Storage Auctions
The Storage Locker => Stories about Storage Auctions => Topic started by: zbert2131 on May 26, 2011, 01:04:11 PM
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Everyone likes to talk about their best finds and best units. I think it would be fun to hear about everyone's worst units.
I have gotten about 11 units total. My worst so far would have to be a pretty empty unit I got for 70$. I told myself I would stop at 50$ but ended up winning it at 70$. With gas, the unit ended up being 90 bucks, drove around to a handful of auctions that day.
There unit was pretty empty, but the main things were 3 nice faux trees/plants, two 24 inch old crap TVs, the backseat of a car (that **** sucked, moved by myself), a crappy end cabinet thing I ended up trashing, rotating fan, and about 5 plastic bins. It also had a 3 piece luggage set that is old but in good shape.
I was figuring I would get something out of the bins. They all ended up being empty except for 1. That had an oil filled electric radiator and some crib bedding.
I sold the plants for 35$, fan for 5$.
I am hoping to get at least 60-70$ for what I have left, so looking at 100-110$ range.
That will still put me up about 10-20$, so at least not a loss, but I spent the whole day going to auctions/cleaning it out/garbage run. I am sure I will have worse than this at some point and am glad about this being my worse so far.
I did get 4 big plastic containers though, and those are always good to have with storing things for the flea market, etc.
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You can never get enough totes/bins.
I have over the years gotten close to 300 totes/bins of different kinds and sizes. Kept about half of it my self, and sold the rest of them.
But now i am need of more, so every time i get totes i keep them.
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Mt worst unit, that is easy.
I bought a unit for a little over $300. It looked great from the outside. Full of furniture and neatly stacked boxes, and like 2 trash bags. Problem was after I started cleaning out the unit, I realized I should have never bought this one. All the boxes and trash bags had nothing but personals and trash, literally trash, apparently this guy didnt believe in taking his stuff out the trash. Then there is the furniture, everything is broken or in some other form or fashion unsellable. I did manage to make $200 back, so I was only down $100 or so. Sold two TVs for $50 each, held on to them what seemed like forever. Then one of the pieces of furniture was a broken solid wood entertainment center. I actually cut it down and restained it turning it into a coffee table which I sold for $100 afterwards.
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You can never get enough totes/bins.
I have over the years gotten close to 300 totes/bins of different kinds and sizes. Kept about half of it my self, and sold the rest of them.
But now i am need of more, so every time i get totes i keep them.
You should have told me today... I'd sell you as many as you want... for a good price of course ;D
I've had a couple really bad units. Picked up one for $300 or so that had a lot of boxes, misc appliances, suitcases, etc. Well, apparently this tenant was storing his/her Y2K survival goods. Every box and bucket was filled with canned food, sugar, beans, etc. All of it was dated 1999.
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I bought a 10 X 30 that looked ugly for $40. Turned out to be someones dump. Worse thing was it had flooded and about half the 20 matrresses were wet. Spent $200 at the dump got nothing back. I think it was another locker bidder getting the $1 move in special then loading it up with trash. I found boxes with floorsweepeing including cut locks and personels from about 4 different people.
Thats not the only locker I have lost money on but it sticks out as the most work expended in cleaning out a unit and getting nothing.
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I just bought one the other day. With no truck ::) 10x30 by about 5-6' high. A really old unit (and 1/4" dirt on every thing) that appears to have been a hoarder handyman. $670 and even though the public storage auctioneer said $1 dollar special for the month- noone told me there has to be more than one available. $522 for the month. I loaded a 14' uhaul- looks like I need 3 or more. Now I will admit I might make my money back. An old "california land surfer" skateboard, a skeleton arm and leg, some old frames etc. But the actual coup de foi gras might be a small stack of movie b/w pics from a studio photographer named Louis Goldman. They stink, but still seem to be in great shape.
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I just bought one the other day. With no truck ::) 10x30 by about 5-6' high. A really old unit (and 1/4" dirt on every thing) that appears to have been a hoarder handyman. $670 and even though the public storage auctioneer said $1 dollar special for the month- noone told me there has to be more than one available. $522 for the month. I loaded a 14' uhaul- looks like I need 3 or more. Now I will admit I might make my money back. An old "california land surfer" skateboard, a skeleton arm and leg, some old frames etc. But the actual coup de foi gras might be a small stack of movie b/w pics from a studio photographer named Louis Goldman. They stink, but still seem to be in great shape.
I'm confused about several things even though I read your post several times.
1) They told the crowd about the $1 special, but none were available (or only 1 was)?
2) A 10 x 30 there rents for $522 a month? Whoa ! One that size would rent for about $220 or so in my area.
3) You loaded a 14' Uhaul and need 3 more....is that 4 "loads" you're taking? And where is it all going?
May be some value in those old b/w stills if you can identify any of the "stars".
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Hi Movieman-I confuse easily :P I mean I get confused easily :D I have gotten units from public storge and rented them for $1+ fees. But in my town this was the only big one. I tried calling someone higher up the chain @ public storage- no return on my phone calls. There are other $1 available at this location, but smaller and indoors. Well the first truck will be hopefully dumped tomorrow. Realisticly, 2 more dump loads and maybe a good vanload of auction stuff. Quite a few from "deathtrap", 1 or 2 of the following- john wayne, paul newman, federico fellini, and one pic with 3 actresses; one being sharon tate. If I get motivated- I'll try to put up a few pics in a couple of days.
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Thanks for the clarification....dump runs...gotta hate 'em.
Was the 10 x 30 lkr $550 to rent ? Seems high.
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Happy 4th to everyone! I took a couple of pics- the unit is after the first load is on the truck. Behind the mattress on the truck is about 100 liquor boxes full of garbage. Most of the photos have the title of the movie, subject name, and the stamp of the photographer.
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y284/elvisluvs/storage%20situation/storage007.jpg)
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y284/elvisluvs/storage%20situation/storage002.jpg)
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y284/elvisluvs/storage%20situation/storage004.jpg)
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y284/elvisluvs/storage%20situation/storage005.jpg)
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Happy 4th of July to you too !
(http://webs.lanset.com/rjsmovie/images/fireworks.gif)
I used to buy this kind of lkr.
Photos have possibilities and would have been GREAT possibilities had they been autographed.
100 liquor boxes of garbage...........whoops!
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Elvisluvs....
Check out this link; scroll down about 4 inches and you'll see the filmography of this still photographer.
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0325837/
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Wow!!!
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He seems to be a pretty big deal-movieman-thanks. A couple of updates. Yesterday my find of the day was a ww2 german helmet. I probably mentioned it (do not know if real or not) I had found a skeleton arm and leg, then found the skull. I rented another 14' uhaul yesterday. I just about croaked loading the truck today from the heat. I had a buddy take a van load of metal today. I have about 8-10 feet to go. There are several big furniture pieces in the mix. Btw-there is this long piece 12' of boat wood/ driftwood . Has anyone had any luck selling an item like that? I was thinking of cutting it in half, just to handle it easier. Good or bad idea? I also called the public storage 1 800 # this morning. I told the lady I spoke to the auctioneer( no help), no call back from the next level up. She gave me the number for the next guy up- called him this morning. As of this morning the $1 special is available on this size >:(. To the dump...
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He seems to be a pretty big deal-movieman-thanks.
Elvisluvs.....send me a pm telling me how many photos you have, actors in pics (if possible) and condition they are in (you mentioned they smelled I think) etc. I am a big movie fan and might be interested in buying them if the price was right.
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Btw-there is this long piece 12' of boat wood/ driftwood . Has anyone had any luck selling an item like that? I was thinking of cutting it in half, just to handle it easier. Good or bad idea?
On this, there are buyers out there for this type of stuff, it is just finding them, and I would have no idea what to charge for it. But people that would be interested,
Artist
Home Designers
Possible a museum (if you can link it to something of importance and significant)
some one that collects ocean type things, boat collectors, drift wood itself, etc.
I do not think it would be any harm to cutting it in half unless there is some importance to the piece you have, then it would decrease the value tremendously.
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Happy 4th to everyone! I took a couple of pics- the unit is after the first load is on the truck. Behind the mattress on the truck is about 100 liquor boxes full of garbage. Most of the photos have the title of the movie, subject name, and the stamp of the photographer.
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y284/elvisluvs/storage%20situation/storage007.jpg)
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y284/elvisluvs/storage%20situation/storage002.jpg)
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y284/elvisluvs/storage%20situation/storage004.jpg)
(http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y284/elvisluvs/storage%20situation/storage005.jpg)
Looks like the kind of unit I like. Lots of junk, was there a guitar in the case? Those pictures should get you your money back I would think they may not pay the dump fees as well but I bet that you make money on the unit.
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I finally got done looking through everything. The last oddball items were a heavy old wagon wheel, and what looks like a carved totem pole table lamp - about 2' tall. Not the worst unit, definately the worst effort/ time/ cost unit .
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Congrats on being done.Next one will be AWESOME!!!
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Just looking MB :o :D Thanks for the encouragement! I might have mentioned my cousin might be picking up and auctioning off most items. After that it's probably half of a truck dump run.
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My cousin filled a 14' truck today- about 2/3 to auction, 1/3 garbage. He thought there weren't any big money items, but a lot of $20-50 range items. The skull was plastic. There was a duck lamp that he smashed and removed the duck. He said the duck was vintge and used, and thought it had some potential. A van load of garbage left ;D...
ps-if anyone is interested, I will give you a heads up when the pics of the auction items are listed on auctionzip-m
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If anyone is interested - search dealer # 2736 at auctionzip.com Next week's auction; the guns, jewelry, coins, nice clocks etc are not mine :P My junk is the rustic bench and table, the duck, and about the last 10 pics. ::) :) Thanks-m
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The good , the bad, and the ugly. My total cost was about $1800. The large bulk of auction items brought in a bit over 1100. A few other pieces at another auction brought in 200+. Loser ::) The good was a friend helped me dump a couple trucks for free. The ugly was how public storage acted quite poorly to me. I have called the district and regional managers, with no luck of them honoring the $1 special they announced at the auction. The auctual cost of the one month bill was $520. Not the first ps unit I bought, and I have taken advantage of the special in the past. My worst unit :-\
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$ 520. ? All I can say is WOW , here in Mass. at Public Storage a 10 X 30 9.5 RV unit is $ 322. a month . Where I rent for a 10 X 30 x 10 High alarmed unit w/ lights and elect. and 24/7 access ,it is $ 229. on sale @ $ 199. , but I am "Grandfathered " in at a Lot less , as I was one of the first tenants .
Bandit