Ever see this at an auction???

3418-A  S. New Hope Rd., Gastonia.   As of 1-31-11 we have 14 Bins which include items such as Tools, Furniture, Appliances, TV's, Electronics, an Antique Player Piano, Marble Tables, Kirby Vacumm Cleaner w/Shampoo Kit & manuals, a box of knifes and much much more to be auctioned off.    One large bin contains hundreds of High-End Mens & Ladies clothes in "Like-New" condition that would be perfect for a consignment store.   These will be Full Bin Sales.  We may have a couple bins that will be sold by the piece.

Whats wrong with this picture??? I wasnt aware that they could enter until the auction, much less advertise some good things and show photos of the things they mentioned. Ones only left to believe that they ramsacked every locker and picked thru them....I hope nobody shows up period.
Frustrated in NC
Michael

 This is a normal ad; many facilities cut the lock take a picture and then lock it back with a seal on the unit. Some go off the supposed inventory list of the tenant. Do this to alleviate your fears , take the ad with you to the auction. Match up the units and auction ad numbers you will be amazed at how much stuff they do not put in the ad! Most of the auctions I attended was advertised like this. Not a biggie.

It just seems detrimental with all the crazy bidding on unknown lockers. If they pull out 'the valuable' pieces to get you there, whats to expect out of the rest of the stuff? housewares and matresses? Shouldnt be in there until the morning of the auction. I was at an auction the other week where a lady was running around all pissed off and called the police. Turns out, she was late on her rent, then she paid it up, and she was missing alot of tools. She was a manly woman so i dont doubt her having missing tools, especially after the police arrived. So she filed the police report while the auctions of other bins was going on. Her bin wasnt on auction that day, she said she was just there to remove some stuff and check on the rest of her belonging that was stored.

You'll find that the majority of storage unit companies don't "cherry pick."  One, it is ILLEGAL.  Two, word gets around and soon less people will show up, which hurts their chances of recovering any money.  The main reason companies auction off units is to free up space and get another tenant in.  Plus if they cannot sell off a unit, they have to take the time and money to clean the unit and prepare it for business.  Very rare that storage managers will rip off units.  Another reason is that all the items in the unit are legally still the tenants until the auctioneer says "sold."  There are times that right as a unit will be on the chopping block, a person wil come in and pay off the unit right before the bidding starts.  If the managers are stealing, they would be in deep ****.  Because, like I said, everything in that unit is still the tenants.  Does it happen?  Sure.  Is it common?  No.

ive never seen bins being sold 'by the bin' yet photographing individual pieces taken from the bins. Doesnt seem like very good business practice for the auction site to advertise that they know whats in the bins, several days before the auction, not to mention the individual pieces being photographed and advertised for auction. Its not their property and wont be til the put it on the 'block'... Appears as they are selling all the good stuff by the piece then selling the 'full bin' with the idea that valuables are in it. Maybe they should advertise "Safe in this locker but we dont know the contents because its still locked" and take a photo of it.

It is what is not advertised that is more interesting.   Things like:

Dirty underwear.
Condoms
Porno
Vibrator
picture of the tenant's wife and other pictures of the tenants mistress.

eviction notices
past due notices
credit card statements.
disability statements
Divorce proceedings

These are the people that I feel sorry for their kids.   

I suppose rules may vary from state to state but in IL I'm under the impression the unit still belongs to the tenant until the actual auction takes place, that's why no-one is allowed inside.

People have showed up and paid minutes before an auction. Imagine what would happen if someoen showed up to pay last minute or even to bid on their own unit and stuff was stolen out of the unit.

I don't doubt this happens but probably not as much as you may think as it's illegal and if they do it regularly they will get caught soon enough.

I have seen those ads your refering to though and wondered the same thing. I was talking with a guy in Canada. There auctions are pretty crazy from the sounds of it. I guess there's really no laws in Canada that really specifically address this so there's kind of a patchwork of ways things are done and no one really knows whats the right way so auctions and how they are done very a lot. Sounds like a lot of theirs are just single items from units or even stuff is put into bins and auctioned as a bin but not a full unit.

When delinquent tenants unit is behind, the managers/operators of the storage facility need to post an ad, it is the law.  So, naturally, these companies want to get some money back, so it is a common procedure to cut the original lock, open the unit, and list off items they see, from the entrance of the unit.  they do not start climbing through the unit looking for stuff, because they can't.  They composite a list of what they see, e.g. Bikes, couch, end tables, boxes, TV, misc. item.  This is simply a list of what they can see from the entrance.  Some units are so packed with stuff that there is now way a manger could crawl through looking for the "good stuff" unless the remove items to clear up space.  That takes a lot of time.  I wouldn't be concerned about shady operations.  No one is forcing you to bid, if you feel like the unit is suspect, don't bid.