Attending first auction tomorrow

I am excited to be attending my first storage auction tomorrow. When the notice was posted in the paper, there were 61 units (between seven locations, one storage company). I am expecting that about half of the owners will have paid before the auction, but with this being right after Christmas, maybe people are too strapped for cash to pay their delinquent storage locker rent.

I may just observe, but I am prepared with my cash and padlocks if there are units I really want. This is something I have wanted to do long before the TV shows created all this storage auction mania. I have been a serious garage saler and occasional flea market vendor for the past 20 years.

Well good luck! Let us know how it goes

I will be sure and post tomorrow night and let everyone know how it went. I am not afraid of hard work.I can hardly wait until garage sale season starts. There is a large flea market in my area, but it is only one Sunday a month. We are planning to get a booth there on January 22nd if we end up with some stuff to sell from this auction. I have a bunch of stuff at home to sell, too.

Sounds like a great auction to hit.  Wish I had something like that in my area.  You will either find a ton of people as everyone is off on vacation this week.  Or you will find only a few as most people headed out of town for same reason.

Ya'll have sales only on Sunday?  Do you live up north or something?  Local flea is still open sat/sun but most of the times now they don't sell out.  People in the south just don't like shopping in the cold.

We did not bid on any units at the auction. A little over half of the tenants had paid their bill, so only about 28 units. Many with nothing but trash and dirty clothes, it looked like anything of value had been removed. We saw one 10x10 that was packed full, and the stuff was of just average quality, I might have bought it for $400 or so, but it went for $1800. A half full unit with clothes, baby stuff and particle board furniture and a scary mattress sold for $800. I kept thinking about how much $800 would buy at garage sales, and not have to haul so much to the dump. We will continue to go to the auctions. There were about 60 people there, and I think that was part of the problem.

The good news is we bought a cargo van today. Pretty excited about that. Will make going to the flea market much easier. The Sunday only flea market is also only once a month. It is indoors, and has a couple of hundred vendors. They are not open in July and August, because the building is not air-conditioned. I did learn of another outdoor market held every weekend in the warmer months where booths are only $10. Will be checking that out for sure, since we can only have two garage sales a year.

Don't give up yet. Some auctions are hit and miss when it comes to the prices the lockers sell for. Right now, prices are being driven up by inexperienced treasure hunters with a few grand and a pipe dream. Once the storage auctions shows start losing ratings (which hopefully isn't too far away ) prices will settle down a bit. Keep one thing in mind...Nobody knows everything about everything. I would image that with your experience with garage sales and flea markets, you have a keen eye in determining the value of a lot of different items. That experience can help you greatly if you recognize the value of an item that your competition is unsure or unaware of.

Unfortunately, selling the small insignificant items and dealing with trash is just part of the business. If you're selling at garage sales or flea markets, those smalls can really add up to a significant amount of money.

thats a pretty good number of units. probably about right probably about 1/3 to half of people will have paid.

Congrats on the new cargo van.

We will continue to go to the auctions. One reason we bought the van is we really want to get into this.

Not that we are ready to buy a vehicle for this, but my wife and I were debating the merits of a truck vs. a cargo van.

I'm curious what led you to get a van over a truck. Also, if you could, what model did you buy?

Thanks.

We did not buy a van just for this, but for anything we might want to haul. We also considered a truck, but the van is a Ford E250 super duty and has a lot of cargo space. We can also drive home with a load and lock the van then unload it the next morning if we want. No worries about rain, snow, or anything blowing out of a truck bed on the highway.

We can easily haul stuff to the flea market, put it in the van at the end of the day and not have to unload if it is a Saturday and Sunday outdoor flea market. The next morning just drive back and pull everything out and set it up.

We got a good deal on the van, it is a 2005 model.

Those were some of the same thoughts we had, but our concern is taller items, like a fridge.

Again, it won't be an issue for a little while, so the debate will continue. 

Matches - on the van vs truck debate it starts to get into more of what do you buy more at auctions.  If you buy a large amount of furniture, appliances, or things of that nature a truck/trailer is your best bet.  If however, it's mostly smalls, totes, boxes, things under 3 feet a van is great.  As NightOwl stated - you can load it up, lock it, and not worry about the elements.

For real serious people a box truck with a lift gate is the best.  Then you have easy load / unload, plenty of height space, tons of room, etc.

Myself I'm a hybrid in a way.  I had already purchased an Avalanch back in 2007 and a utility trailer in 2008 to haul stuff.  So when I got into storage auctions I already had a covered truck to hold totes, boxes, other smalls that could be locked.  If get furniture I can either remove one of the sections of cover or bring the trailer.

You can buy a van and pull a trailer as yet another option for those times you do get furniture.

If you're really committed, buy a used box truck. You can get a early 2000 model International / Penske 26 foot box truck with a ramp for 6-10K. Older U-Haul 26 footers can sell as low as $3,500. Its really nice being able to pick up 2-3 large units in one trip. Not only that, If you have a resale business, you can use the sides as a billboard (free advertisement). And if you really feel cool, you can paint YUUUP on the side.

Our van has a trailer hitch, and with a V-8 towing a trailler should not be a problem should we decide to purchase a trailer at a later date. A box truck would be great, but I don't think our neighbors would like seeing a 26-ft. box truck always parked in our driveway. They already don't like us having the allowed number of garage sales a year.