It boils down to demographics...
What are demographics?
Well basically it’s the makeup of a population.
For example, if there are 3 auctions happening at the same time and one is in an area with a high median income, and the other two are in an area with a low median income, I will ALWAYS opt for the one in the high median income area.
It’s a matter of statistics.
Typically, in poor neighborhoods you will find trashy and unkempt units. On the other hand, in rich neighborhoods you will often find units of higher quality. Of course this is not always the case, but more often than not, it is.
People with money aren’t going to store their stuff in the ghetto, and poor people aren’t going to drive out of their way to store their garbage in a nice neighborhood that charges higher rent.
How do I get this information? Simple!
I use this ugly, but beautifully helpful, website called ZipWho.
Right now, let’s go to ZipWho and have a look. Once the page loads (I told you it was ugly), enter the zip code of an auction location in to the basic search box and hit “Basic Search”. You will be given some useful information on the right side.
The most important piece of information here is the “median income”.
If you don’t know, median income is basically taking all of the income for that zip code and finding the middle. Half of the people make more than that amount, and half of the people make less.
The important thing is, the higher the median income, the wealthier the population is… and the better odds that the lockers will contain high-end items.
As you can see, there is also some other useful information that you might find useful: percent of men and women, household size (if you need kid stuff), ethnicity (if you are targeting a specific customer), median age, etc.
All of this information is beneficial to you if you know how to use it!
Do you have a lot of Hispanic customers?
Maybe you should buy more units in predominantly Hispanic zip codes.
Do you have a lot of college students as customers, then check the median age for better odds of scoring a PlayStation or Xbox.