Fraudulent Locker sells for $9,500 !

Many of us have seen this happen and a few may even have been victims of a "setup" locker...one which has been put together by a seller or even a facility.

Here's an apparently well-documented story about one of those lockers and the final outcome for the bidder who paid $9,500 for the locker even though it looked like it was worth maybe a few hundred.

"the bidder sued in small claims court. And won"

I'm not aware of any small claims court cases over $5K, since that's the small claims cap before the case has to go to a district or superior court.

That's not the only discrepancy. As I was reading the story, my B.S. alarm kept going off. No names listed. No facility name. Unit doesn't look good from the door yet buyer pays $9500. I just don't see someone paying that kind of money for unit owned by some minor celebrity from decades ago. Heck, Nabila Haniss only paid $2775 for Paris Hilton's locker.

I think the article is a publicity stunt, but that's just my opinion.  Articles like this are called "Linkbait."

Linkbait - Wikipedia: Link bait is any content or feature, within a website, designed specifically to gain attention or encourage others to link to the website. Matt Cutts defines link bait as anything "interesting enough to catch people's attention."[1] Link bait can be an extremely powerful form of marketing as it is viral in nature.

FYI - Matt Cutts works for Google and heads the Webspam Team. He's basically in charge of the department that changes Google's algorithm that decides which websites rank higher than others in the search results. SEOs around the world literally hang on to every word he says. He's kind of like the Warren Buffett of search engine optimization.

That's not the only discrepancy.

Yeah I know. I was going to also point out that there are no appeals with small claims cases either, but I didn't want to waste too much time with a bogus article.

I heard my credibility was being disputed so I figured I'd see what was up.

#1 Small claims limits vary by county. I'm in SoCal and in OC and LA counties the limit is $10,000.

#2 You can appeal a small claims decision. Here's the link for OC. I imagine it's very similar in LA and many other counties. http://www.occourts.org/self-help/smallclaims/whathappensafterthetrial.html

#3 I agree with Travis that it's odd to bid that high when it doesn't even look good from the door. But he missed the whole point of the article. The facility contacted this bidder with insider info before the auction. That is why the bid went so high. At least two bidders had been tipped off. Although I tend to agree with Travis that it's still a big chunk of change even if there could still be good stuff from a "celebrity."

#4 The reason Paris' locker didn't sell for a small fortune is because no one knew it was her locker. The locker was in a moving company's name. Obviously a facility wouldn't auction a unit in Hilton's name. That's asking for a lawsuit. And obviously the bid would go higher if the bidders knew it was a hugely popular socialite's unit. Her stuff has celebrity appeal & since she has more money than god you would imagine she has nice stuff.

#5 We didn't list the facility name because this could have been a rogue manager & it might not be right to take the company down because a manager lied. The manager should be fired though. The bidder's name wasn't listed because the bidder wants to remain on good terms with storage facilities. Suing facilities isn't the best way to do this. They certainly wouldn't be getting any inside info in the future.

You might not like me, or my website. But you can trust what I say. Storage buyers work really hard, usually to make money that their families desperately need. I would never lie or deceive anyone, but certainly not a father of 3 with only $100 to his name, looking to turn it into $1,000 to cover his monthly expenses.

If you guys aren't sure whether you can believe me in the future, just reach out to me...I promise I don't bite

Leslie "Voice of Reason"

P.S. I saw a few comments on this forum about Storage Treasures's listings. We do have a ton of auctions listed, but I agree, there is room for improvement. It's a lot for me to cover by myself. But as of literally yesterday, I have help! I'm working on it!

P.S. I saw a few comments on this forum about Storage Treasures's listings. We do have a ton of auctions listed, but I agree, there is room for improvement. It's a lot for me to cover by myself. But as of literally yesterday, I have help! I'm working on it!

You guys cover the entire United States with 2 people?    That explains why there are so few auctions listed. You would need a staff of 15-20 to do a thorough job.

Or I'm just that good

We have 96 auctions listed within 30 miles of your zip.

The problem isn't the number of listings....I want to update the info for our users so they don't have to call the facility. And listing unit counts & public notice info like tenants names.

It's easy to post all the auctions. Updating them is the hard part. But I'm determined!

Apologies if I don't reply again...back to work!

So, you guys have 96 listings in my zip code for the next 2-3 weeks. The problem with that is there are over 130 occurring this week and over 300 within the next 3 weeks. Legal notices are copyrighted material. Are you saying that you guys copy and paste your listings directly from the newspapers' websites to Storage Treasures? I know the newspapers didn't give you authorization to retransmit their content.

So, you guys have 96 listings in my zip code for the next 2-3 weeks. The problem with that is there are over 130 occurring this week and over 300 within the next 3 weeks. Legal notices are copyrighted material. Are you saying that you guys copy and paste your listings directly from the newspapers' websites to Storage Treasures? I know the newspapers didn't give you authorization to retransmit their content.

There's not much point in arguing about storage listings any more, with a new subscription by mile radius SUAL.com pretty much has that market locked up. $10 bucks for a 100 mile radius which for me crosses into another state... Its a no brainer.

There's not much point in arguing about storage listings any more, with a new subscription by mile radius SUAL.com pretty much has that market locked up. $10 bucks for a 100 mile radius which for me crosses into another state... Its a no brainer.

I'm won't argue with that. They're probably the best resource in states other than California and Texas.

Voice of Reason

Thanks for reaching out and clearing up any issues.  I see that there were a lot of claims against you that you answered in a professional way.

Good luck in the future with your endeavors.