Lookey Loos Part 6.....June, 2011

Another month has rolled around and we're into the 6th month of tracking the crowds and prices of storage auction lockers.

Feel free to add your observations here; in addition to the stats on crowds and prices we're always happy to see some notes (and pics) on what you got if you won a lkr.

Generally speaking, in Central California, I am observing that crowds are going down; with newbies staying away the prices are coming down a bit too. Still some fierce (high) bidding by some regulars against each other as we clamor to get the inventory back up.

I have off work today and I'll be hitting a caravan up in central PA today. 5 locations and 29 lockers so far. In south central PA things are the usual. I really don't live near any big cities (Baltimore MD being to closest at about 50 miles) so I don't see the surge of newbies as most are reporting.

However there is one guy that showed up a week ago that refused to believe that storage wars and auction hunters may be rigged. Pretty funny

Went to the caravan on Wednesday in central PA. Around 25 lockers total after all was said and done. The first 3 locations were in the same city and about 150 people showed up. But only 5 or 6 bidders the entire time.

The first location had mostly trash lockers and they sold between 70 and 200. The second and third locations were really going to high IMO. One was clearly a hoarder unit, and looked like lots of broken down cardboard and mattresses. Ended up going for I believe $1100. Although one locker had 2 dirt bikes, a riding mower, a snow blower, big screen TV (had a bullet hole in it) and other nice things and went for $2800.

the last 2 locations were outside of the city and the crowd dwindled to around 40 or 50. Dave Hester was in the crowd apparently as I heard somebody bidding "YEPP!".

I did however get one for $10, and a nice one for $135 at the last location. Seems to be getting worse here in central PA

Yikes things seem like they arent getting better in your area!

Went to my 2nd auction in 2 days today (Thursday the 2nd of June, 2011) and found a small crowd again.

This auctioneer is another of 6 in my area and would have to say in a tie for 5/6 th place. Still, nice to go to this one. There were 12 of us there and 9 were regulars, but the 4 lkrs went for decent prices. I got a 10 x 10 with a safe. I paid for the other contents and safe will be gravy if anything in it. I turned it over and upside down and heard small sounds; not as many as I would like, but we'll see. If you want to see a picture follow this link; that thread also tells about opening some locked safes you might get in a locker.

http://storageauctionforums.com/index.php?topic=1276.msg5815#msg5815



The next week or so will see the top 4 auctioneers having auctions, so will see what THEIR crowds are like.

My third auction in 3 days and....no small crowd today.

Unlike the other two auctions, this was one of the 4 major auctioneers (out of 6) and the crowd was there.
I haven't seen this many NEWBIES in a while, even a few weeks ago the crowd was smaller making me think
we were in auction recovery.

Today there were about 75 bidders, and of those, 70 were newbies. Only 5 of the regulars there. I've never seen so many unknowing, out-of-place types in my life...see two pictures below.

So, the trend hasn't totally gone down yet. Don't know when the new season of Storage Wars starts again (soon I think) but not looking forward to it for the impact it will have on MY business.



Black shape above covers the obscene gesture made by a raggedy newcomer !



I left after 4 of the 14 lkrs sold. No point in sticking around, though I would like to have gotten a chest shot of the guy who had some 10 x 25 binoculars hanging around his neck; never seen that before but even funnier was the fact that he didn't have a flashlight. He knew I was behind him with my light and waited a couple of times for me to light up the view for him. I just waited for him to walk on and THEN turned it on. Get a clue newbie ! (either that or bring NIGHT VISION binoculars!)

I went into to work late this morning to catch this Auction as this facility normally has good quality units without to many people. Well approx. 35 bidders 12 regulars and you guessed it prices were high.

11 units total, first unit a 5x5 just had stuff on the floor nothing stacked and really nothing of interest, but 2 noobies went head to head and it went for $65.00. Those of us that regularly go to this facility looked at one another a shook our heads as we knew how the day was going to go.

All in all most units went over priced with only one of us regulars buying a unit and @ $875.00 it wasn't a bad purchase as it had mostly High End wood furniture and expensive lamps,  as well as nice wood bedroom set in this 20 x 20.

The $65 unit was the low and and a unit that went for $900 was the High this one was a bidding war between 4 noobies going up $10 increments, wow we were wondering in this one was ever going to end. This unit had mostly bags of clothes and household items with nothing looking too good.

All in All things haven't changed to much as far as crowds and high prices.

Went to 1 of 2 Public Storage auctions today. First one I often don't go to because of its location and clientel.

Second one only had 4 and none were special. One 10 x 15 about 1/3 full looked ok and went for $125. I paid back a favor and didn't bid against the regular who got it.

Another regular got a couple for $35 each.

Only 12 bidders there...guess others were out of town. Too bad the lkrs weren't better !

Went to 4 of 5 available auctions today by two auctioneers (time frame conflicts didn't help much).

Didn't bid on a single lkr. Most were junk; a couple of 10 x 10s that were OK, but nothing special.

One place listed 8 lkrs in the legal notice but had 14    It ws easy to see which of the 6 were put together by management...super deluxe junk, but they sold to newbies for $35 to $100, so saved the mgrs the trouble of going to the dump !

At an other place a 10 x 10 had nicely labeled boxes (towels, blankets, dishes) and about 20 boxes. I would have paid $100 just for kicks, but two newbies standing next to each other got into a bidding war and one got it for $300. Ah, the surprises that are in store for that lucky guy!

At another place they had 4. One of them I recognized as having been sold the last time out (3 months ago). I asked the auctioneer (in private) and he said the former buyer had taken what they wanted and left the rest. This time the leftovers went for $100 plus making (again) the property manager happy, but what will the new lkr buy do with those 3 tvs in particle board  console cabinets.?

The crowds small (15 to 20) with 15 to 18 being BRAND NEW FACES.

Last auction  had a big crowd for 7 lkrs and I didn't go.   Oh well, another day.

Went to my first weekend auction today, 50+ people. Never like that on the weekdays. 10 units up for sell, cheapest went for 50, top 650. The top unit had alot of nice clothes and over-all a really clean unit. Looked like a soldiers who got deployed and didnt keep up with the rent.

Went to my first weekend auction today, 50+ people. Never like that on the weekdays. 10 units up for sell, cheapest went for 50, top 650. The top unit had alot of nice clothes and over-all a really clean unit. Looked like a soldiers who got deployed and didnt keep up with the rent.

Doors and sky look the same as here; so does the crowd !

Only difference is the gravel instead of concrete. 

Doors and sky look the same as here; so does the crowd !

Only difference is the gravel instead of concrete. 

Heh, yea I noticed that too. This was one of those mom and pop storage. On Tuesday we have a company (American Flag Storage) that has 10 or so facilities across town. All day auction baby!

It looks like the euphoria from the TV shows might be fading in my area. The auctions yesterday were mostly regulars, and new regulars (if there is such a term) and a few newbies. None of the newbies seemed to bid on anything. Prices still seemed to be just a little to high. I would like to see them come down by another 20%, but that might be too optimistic. I won 2 units and I am pretty happy with the amount I spent on them (compared to what some of the other units sold for that day).

On a side note. I told a friend (not close) that my wife and I were doing storage auctions, and told him about some of my better finds, of course I cleary mentioned all the hard work, garbage, rat poop, etc. involved as well, but he is determined to get into the business now and is going to the auctions next week. Me and my BIG mouth!!

Here's a quote from member gapajeff who is in Pennsylvania:

"I've from South Central PA and things are pretty hectic here. Around the small towns its mostly regulars and 2 to 3 newbies. But when I get close to Harrisburg, or Baltimore MD, the attendance goes from 15 people, to around 150 people. Anything looking better in other parts of PA or MD?"

Went to a local one with 3 units up for auction. Usually around 10 or 15 people at this location. Today was about 25 with a lot of new faces. Prices were a little on the high end. Although a full unit full of what looked like kids toys went for $60. The surprising one was a HUGE unit that  had 3 air conditioners, a beat up chest freezer, a TV, a broken dresser, about 3 boxes and what looked like 30 quarts of oil. It went for $250 to a newbie. A little high if you ask me.

I've been going to storage auctions in this area for 7 years now and its really surprising that amount of new faces I see each time. They buy 2 or 3, and are never seen again.