Furnishing your home for free

One of the best things about the storage auction business is that you can keep some great stuff for yourself for free and still turn a profit on the unit you bought. Most of the furniture, nice clothing, kids toys and household items I have all came from other people storage units. You can find just about anything you want in a storage unit if you're patient.

Do you furnish your home with household items & furniture found in storage lockers? Do you wear the clothing, shoes, etc.? 

One of the best things about the storage auction business is that you can keep some great stuff for yourself for free

It's never free, reduced maybe, but not free! If it's something you can sell and decided to keep instead, then it cost you what you didn't sell it for.

So let's say I buy an item at the grocery store that is the regular price but it is marked buy one get one free. So are you saying that if I decide to keep the extra item instead of selling it, it means that it wasn't free? 

Just remember to claim any inventory kept for personal use on your income taxes so you can pay your fair share to Uncle Sam. 

So let's say I buy an item at the grocery store that is the regular price but it is marked buy one get one free. So are you saying that if I decide to keep the extra item instead of selling it, it means that it wasn't free? 

No it wasn't free, you bought the first item at 50% of advertised price, then you bought the second item at 50% of advertised price. You didn't get it free, you got it for a 50% discount.

Just remember to claim any inventory kept for personal use on your income taxes so you can pay your fair share to Uncle Sam. 

I know Alloro claims any items he keeps. The ONLY law he breaks is that of "going with the flow of traffic" in order to maintain the safety of all involved !   

No it wasn't free, you bought the first item at 50% of advertised price, then you bought the second item at 50% of advertised price. You didn't get it free, you got it for a 50% discount.

Potato, Pototo 

Good point travis, I did the same. I bought my first place right shortly after getting started with storage auctions years ago and most of my home decor stuff, bar stools, stemware, etc is all from storage auctions. Its kind of a running joke people will be at my house and be like oh I like that pot rack or oh I like this and after hearing it so many times they'll all give me a look and before I can answer say yeah I know storage auction right lol.

Yeah, same here. Some of the nicest things I own came from storage units. I'm talking about things so expensive, I would never buy them for myself, and I got them all for free after I sold the other things in the unit.

So let's say I buy an item at the grocery store that is the regular price but it is marked buy one get one free. So are you saying that if I decide to keep the extra item instead of selling it, it means that it wasn't free? 

I got my degree in Economics and can tell you that from an Econ perspective, nothing is free.  Everything has a cost associated with it.

From a guy that loves deals and coupons......heck yeah, that was free! 

I go to auction hoping to find stuff for myself.   Not looking for old bars, I'm looking for a nice living room set.....almost as rare.

Back to Econ......why would you claim inventory you keep on your income tax?   It was paid for.  (Remember, nothing is free.....)

it means that it wasn't free?

Since you had to pay something in order to get the "free" one then it really wasn't free, now was it!

On a more comparable level, if you were in the fruit selling business and bought one apple and got the second one for free, (like in your example.) We'll say you paid $1 and sold the first apple for a $1.10 and ate the second apple...you made 10 cents. If you sold both apples you would've made $1.20 total. So not selling the extra item cost you a $1.10 in profit. Now with our business of selling storage unit contents, the same rules of economics apply. Anything you do not sell is lost money.

Anything you do not sell is lost money.

Does the same rule apply to oranges? 

So, hypothetically, let's say I buy two gold bars at 50% of gold value. I sell 1 and keep 1. Have I really lost money if the object I keep retains it's value and could be resold in the future?

Back to Econ......why would you claim inventory you keep on your income tax?   It was paid for.  (Remember, nothing is free.....)

It goes on my State tax filings, presumably all inventory is purchased with the intent to re-sell, so any inventory kept for personal use, the sales tax must be submitted on it. Theoratically, I am suppose to provide the fair market value of the inventory and pay the tax based on that value, because as the original post stated, it's possible to make all your money back on a lot of inventory and then what you keep would be "free". According to the State, there is no such thing as "free" inventory kept for personal use. Just sayin'