Ha ! Yes, if skill and luck are with you at the crucial moment !
Just didn't want to get hopes too high!
Right now, it is still a hard business to make money in with the prices where they are. I work seven days a week, and I'll be going a lot of nights until 8 or 9, sometimes later. Way later if you count the time on CL ads, but since I'm sitting on my ass watching tv at the same time, I don't really count that.
To me, it's not really work though. I love winning a locker and then getting to dig through all that stuff, it's like I'm digging for buried treasure every single day! I love what I do (most of the time) so even though it's a lot of hard work, to me it's better than getting up and "working for the man" on a 9-5 job.
I guess to try and answer the original question, you can be "profitable" on that first locker with a little luck. But you might get ten stinkers in a row and blow your wad too, there's not really a good way to answer that. I believe that probably most people could be profitable eventually when they learn to make an educated guess and stick to their limits, but there is going to be a learning curve, and what that curve is depends on you.
This business isn't exactly rocket science. I would say that most "average" units purchased for a reasonable price have money making potential......it depends on what kind of network you have set up to actually sell the stuff. Any monkey can actually grab a fistful of dollars and run out and buy a bunch of lockers, but then what? Do you have a way to get rid of all that stuff? That's what separates the men from the boys (no offense ladies!) and if you are sitting on a warehouse full of stuff that isn't selling, you need to rethink you're business model.
I could go on and on. Just like any other business, this one is has inventory issues (you either have too much stuff, or too little, it's hard to strike a balance), cash flow problems, labor costs, warehousing expenses, fuel costs (I personally spend over a grand a month just on diesel now, and that sucks!) and more.
How far do you want to go with it? How much do you want to make? How hard do you want to work at it? Do you get along with people? Do you like to sell? Do you have any experience dealing with the public and selling? Do you want a full time business or just something you can make a few extra bucks at while you work your day job? There's just too many variables and elements of chance to really answer the original question.
Here's a couple of pics of the back of my shop. I do have a store now although up until today I haven't mentioned it on the forum. We have a total of four diesel trucks and six trailers. The building is about six thousand square feet (used to be a lumber yard) and has a large amount of retail space and storage. I live this lifestyle and I do make money at it. I'm not rich by any means, but I can pretty much do what I want. There is money to be made in this business, but as has been mentioned over and over on this board, it is a LOT OF HARD WORK!