Cali auctions

Do lockers rly sell that high in cali like they do on storage wars seems the avg price is 500 or so. My town the average unit sells for $100-$125 range.

Yep! I have found that there are several auctioneers that advertise well. Those sales seem to bring a lot more people and a lot more money. Last month at one of these auctions there was a 10 X 10 unit I was interested in. It had a wood chair, a wicker hamper, a nice quilt and about 12 boxes. I would have paid max $100.00. The unit went for $625.00. I have found this is normal for a facility that hires an auctioneer and in my are we have five auctioneers that do these sales even though I live in a small rural area.

On the other hand I bought a unit at a sale that the manager did the auction himself (this doesn't happen very often anymore). It was a 10 X 20 and was filled with furniture. Everything you would need to furnish a one bedroom apartment (my best guess was a female college student whose dad made good money) Ikea, Crate & Barrel Etc. for $175. I have already tripled my money and still have several pieces left.

I just realized this morning that American Auctioneers took over for two facilities that I have had luck with in the past. I guess I will find out the end of next week how bad that drives the prices up.

Unfortunately they do go too high a lot of times. Went to an auction in Yuba City and two units were pretty packed maybe 500 and 800 max...but this woman that seemed to be a regular paid 1600.00 and 1300.00 for them. This woman had the old mentality and obviously wanted the units bad enough to overspend. The prices are going down more lately like they should be for small or average units, but if it's a good unit, the bidding war is on!

Add one more Californian to the mix.

The other two folks live within 50 to 200 miles from me and are having the same kind of experience I do. Crowds have gone down from 6 months ago (sometimes 100 at an auction) to 25 to 40 in my area at least. The prices are a little better as there are few newbies spending wildly (they have learned their lessons), but as was said...if it's a good locker, watch out.

There are half a dozen to 10 "committed" regular buyers where I attend, and depending on how many of them are at any given auction, it can get nasty.  Many of them go further afield than I do, and we DO have some sharing going on among some of us (they know I like smalls almost exclusively) and that I don't buy as many as they do....so sometimes I feel they are giving me a shot when they could go ahead and buy one I am interested in.

The other day a fellow didn't bid against me...and let me know it...and I did the same for him not a day later. We were  both happy.  BUT there are a few who want to buy EVERY LOCKER...I bid them up and have no qualms about it when I finally stop bidding.

SO, yes there can be high prices but more importantly....the lockers are SELDOM as good as those seen on the tv shows. I have always said about 1 in 50 meets those standards and I think that's about right. You might get two in a row that are great (at whatever price) and then the next 48 will be average (or hopefully above average) with the occasional loser mixed in.