What's your worst score ?

This has been done before, but here it is again just like the "What's your best score?" has been done before.

I've bought enough lockers that the details start to blur except for the super ones, but I do remember early on (nine years ago) I bought a 5 x 10 with all boxes and what looked like a massage table. Those tables usually go for around $200 plus depending on model, condition, etc and I was happy to pay $240 for the locker.

Boxes were all clothes (and not good ones) and the massage table was just one of those fold out beds (like for camping, 3 fold types that sell for about $50 or so).

I think I lost $200 on that locker as I donated most of it not wanting to deal with "Ropa, Ropa, Ropa !"

To me the worst score is not showing up for an auction. I never seem to make any money when that happens.

Hard to say. I've definitely bought units I have over valued, but there really isn't one that is head and shoulders worse then the others. Some of the top worse buys I can think of are...

A 10 x 20 I paid $700, only made about $450 back.
A 10 x 10 I paid $225, only made about $100 back.
A 10 x 10 I paid $80, only made about $40 back.
A 10 x 10 FREE, spent 1 hour cleaning it out, 5 large bags of garbage, made about $10.
A 10 x 10 I paid $5, two bags of ruined clothes, made $0.

I paid $650 for a unit with 2 safes visible from the door. The rest of the 10X30 was filled with black trash bags, filing cabinets and desks. Turned out to be a paper hoarder's unit. Every trash bag (over 60) was filled with crumpled paper and fast food bags. Every filing cabinet filled with paper,(not even organized papers). Open the desk drawers...more papers, wrappers, newspaper circulars, etc. Took the safes to a locksmith and had them opened. And guess what was inside? More paper.

For me it was my one and only "big" unit that I purchased and took a huge bath on.  Was a 10 x 20 or maybe even larger.  Had doors on both ends, lights, etc.  Had a nice radio, table saw, pipes, boards, bamboo dresser, another dresser, cool looking chest, etc.  Was heavy on the "tools" and looked like a handyman unit.  Silent bid auction.  Didn't listen to my first gut instinct and upped my bid by $300.  So I won the unit by $247 bucks or something like that.  All of the cords were cut or frayed to ribbons.  The large air compressor was bloth.  The bamboo dresser was nice on the end facing the door.  Other side was ripped at the top, and a cracked leg to boot.  In all I took a $700 something bath.  Didn't recover from that loss until late Jan of this year.

Other then that one big loss I've had a few break-even and $50-$100 loss units.  Most of the time those are on what I call "gamble" trash units that may result in some nice finds or a few loads to the dump and are expected.

ive had several where ive thrown pretty much everything away but the flat out worst one i ever got was a 10x10 loaded about 8 feet high through the whole unit, the unit looked nice to me there were cases of food (new and canned) up front
there was a milwalkee circular saw showing, boxes and boxes of books a couch etc it looked pretty good
well i won it for around $100 and proceeded to rent it ( another $50 public storage rental) and finished the rest of the 2 day auction circuit
well later the next day i find out whos room it was and its someone i know from my flea market , the guy who goes arounf at the end of the day and picks up the stuff no one wants to carry home

the food was expired , the books were romance novels the tools didnt work , 6 matresses in the back where they couldnt be seen
it took me the better part of a week to throw everything out and cost another 150 or so in dumping fees
the real kick in the ass was when i looked through one of the several boxes of christmas stuff and realized that one full box of it was stuff i gave him the previous december (bought the unit in february)

when i have bad thoughts about units this one always pops into my head first and foremost

Well I have lost more money on a locker then this one but my worst was a 10X40.  Turned out to be someones dump.  They were buying lockers and throwing the crap in this one.  Paid $40 took me a whole day to clean out there were 20 mattresses and I only saw about half of them when bidding.  I got nothing out of it not even any scrap cords were cut on the few lamps in it. I found personals from 4 different lockers and cut locks as well. To put the icing on the cake the locker had flooded and some of the mattresses were wet as were some bags of clothes.  Cost only $200 at the dump but a whole day wasted.  I have lost $400 or $500 on a locker before but I still consider that one my worst not a thing worth keeping at all.

I almost bought a locker like that. A packed 10X40 packed with questionable items. Nobody bid on it so I said $5. The auctioneer said Travis, I'm not going to accept that bid. I don't want to have to bar you from future auctions when you don't clean out this unit. I thought about and he was right, it would have been a total nightmare.

I bought a 10x12 packed completely full all the way to the ceiling in a city that's right on the cuff for as far as I like to travel for auctions, so it was already a risk.  It was one of those corner units where they open the door and all you can see is a wall of boxes and other goods.  What caught my eye was that it looked to be professionally packaged and there was also some interesting crates nailed shut on the bottom.

It turns out that it was indeed professionally packaged, but the goods inside the boxes were not even worth donating they were so dirty.  On top of being heavy smokers, the owners appeared to have never washed any of their clothes.  They were also hoarders of small worthless items such as bottle caps, plastic pieces, pins, fortune cookie papers, and many more I can't remember.  Every piece of furniture, toys, and household goods appears to have been drug through the mud and were broken.  I also found a vintage glass display case and thought that I might have something, only to find rat and bird bones inside (freaks).  The crates that caught my eye were full of outdated electronics from the mid 90's. 

I donated only a few items and took at least 4 loads to the dump.  With some "creative" accounting I'll barely break even.  When all was said and done I didn't really lose my shirt but when you factor in the time spent going through the stinky mess, trips to the dump, and box after box of nasty clothes it will be one I soon won't forget. 

What's my worst score? A coffee can that some contractor used as a toilet.

 

What's my worst score? A coffee can that some contractor used as a toilet.

Worst hands down for me was the tweeker unit with broken needles all over the place and a bottle of druggy pee that spilled on me.  I am fairly certain most of that went to the dump and the few things we took out weren't enough to break even financially.  Even if they were, that was the worst experience.

Yeah, there is just something about urine being spilled on me that ruins my day as well. 

Wow....this place looks quite different than the last time I was here.....oh well......

Worst score....have had quite a few in the past few months, but for me.....our first safe.  Picked it up (obviously small safe here), shook it, heard heavy items.....thought....finally!

Got it home, cracked that mother and it was full of.....................
adult devices* (Censored for Google, they don't like that word  ).  I kid you not.  I understand the 'why', but dang was I disappointed.  Kinda sums up our locker buying of late.

I've been working on a new website (Minnesota Vikings~hey....we don't stink anymore!!) and home-schooling and it's eaten up all my free-time, but I'll try to check in occasionally as I miss some of yous guys and gals~

Rockin...be sure to post a link to your new site when its ready.