Storage Auctions

My first unit(s)

My first unit(s)
« on: November 19, 2011, 05:43:02 AM »
Hi guys. Loving the forum.

I just started doing this after reselling via garage sale picking. I decided to get into something to get more bulk items and to fill in the slow days of the week when I dont have any garage sales to pick or items to get sold.

This was my second time attending an auction. The first one was kinda crummy except for one unit and I didn't feel up to blowing $1000 on a tool unit for my first time.

Long story short, I got a 7.5x10 full of furniture for $150 that is pretty much going to triple itself. (leather couch, stone coffee table, two piece old style dresser, matching night stand, metal tv stand with mounting kit and glass surfaces, and the ever lovely mattress set). I've gotta say I got lucky with the mattresses though. The queen mattress set has a memory foam pillow top and my mom is going to take that one for herself.

The second unit looked kinda like this :D (10x40 hoarder unit)



^^^ My mother going bonkers sifting through the treasures.

This facility had 7 auctions. Two were normal. The other five belonged to the same owner, a hoarder. After dealing with the other units, this was the last one and 80% of the people left when they saw it. I took it as a chance to get my feet wet and see what hard work is all about when it comes to this type of work.

I paid $120 for this unit. Luckily there are TONS of Christmas items. Ornaments, vintage wrapping paper, collectibles (cabbage patch kids, Lucy & Me Teddy Bears to name a few). A lot of glassware, good selling coffee mugs and pretty much anything 1950's to 1980's collectible type things with most of them in unopened condition or at least in the original box.

All in all, I think it worked out well. I'm estimating about $3000 out of the unit considering what we have found so far and what we've sold so quickly.

Now we have to get into getting it sold. Sorting through the boxes is fun, but high volume selling, especially ebay type things are not fun except for when they sell!

I got lucky. Now I'm dreading going out and doing it again and wondering when it is going to be "my time" to bomb out on a crappy unit :|

Take it easy!
Ryan

Offline MovieMan

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Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #1 on: November 19, 2011, 06:47:06 AM »
Your mom looks lost in that "cavern".  Looks like you'll both have fun and remember when you do score big like that ($3K) my estimate is that your next 49 lkrs will just be average !


Offline money4nothing

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Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #2 on: November 19, 2011, 08:27:25 AM »
That is a cavern..  :D...
Good price that would have gone for double or triple in my area.. Everyone looking for those gold bars...LOL

Great Job first time out... I don't think we have even seen a unit that size... Have only seen one or two
10 X 30's.
Welcome to the forum and keep us updated on the final count on this unit.

Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #3 on: November 19, 2011, 08:32:55 AM »
Yea looks like you guys were working in a mine shaft. Dont worry about 'bombing out', once you get enough experience its becomes less of a chance and more of a skill game.

Offline acman

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Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2011, 11:52:00 AM »
10x30's etc are the crazy ones.

I loved getting the one I got then reality set in when I realized that hey your not going to be moving all this product in one week and that your most likely going to be in the storage locker for at least a month. oddly enough my 10x30 has been a great teaching tool as to treat this as a business and get maximum value for my items well moving them quickly and that I really need to get a huge trailer or truck. I am realizing skimping on things in this business has it's drawbacks!

Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #5 on: November 19, 2011, 12:50:22 PM »
$120 for that - oh man you lucked out.  I'd of loved a unit like that.  Of course I'm in to smalls and such.  Figure around here that 10x30 would go for 200-300 easy.  Good hunting to you.

Offline jrossjr79

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Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #6 on: November 19, 2011, 04:06:09 PM »
$120 for that locker, wow. Where you located at, I am moving.

Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #7 on: November 19, 2011, 04:20:28 PM »
$120 for that - oh man you lucked out.  I'd of loved a unit like that.  Of course I'm in to smalls and such.  Figure around here that 10x30 would go for 200-300 easy.  Good hunting to you.
wow...$200-300 there, man a unit like that would fetch well over $1k here!

Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #8 on: November 19, 2011, 06:21:22 PM »
Thanks for all of the great responses guys. I feel even luckier knowing that you guys are reacting that way. We got a good first buy!

To be honest, I have been so excited, I have been up for 35 hours straight going through boxes and listing stuff on ebay. (I'm fairly young and a medic by trade so I'm a bit used to it).

I've been through endless boxes and found a lot of stuff but I wanted to share this one today.



I pulled this mantle clock out of the box unopened. Most of the stuff in this unit is from the late 70's to early 80's so I'm thinking this is the same, especially considering the type of font used in the manual. I cant identify it to save my life. Only thing it has is K & A on the face and everything I find on them are only wall pendulum clocks. Ah well.

I put it together and it works like a charm. I love the chime!

Not sure how much I can get out of it, but for now I am enjoying it with my mother.

I'll put up some other stuff later. We're rummaging through boxes right now :D


Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #9 on: November 19, 2011, 08:07:59 PM »
Congrats and good luck!!!

Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #10 on: November 20, 2011, 03:08:35 AM »
Well. I'm still up. TONS of coffee mug boxes to go through.

But I wanted to go back to something I found earlier today. Here is a video of it for reference:
[/b]

So, its a little toy musical guitar. Sounds like a music box when you move the lever to "play" the guitar.

Made by "Funny Toy" company and made in Macau.

I've researched Macau and I know a little bit about that, but I am curious about the history and background of the company that made it, as well as the date of manufacture.

If anyone has any answers, feel free to let me know. Here's a few pics too. Sorry, its nearly impossible to get good pics of the marks.







Offline MovieMan

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Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #11 on: November 20, 2011, 08:14:15 AM »
Well. I'm still up. TONS of coffee mug boxes to go through.

Well, maybe it's just me, but if you spend this much time (taking the photos of the "guitar" and I think even making and posting the youtube of it (your measuring tape?), then I think you may be overthinking the sales process.

If I had found this item I would have sold it for a $1 and been happy.  You must have tons of smalls in that locker and spending this kind of time on many of them seems counterproductive to me.

Of course if you just plain ENJOY IT that much, that's one thing, and maybe it's just beginner's enthusiasm at having all the goodies to work with in one way or another, but just seems overkill to me.

Coffee mugs? I can't give them away; maybe I'm not working hard enough at doing that...oh yeah, Goodwill will take them.

How many hours have you been up straight now...something like 36 or so.  What's the hurry? Get some sleep.




Offline jrossjr79

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Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #12 on: November 20, 2011, 11:57:39 AM »
Well, maybe it's just me, but if you spend this much time (taking the photos of the "guitar" and I think even making and posting the youtube of it (your measuring tape?), then I think you may be overthinking the sales process.

If I had found this item I would have sold it for a $1 and been happy.  You must have tons of smalls in that locker and spending this kind of time on many of them seems counterproductive to me.


This is not always true. Some things are worth a good researching over. This is including some toys. Some toys that alot of people look at and say, oh, its only worth 50 cents to maybe $5. Then turn out it be worth some real money.

For example I was talking with RN yesterday about a doll I have, and he said he learned about them at the same time he learned of "Little Miss No Name Dolls". These I never heard of, so I decided to google them. Alot of those dolls go for about $55 and up. Some are as high as $375. Well looking at the pictures of different No Name Dolls, I realized something. I saw three of these dolls at an estate sale a few months back. They were selling them for $5 each. I past on them cause I figured I would not make any money off of them, damn was I wrong. So sometimes the research on what you have can make or break you.

However Ryante, I did a little research on this item as well as the company. Sorry to have to tell you, but you did not strike gold with this toy. Toss it in the $1 pile at your next sale.

Offline MovieMan

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Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #13 on: November 20, 2011, 12:49:59 PM »
This is not always true. Some things are worth a good researching over. This is including some toys. Some toys that alot of people look at and say, oh, its only worth 50 cents to maybe $5. Then turn out it be worth some real money.


There are only  a few things that are "always" true.

Here are some of them:

The sun will rise and set each day.
Everything living dies.
You will not "always" buy a winning locker.

Re: My first unit(s)
« Reply #14 on: November 20, 2011, 01:35:32 PM »
Well, maybe it's just me, but if you spend this much time (taking the photos of the "guitar" and I think even making and posting the youtube of it (your measuring tape?), then I think you may be overthinking the sales process.

It is part enthusiasm. I enjoy stuff like this and I'm sure the process will be come more streamlined as I go along.

But if I were to have thrown away instead of looking through them, I would be missing out on some of the mugs in there that go for a nice penny. I recently found a pizza hut mug that sells for nearly $150.

I also am a history buff. I love to learn about new things, especially when I am holding something unique. That is the main reason for posting the guitar, not to find the value.

My staying up isn't something of me being in a hurry. I have insomnia fairly frequently. I'm not big on pills and when I have something to do like go through this storage unit, I kinda welcome it. I was up for 43 hours, I think, before I was able to sleep.

Don't get me wrong. I'm getting stuff done. I'm still new at this but my ebay auctions have jumped from 120 to over 500 this weekend. lol. I'm also exploring other avenues to getting rid of the stuff. I it gone and turned into green stuff asap.

Thanks for the criticism though. You are right. But for now I'm just enjoying it, I'm not hard up to move it fast to pay bills or anything, but as soon as I get bored of it, I'll see it more as a businesses like most I guess :D



xx
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