Storage Auctions
The Storage Locker => Stories about Storage Auctions => Topic started by: MovieMan on September 02, 2011, 02:43:05 PM
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Welcome to September, 2011 as we continue our watch on units, prices and buyers (or non-buyers).
Today I went to the one auction available; 4 units advertised. I think they had 3 when done.
First one a 5 x 10 I would have paid $100 for and that's what he started it at. I hate it when the auctioneers say,
"I know it's going to get to that" and in fact it might, but with a bunch of newbies in the crowd of 25, one of them is bound to say "yep" and then another will go to $125 or such. Ended up selling for $475 I think. Better their money than mine.
Later I talked to the fellow who stopped at $450 and I asked how many lkrs he had bought. "One" came the non-surprising reply. He and wife arrived in a 24 foot motorhome of all things.
When I told him the $475 lkr would have sold for a max of $150 or so 10 months ago before Storage Wars, he smiled from ear-to-ear and PROUDLY told me that's where they learned about the auctions.
Oh, my !
On to the next one which was a 10 x 15 I think, piled high with crappy looking boxes; maybe 10 of them were largely lettered with the name of a local retail store from which they had somehow been obtained. Sucker went for $1200 I think and Mr. plaid pants will get a valuable economics lesson there. I thought my friend was just bidding him up, but when we moved on to the next same sized lkr my friend took him for a ride again, but my friend got it and he claimed he wanted it. It was equally junky...cost was $1K I think.
Have to mention that any of us who had half a brain knew the 2nd lkr was same owner as first because of same boxes in #2, but he auctioneer who is dumb-a** of the highest order (and wife a close second) said no it's two separate owners. Didn't take 10 seconds for others in the group to set this a**hole straight. What an idiot!
Needless to say, not an auspicious start to the month, but I got a good one recently so can't complain.
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These mistakes will scare people away, but unfortunately new ones will come next time lol. If I had learned about storage auctions from a tv show, I wouldn't dare share that info.
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ROFL - some of ya'll just have all the luck.....NOT. Who the heck would come to an auction in a RV. Seriously get a clue. Only a few Saturday auctions about an hour or so away from me so not going to attend. Kids soccer practice trumps auctions :(
Next week looks better. Have U-haul on friday and a 30 locker caravan on Thursday. Decided to take day off thursday so can hit all of the units. Was just listed on the 1st so hopefully not too many get pulled. U-haul I'll have to try and hit at lunch if they are done with the first facility on time or not early and I miss it. Will try and get more pictures from the caravan.
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Went to a rare Saturday auction this morning.......what a joke! The manager of this facility was using one of the local auctioneers, but after the last auction (a year ago!) he told me he was going to conduct future auctions himself. He took my name and number back then and he said when he had an auction, he was just going to call up three or four of us that have bought in the past and have a small auction.
Fast forward to the other day, and he calls me up and says he's having his first auction today at 10:00 am. I was thinking to myself that this could be awesome, me and maybe three other guys, and a chance to get a good unit at a decent price!
Alas, it was not to be. Instead of the nice, almost private auction I was expecting, it was like walking into a circus! He had called a bunch of people and posted the auction time and day on the facility's reader board. He was charging a one dollar sign in to get a bidder number and handing out donuts! Nice! Out of about 45 bidders that showed, I recognized four. Once the bidding started, there were three different bidders (all noobies) trying to impress everybody with their best Dave Hester bidding impression. Total CRAP units went for STUPID money. What a bunch of FUC*ING MORONS!
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Teacher....
Yikes ! Just reading your post was disturbing let alone experiencing that auction. The Hester impersonators is a good example of where the business has gone. As often as not an auction turns into a joke.
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Went to a rare Saturday auction this morning.......what a joke! The manager of this facility was using one of the local auctioneers, but after the last auction (a year ago!) he told me he was going to conduct future auctions himself. He took my name and number back then and he said when he had an auction, he was just going to call up three or four of us that have bought in the past and have a small auction.
Fast forward to the other day, and he calls me up and says he's having his first auction today at 10:00 am. I was thinking to myself that this could be awesome, me and maybe three other guys, and a chance to get a good unit at a decent price!
Alas, it was not to be. Instead of the nice, almost private auction I was expecting, it was like walking into a circus! He had called a bunch of people and posted the auction time and day on the facility's reader board. He was charging a one dollar sign in to get a bidder number and handing out donuts! Nice! Out of about 45 bidders that showed, I recognized four. Once the bidding started, there were three different bidders (all noobies) trying to impress everybody with their best Dave Hester bidding impression. Total CRAP units went for STUPID money. What a bunch of FUC*ING MORONS!
Is this the first time you have ever heard of an owner charging for admission into an auction? Cause I have never heard or seen this. The doughnuts sound like a nice touch and really balance out the admission fee is you could snag 2 doughnuts and the prop manager had coffee out. Charging money may actually drive away lookey loos if you think about it.
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Is this the first time you have ever heard of an owner charging for admission into an auction? Cause I have never heard or seen this. The doughnuts sound like a nice touch and really balance out the admission fee is you could snag 2 doughnuts and the prop manager had coffee out. Charging money may actually drive away lookey loos if you think about it.
That's what I was thinking as well. But what auctioneer would want to do that? More people mean the newb's will jack up their bids because they'll want to 'intimidate' their competition. (Which is sad to know they'll pay over market for someone's stuff, just so they can feel big...all the way to the dump.)
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I didn't see a single person turn away and leave because of the dollar. A lot of people made jokes about it, but they all paid.
I only got one donut, so I guess my admission was only .50? ;D
There is an auctioneer up here that charges everybody a dollar to get a bid card. He's been doing it for years, and he still gets pretty large crowds.
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That's what I was thinking as well. But what auctioneer would want to do that? More people mean the newb's will jack up their bids because they'll want to 'intimidate' their competition. (Which is sad to know they'll pay over market for someone's stuff, just so they can feel big...all the way to the dump.)
No No man, I wasn't saying drive away bidders, bidders(even bad ones) will pay cash to bid, lookey loos, well I'd imagine thats a different story.
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No No man, I wasn't saying drive away bidders, bidders(even bad ones) will pay cash to bid, lookey loos, well I'd imagine thats a different story.
I wasn't meaning it would drive away bidders unless they had some ridiculous fee for it. Personally, I wish they'd charge ten bucks (depending on number of units) just so the lookers would go watch a ****ing movie instead.
I'd shuck out ten bucks, and every serious bidder out there would, but the ones that wanted to 'watch storage wars live', would go home or go to the theater.
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I don't mind lookey loos as much as i do newb bidders that just want to buy something regardless of the cost. Those people are dangerous.
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I don't mind lookey loos as much as i do newb bidders that just want to buy something regardless of the cost. Those people are dangerous.
The newbs will either learn or go broke. What pisses me off about the lookers is when there's a ton of them and they want to gawk at the locker's contents, when they're not even going to be risking their money, and then they seem to want to just stand around in front of the locker.
Let the bidders get the look to see. They're the ones buying it.
Especially when (as the last auction I was at) there were over sixty people at the unit auctions, and less than ten of us were bidding. It took several minutes to even get a glimpse into the locker.
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I didn't see a single person turn away and leave because of the dollar. A lot of people made jokes about it, but they all paid.
I only got one donut, so I guess my admission was only .50? ;D
There is an auctioneer up here that charges everybody a dollar to get a bid card. He's been doing it for years, and he still gets pretty large crowds.
Next time get three donuts and make .50 back ;)
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Next time get three donuts and make .50 back ;)
Return on Investment! ;D
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I"m gonna need about 200 donuts to fill up the tank in my F350 Crew Cab Diesel though!
I don't mind all the lookers at the auctions, except that it makes a 20 minute auction take and hour and a half while everybody ambles by the door. Makes for a long and boring day when you are on a multiple facility run!
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9-8 I attended a 7 facility caravan. Was 30 units in paper up for auction. Think it got down to about 25 or so. The morning started off like normal with most of the regulars, a few regulars from the next major city over, and a few of us hobbiest. Next site saw more people that I didn't recognize but that was due to the resteraunt equipment 4 different people came for. After that place all the newbie's showed up. So we went from about 15-20 people to close to 30-35 by noon. A few of the regulars bowed out at this point due to getting lunch, one already had 5 lockers, etc. By the end of the day it was about 20 of us again. With 1 local regular, 2 next city regulars, 4 of us hobbiest, and the rest new people. One doctor even had his son out there (home schooled) that I thought the auctioneer was going to punt into a locker and lock it. Will post a longer thread on all the unit prices, a few pictures, the 2 lockers I purchased and pictures.
U-haul 2 facility this morning. Will let you know how those crowds are.
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I"m gonna need about 200 donuts to fill up the tank in my F350 Crew Cab Diesel though!
I don't mind all the lookers at the auctions, except that it makes a 20 minute auction take and hour and a half while everybody ambles by the door. Makes for a long and boring day when you are on a multiple facility run!
I like this only when I want to make a auction and I am stuck somewhere until a certain time.
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Posting this at 9:30 p.m. Tuesday, 9 13 2011 at about one week after forum started SLOWING DOWN badly.
This is actually my 3rd post today and feels like a miracle !
*******
Got a 5 x 10 lkr yesterday for $350 based on seeing one piece of DJ equipment (a nice mixer) and it's paying off with the spkrs being there, spkr stands in a new nylon case, another piece of dj equipment (a control panel for pedals) and a couple of boxes I can't get to yet that hopefully will have some dj pedals.
Also a stove, air-conditioner, an African Drum and.....drum roll....an African Blow Gun. I actually saw an African blow gun and spear on eBay, so I guess all weapons aren't forbidden there.
Crowd was decent...about 20 with most being regulars (we almost knew everyone). Heard about another earlier auction that had 60 people; the smaller number definitely helps and there is a certain amount of courtesy to not hogging every lkr that comes up. I do that for people and they for me; of course if it's a DYNAMITE lkr, all friendships go out the window to get "the prize". ;D
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Here are a couple of more items I got in the $350 lkr mentioned above:
Aside from the Perego strollers, these Jeep Branded strollers do well too.
(http://webs.lanset.com/rjsmovie/images/jwh1.jpg)
Inversion below sells for $100 plus at retail.
(http://webs.lanset.com/rjsmovie/images/inh1.jpg)
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What ever good luck penny, rabbit foot, or what not you have Movieman can I borrow it for next week?
Friday the 9th I went to the 2 facility U-haul auction. First place ended up only selling 1 locker but it went for $500 or $525. It was a 5 or 10 X 30 and packed. We couldn't see to the back. Did I mention old? The unit looked like it hadn't been touched in years. Lots of cobwebs and dust.
The downtown facility had 6 units up for sale. This is right around from my work so I'll hit it every time it comes up. However, I also now know why only a few regulars come down here. The units are mostly crap. Most of the furniture was eaten by rats. One unit even had a dead rat inside it. Of the six units up for sale I bid on only one that had a nice mountain bike in it. The unit sold for $160 as I stopped at $150. Just wasn't worth any more then that IMO.
The crowd was light - about a dozen people. There were a few more at the first facility but all told, less then 20 people.
Have a auction thursday and friday but I'm going to miss them I suspect due to work. Monday is my 3 caravan auction after work that saw some decent units last month. Will let ya know.
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What ever good luck penny, rabbit foot, or what not you have Movieman can I borrow it for next week?
Well you got the LUCK part of the equation correct. The New In Box Inversion Table wasn't visible at all by any of us, so just DUMB LUCK it was in there.
The Mixer was the key thing I saw plus a bag that I thought was a muscial instrument (very clean bag) turned out to be the speaker stands inside....but nice anyway. One of the guys thought that bag was a canopy in a bag. Speakers were also completely hidden. The pedal controller was somewhat visible...the bag that is, so I was counting on all that stuff.
Usual crap as well, but only a couple of boxes as the other items took up most of the space.
So, two good lockers about 3 weeks apart....means I either won't get any good ones for awhile and therefore may not get ANY for awhile as I am better and better at resisting just buying for buying sake.
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What pisses me off about the lookers is when there's a ton of them and they want to gawk at the locker's contents, when they're not even going to be risking their money, and then they seem to want to just stand around in front of the locker.
Let the bidders get the look to see. They're the ones buying it.
Especially when (as the last auction I was at) there were over sixty people at the unit auctions, and less than ten of us were bidding. It took several minutes to even get a glimpse into the locker.
I have a very low tolerance for idiots and almost no patience in general (bad combo, yes?). I'd probably lose it with people like that in probably 2 minutes (and that's just being optimistic).
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I have a very low tolerance for idiots and almost no patience in general (bad combo, yes?). I'd probably lose it with people like that in probably 2 minutes (and that's just being optimistic).
Although I am a newbie to the auctions, having gotten away from it for years, one thing I did enjoy on my last 'caravan' was one jackass kept bidding on every locker, jacking the price up. He didn't win any, but on the second to the last stop (after he'd already bid up where I dropped on a couple of lockers I liked) one of the old hands changed his bidding habits to the 'gold mine' routine, where he was bidding as fast as jackass raised him...then, rather than hesitating (I had no idea what he was bidding on. He was already two or three hundred beyond what I would have optimistically paid for it), he simply stopped bidding.
Jackass had the high bid (about 800 bucks), and this stunned expression. You could tell he'd been doing the bidding just to play Dave Hester and screw people out of their money.
The old timer just walked by him after the auctioneer called 'sold' and pointed at him, and he simply said 'you **** people, you get ****ed. Bid if your serious. Otherwise watch your goddamned tv show and play the lottery.'
I thought that was brilliant. The jackass just disappeared after that.
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Jackass had the high bid (about 800 bucks), and this stunned expression. You could tell he'd been doing the bidding just to play Dave Hester and screw people out of their money.
The old timer just walked by him after the auctioneer called 'sold' and pointed at him, and he simply said 'you **** people, you get ****ed. Bid if your serious. Otherwise watch your goddamned tv show and play the lottery.' I thought that was brilliant. The jackass just disappeared after that.
And THAT is justice ! Great story.
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Oh man - I would of laughed my butt off. Wonder if he paid up or just walked away from it all.
Didn't get to hit the auctions today as helped parents with the case-lot-sale. My nice 3 facility caravan Monday so will let ya'll know how that goes tuesday.
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Well monday has come and we are done. Once again the crowd was decent, but on small size. About 20 people max for the three facilities. Prices also were reasonable. Most units were under $200. Had a few $10 units and such. Most expensive was an aged 10X20 packed to the rafters. I have a picture of it if anyone wants me to post it. This unit sold for $390.
Daughter and I purchased two units. One for $35 and another for $220. Sold the particle board furniture and a few other heavy furniture items to one of the other bidders for $50. He can make money on it and is why he was bidding on the unit. I don't like to mess with furniture so it's a win-win.
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went to a caravan on Tuesday with 5 facilities. Around 30 some units. Between 25 and 25 people per location. Prices were decent with 2 going really high. A newbie was bidding on those. I ended up getting one for $17 (nobody wanted it because it looked like all office paper) and one for $50.
I knew there was money to be made on the $17 one when I saw totes and boxes full of college textbooks. Already tripled my money on them and still have a ton to go. Found a box full of playboys as well which I sold for $1 a piece to a guy at work.
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The old timer just walked by him after the auctioneer called 'sold' and pointed at him, and he simply said 'you **** people, you get ****ed. Bid if your serious. Otherwise watch your goddamned tv show and play the lottery"
I lol'ed
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Have two auctions today, the next one is not for a couple hours but here's how the first one looked. (13 units up for auction)
(http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc491/Enticingbiter/auctionpeeps.jpg)
I 'won' a unit for $25, but after the auctioneer saw no one else was bidding, he pulled the unit claiming he didnt want to sell it that low. I was PISSED. When I questioned him about it, he smiled like a jack ass and said he had the right to pull the bid. Myself and the regulars I talked to had never seen this happen before. Not that its really gonna hurt him or the storage company, but I gave him the finger and vowed to never return.
Here's for better luck at the next one.
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It rained so a ton of people come out of course. Sucks they didn't let you have the unit man. We have many units that go for less then $50 here. One of the two I purchased last week was only $35. Wish ya luck.
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I'm diggin the fat chick with the printed blouse and flip flops. Must be a die-hard auction goer.
I have seen units go for $1 by every auctioneer down here. They just want to get the units cleaned out. I would be pissed as well and would press the issue just to get him going. Ask for his license number and what not. May not do much, but if he thinks somebody may make some phone calls about it, he may change his mind next time.
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Yea after talking to an auctioneer friend of mine, he said the same thing about asking for his number. Anyways the 2nd auction had 7 units up, about 15 bidders. 5 were empty except for a few things, 2 were slam full "Mobile Attics" that went for 650+. Grabbed myself a cheap $20 empty room.
(http://i1214.photobucket.com/albums/cc491/Enticingbiter/TVUNIT.jpg)
Found a portable DVD player that works, to my surpise. Hoping thats a good sign for the TVs. Couple unopened things from walmart I took back for store credit.
Update: Got both TVs home, neither worked. I'll have fun destroying them cause what a pain in the ass moving the big one. 10 bucks for the headboard, 50 for the player so I'll make money, but at what cost?
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Update: Got both TVs home, neither worked. I'll have fun destroying them cause what a pain in the ass moving the big one.
In my area we have recycle places which PAY US for bringing in old tvs, computers, monitors. They pay 6 cents a pound. A 20 to 30 pound monitor brings in a few bucks. A big screen tv is also paid for by the pound despite the fact that most of it is particle board frame.
That's what I do with electronics like that. Busting them up for copper or "gold" is not for me.
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Had two large caravan runs on the same day last week. The regulars were going back and forth between the two trying to find a good deal. The one caravan averaged about 40-60 people per location. The other averaged about 70-100 people per location.
I got run up by newbies on 3 of the 4 units I won. Basically had to pay retail price. I can't say for sure if these units will be profitable. I am stuffed full of inventory now so that is a good thing.
The newbies that run me up looked to be first or second timers, I did not recognize them. I am pretty good with remembering faces, and I would have to say over the last 6 months the newbies who spent a lot of money on units 90% of them have not returned after that one big purchase.
The cycle continues, it looks to be for every newbie that gets burned and leaves, another one fills his place!
I can only think of 2 newbies who have showed up in the last 6 months in my area who have stuck it out and have become prolific winners of units. Thats 2 out of hundreds who have come out, so that shows you how difficult this business is.
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man I wish there was someone around here that would pay me to dump TVs/Monitors. Heck, even if they took them for free I'd be happy. You live in a prime spot movieman.
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man I wish there was someone around here that would pay me to dump TVs/Monitors. Heck, even if they took them for free I'd be happy. You live in a prime spot movieman.
Re recycle: Of late they upgraded the number you can bring in; I think you can recyle 5 tvs every 3 months now...that's an increase from before (don't remember just how many).
Re "prime spot"....we also have one of the highest rates of home foreclosures and small crime in the country ! ???
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Goodwill in King Co has a contract with the county to take ewaste. Just dropped 5 off this weekend, We take the copper out of the TVs and monitors before bringing them to Goodwill. Goodwill gets like $5 per set from the county. It keeps people from dumping them beside the road or at least someone will pick them up if they are dumped. If someone would pay 6 cents a pound for them It would be great I have gotten TVs that weighed a couple hundred pounds before. The big old Sony tube TVs several I have had to roll around cause we could not lift them. Most of the weight is the tube. BTW the tube is considered hazardous waste becasue of the Phosphor screen and the dumps will not take them. Rest of the set is not really hazardous. There are international treaties on shipping scrap CRTs since they are hazardous waste.
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Well did a quick 3 unit auction today. First unit was pretty nice and full. Was a 10x20 and sold for $300. I was interested in it but not with only 24 hours to clean it out. The other 10x20 was 3 couches, a bed, 4 kid/dog gates, and various eldery odds and ends. It went for $150. The last unit was a small 5x10 with crap tv, microwave, few junk end tables or something. It sold for $5. No one wanted the unit. Was only about 10 registered bidders today.
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Sounds a lot more "normal"
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Sounds a lot more "normal"
Still definitely not "normal" around these areas still....Probably 30-35 registered, but about 100 total today....still those few I guess like myself trying to get into the business. Only thing different is I'm not in a hurry like some of these guys getting run up by the regulars just to get themselves a unit!