown below is about 4 feet left to right and maybe two feet front to back. Some furniture showing through the windows. Two stories plus the attic.  Maybe worth $200 to $300 (to the right buyer of course).



Pic below is a slightly domed box about 18" left to right and 14" front to back. I was able to get it open by leaning over the dog cage and had gun cleaning stuff in it but I don't think there are any guns in the locker. All boxes that were at the 4 to 5 foot level had been opened at some time...this guy had defaulted and bailed out this locker about 5 times over the last year and a half as wittnessed by the locks piled by the door....never a good sign.

However, there are lower level boxes he couldn't get to, and he left a LOT of good stuff behind anyway !



Here's the link to the picture thread about this locker:

http://storageauctionforums.com//index.php/topic,2579.msg18061.html#msg18061

Now it's 7:30 a.m. Thursday morn and have to go WORK IN IT !

Looks good Movieman.

Auctions still slim pick-ins down here.

See all the treasure will be nice.

WOW nice buy Movieman! I'm excited to see more. Would love to grab a locker like that!

Great looking locker Movieman.

Looking forward to more pictures!

Happy diggin'

Very nice MM~looks like a fun locker to dig in! 

We've got a caravan today with a Phoenix auctioneer (who was once on AH).  He has a bit of a crowd, but I like his style.  No nonsense and he lays the rules and everybody follows them.  I also like that we pay as we go.  You buy a locker, he collects and writes the invoice as we walk.  Moves along nicely.

Hoping for a decent unit because we are now once again getting down to the dregs (and hard-sells) of our inventory.

Today found me at my 7 facility caravan once again.  Like last month the units were slim.  First place only had 1, next 0, next 1, then finally a 3 unit spot.  Crowd was what I'm considering normal right now at about 50 people.  Only a few new faces, everyone else was mostly new faces I've seen at the last dozen auctions.  Units were priced high again IMO.  It seems we have more and more out-of-town buyers coming in needing inventory for their stores.  How they make money with the prices they pay + travel is beyond me.

I took a gamble and split off 1/2 way in to hit another auction on the industrial side of town.  They had 5 units out of 6 left when I called at 10am for a 1pm auction.  Four of us showed up.  Units were CRAP.  All of them looked to have been searched/tossed or were very empty.  Two went to one of the regulars, two to a newer regular (beat me by a quarter), and I got one.  Was a silent bid auction.  I paid $10 for a microwave, macbook box, broken hamper, some cloths, and 1 box of random items.  I really bid on the Office Prof 2010 student edition box I had seen.  Disk wasn't in there but I do have the product code which I needed.  Pair that with some disk I have and can sell it for $25 or more.  All depends on ebay pulling listing or not.

I did already make 1/2 my money back in change.  I laughed when found a broom and 1/2 roll of trash bags in the unit.  Was like sweet - it is a self contained unit for cleaning it out

So nothing steller for me this week.  Should make money on both units if get a chance to sell this weekend. 

Attended an auction today.....small privately owned facility, 4 - all 10X20 lockers and about 20 bidders. Three were owned by the same elderly woman who had passed away last year (all this according to the manager) and evidently the family lived out of state and had no interest in the units. When the doors rolled up....oh my, dust, dust, dirt and cobwebs! I bid on two but I guess I was not the only one there that loved the mystery of them. I dropped out at $400 as they were all only about 1/2 full of boxes, bags and a small amount of antique furniture. The last unit was the one I wanted....man stuff! It was a 20X20 that was owned by a plumbing company that had gone belly up. It was a disappointment. It was only about 2/3 full and that was scattered, looked like the owner had gone thru and taken most of the high dollar tools. It ended up selling for $1300.

No other auctions until the 25th.

I did already make 1/2 my money back in change.  I laughed when found a broom and 1/2 roll of trash bags in the unit.  Was like sweet - it is a self contained unit for cleaning it out

So nothing steller for me this week.  Should make money on both units if get a chance to sell this weekend. 

Sounds good. Your caravan sounds like ours this week very low unit #'s. Have one next week that looks promising.

Don't forget this is Mother's day weekend. Not sure if good or bad to try and sell. 
If taking Mom out to the Flea for a day out is common then good. 

12 hour day today, Wednesday, May 9,2012.....

Went to 4 auctions. Got the last locker of the day, a 10 x 30 (Yikes !) 3/4 packed....paid $1900 for it and the last $1,000 in bidding was between I and a fellow who has been doing it for about a year. Of late he has been stepping up his bids, but didn't go all the way.


Waiting for the right ones paid off this month...got one for $825 a couple of weeks ago that is panning out nicely too.


Here's the link to the picture thread about this locker:

http://storageauctionforums.com//index.php/topic,2579.msg18061.html#msg18061

Just wanted to say Congratulations on your locker.

I am unable to participate in the thread listed above.   

Just cannot pull it off with this equipment. (laptop). After 4 attempts and crashing my browser, did an update on computer reloaded some programs. Was able to read the post but no pictures. but that took 15 minutes  Learning  some patients here.  Had a similar problem on the Safe thread but it would load. . Am sure it is hardware not operator error. 

Really glad you got a good one.

Just wanted to say Congratulations on your locker.

I am unable to participate in the thread listed above.   

Just cannot pull it off with this equipment. (laptop). After 4 attempts and crashing my browser, did an update on computer reloaded some programs. Was able to read the post but no pictures. but that took 15 minutes  Learning  some patients here.  Had a similar problem on the Safe thread but it would load. . Am sure it is hardware not operator error. 

Really glad you got a good one.

Thanks, Money !

As far as the threads not coming up it might be a combination of the picture sizes taking a lot of load time, and the processor in your laptop AND maybe the connection speed as well. 

Thanks, Money !

As far as the threads not coming up it might be a combination of the picture sizes taking a lot of load time, and the processor in your laptop AND maybe the connection speed as well. 

You are Welcome

Think you are right on the picture sizes / processor / and Internet speed.

Boy driving me nuts not being able to see the loot. 

And to add something for the other thread,  The cabinet on the doll house might be a selling point. Somewhere to put the thing. Good Luck.