The storage auction business is often one of trial and error. There are no guarantees that you’ll make a profit reselling every unit that you buy, or even that you’ll always break even.
As you start buying units and selling their contents, you’re bound to make a few mistakes, and learning from these mistakes is how you become a pro in this business.
All the same, you can give yourself the best chances of success by a voiding a few common newbie errors:
Buying more units than you can handle. If you’re just starting out, it’s a good idea to start small. You don’t want to end up with more items than you can store, and you definitely don’t want to be stuck with more units than you can clean in a 24-hour period. Start off with one or two units a week and move up from there if you’re comfortable with the amount of work required.
Buying units full of items you can’t resell. It pays to do research on the items in a storage unit before you buy it. This is one place where virtual storage auctions offer a clear advantage over traditional in-person auctions: You can look up the resale value of items in the unit before placing your bid.
Getting caught in a bidding war. Don’t let your excitement and eagerness to win a unit overshadow your common sense. Set a budget and stick to it. If bidding goes past your limits, let that unit go and focus on the next one instead of letting your pride get in the way. In online auctions, bidding wars can quickly escalate out of hand. It’s much smarter to wait until the auction is winding down to place the winning bid rather than bidding up the competition early on.
Buying units full of junk. Some storage units are filled with garbage of little to no value, and the hassle of packing it up and hauling it away can be a real pain. Even if there are a couple of decent items in the unit, cleaning out all the trash might make it not worthwhile. Remember that you’ll need to pay fees for the dump and other related expenses; factor these into the cost of any unit you buy and avoid the ones that become too pricy.
Acting like an amateur. Even if you don’t make any obvious mistakes in the buying of a unit, you can still come off as an obvious newbie at an auction, and this can make other auction-goers hostile toward you. Newbie behaviors include bringing your kids to an auction, being overly chatty with other attendees, asking a lot of obvious questions, and wearing inappropriate clothing such as dress clothes. If you’re attending a live auction, you’ll want to make yourself seem as inconspicuous as possible as some veterans like to bid up newbies to scare them off. Of course, if you’re bidding online, you don’t have to worry so much about keeping up appearances.
Because storage auctions are such a competitive business, it pays to appear as professional as possible. Putting your best foot forward and avoiding these common pitfalls is a good way to give yourself a head start toward success when attending storage auctions.
The fewer newbie mistakes you make, the better your chances of sticking with the business and getting along with your fellow auction-goers.
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