Storage Battles Raising Buyer's Premium To 15%

Has anyone heard anything anything about Storage Battles raising their buyer's premium to 15%? I just got an email which explained that unless you subscribe to Storage Treasures' paid storage auction listings service, you'll have to pay a 15% buyer's premium.

What do you think about this? Is a 15% buyer's premium reasonable?

They way I understood it auctions on storage Treasures have the 15% fee and has nothing to do with auctions on storage battles.

They way I understood it auctions on storage Treasures have the 15% fee and has nothing to do with auctions on storage battles.

Storage Battles is closing down. They will be operating under the Storage Treasures name beginning in December 2014. Apparently, the current buyer's fee on Storage Treasures will remain in effect.

Here is the entire text of the email I received:

"Storage Battles Announces Merger Details

Many of you may be aware that we've been planning a merger with storage auction community, Storage Treasures but now we're ready to bring you more details on this exciting news!

Over the next three months, we'll be moving out auction information and our subscribers over to Storage Treasures. While we make the switch, Storage Battles will remain up and running, but beginning in December, you'll be able to visit one site for both online and local storage auctions at StorageTreasures.com! 
What Does the Merger Mean to You?

You'll have the chance to interact with an even larger community base than ever before in order to share your stories, find buyers, and appraise your items on the site.
You'll have access to Storage Treasures tools that will help you improve your business, such as the Treasure Chest! The Treasure Chest is a resource that allows you to sell, appraise, and share items with the Storage Treasures community of over thousands.

You'll automatically have access to a FREE Storage Treasures account an 10 local listings a month.
PRO Membership
Want even more account information? Become a Storage Treasures PRO Member now!
When you become a PRO Member, you'll have access to an unlimited number of auction listings each month!

On top of that, Storage Treasures Subscribers pay just 10% on Buyer's Premiums for Online Storage Auctions, offering them a savings of 33% on average over non-subscribers who pay a 15% Buyer's Premium for each online auction that they win.

Monthly subscriptions are $10 a month, and offer a 50% savings on the purchase of the PRO Training Series. That's $139 savings!
Yearly subscribers receive the Pro Training series at no cose with their $100 subscription. That's a value of $300, completely free!
The Pro Training series is a complete training program to help you succeed as a reseller or picker while getting expert advice from the Pro's.
For a limited time, we're offering Storage Battles members their first month at the reduced price of only $1! Don't miss out on your chance to save money on your Membership and the Pro Training video series!

Become a PRO Member Now! "

Anything to make a another buck off of the buyers. I won't be buying anymore online from them.

IT's like anything else, start with a good thing... and then they want to gouge you later on...  People will be forced to transfer over and to pay their 10$ a month.. Maybe though, just maybe you will be able to make comments about storage facilities that are not on the up and up to people that might be buying them (I doubt this)  and maybe you can contact other buyers by their bidders name/number...  Sometimes I see one item I want but don't want to buy the whole unit...

If they do this it might be worth while to pay the 10$ a month. I hope the auction site is a tad faster and can handle the workload too!!

If they do this it might be worth while to pay the 10$ a month.

It might be worth the $10 per month if the auction information was comprehensive, but it's not. They aggregate most of their auction information from other sites, but there is no way to aggregate it all since a lot of newspapers and storage companies don't publish their auctions online.

Maybe though, just maybe you will be able to make comments about storage facilities that are not on the up and up to people that might be buying them (I doubt this)  and maybe you can contact other buyers by their bidders name/number...  Sometimes I see one item I want but don't want to buy the whole unit...

Just for the record, OnlineStorageAuctions.com has a feedback system and an anonymous internal messaging system which allows you to contact the seller or other bidders.

On top of that, Storage Treasures Subscribers pay just 10% on Buyer's Premiums for Online Storage Auctions, offering them a savings of 33% on average over non-subscribers who pay a 15% Buyer's Premium for each online auction that they win.

So in other words, they're raising the price and extorting you into buying something you don't want in order to get a discount (which  actually comes out to regular price.)

My grocery store does that. They'll offer a $1 off in-store coupon for an item, make you buy another item to get the discount and then raise price of the original item to make up for it.

So what is left to do...   We just skip lunch one day and pay the piper..  Besides we are all in this for fun!  Right??

I would love to contact some of the bidders on Storagebattles.com   

So what is left to do...   We just skip lunch one day and pay the piper..

$500 unit X 15% = $75. Hell, that's lunch for a week.

Let's think about this logically..

   A) They are trying to milk an extra $120 a year from their member base..
   B) Some members will just use the same account to bid on stuff, instead of separate.
   C) We don't know what type of deals they might of worked out with the facilities.. Because higher premium translate into lower bids, so perhaps they charge 15% to the buyer, but the facility gets Price + 5% (No one really knows what kind of incentives are being offered to the facilities, if any) Or pehaps it' on a scale, or just straight up.
   D) StorageTreasues don't have the ability to execute successfully, StorageBattles did, hence is whey they bought them out, before it was to late. Hopefully, they left SB staff in place and eliminated the non-executing ST Staff.
   E) Their are some synergies savings

In theory they should just eliminate "Premiums" and just take a cut of the final sale (Much like ebay does)

     C) We don't know what type of deals they might of worked out with the facilities.. Because higher premium translate into lower bids, so perhaps they charge 15% to the buyer, but the facility gets Price + 5% (No one really knows what kind of incentives are being offered to the facilities, if any) Or pehaps it' on a scale, or just straight up.
 

That wouldn't matter because storage facilities are actually (unknowingly) paying the buyers premium. Buyers reduce their bids to compensate for the buyer's premium resulting in lower bids and a lower recovery rate for the facility.

        D) StorageTreasues don't have the ability to execute successfully, StorageBattles did, hence is whey they bought them out, before it was to late. Hopefully, they left SB staff in place and eliminated the non-executing ST Staff.

Actually, Storage Battles bought out Storage Treasures. It was a strategic move to eliminate a competitor. Storage Battles is shutting down and reorganizing under the Storage Treasures name. Lance & his staff are gone and Storage Battles' staff has taken over the site. Hence, why productivity at Storage Treasures has come to a standstill.

That wouldn't matter because storage facilities are actually (unknowingly) paying the buyers premium. Buyers reduce their bids to compensate for the buyer's premium resulting in lower bids and a lower recovery rate for the facility.

I really don't think facilities are stupid, I'm sure they know what's going on..

Actually, Storage Battles bought out Storage Treasures. It was a strategic move to eliminate a competitor. Storage Battles is shutting down and reorganizing under the Storage Treasures name. Lance & his staff are gone and Storage Battles' staff has taken over the site. Hence, why productivity at Storage Treasures has come to a standstill.

That makes more since, because ST couldn't execute - but they had brand recognition from the TV Series which gave their property a little value.  That's the first thing I would of done is eliminate the entire ST Staff within a year (Worthless people normally stay worthless)

I really don't think facilities are stupid, I'm sure they know what's going on..

I didn't say they were stupid; however, a lot of them assume that they're only paying a 10% fee to sell. Most don't realize that buyers are reducing their bids to compensate for the buyer's premium. As the industry grows, more storage operators will become aware of the high fees Storage Battles charges. Storage Battles is getting away with it now, but eventually the industry will get tired of it and look for cost effective alternatives (like us.)

That makes more since, because ST couldn't execute - but they had brand recognition from the TV Series which gave their property a little value.  That's the first thing I would of done is eliminate the entire ST Staff within a year (Worthless people normally stay worthless)

Most of you are aware of my distaste for Storage Treasures. That being said, this might come as a shock. Storage Treasures built an incredibly sophisticated site and they did an excellent job with SEO and marketing. There isn't much I would do differently if I was building a site from scratch and had an unlimited budget. Of course, a lot of it had to do with them being at the right place at the right time and having the capital to scale quickly. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that Storage Treasures' former staff did an excellent job building the site. It's unfortunate that it's now in the hands it's in. I can only compare it to putting a chimp in control of a jet fighter.

ST Web site stinks.. is hard to use... Hope they build on the storage battles site... 

ST Web site stinks.. is hard to use... Hope they build on the storage battles site...

I was just thinking the same thing. They've tried to do so much that the site has become overwhelming and complicated to use. From my understanding, they won't be using the Storage Battles name any longer. Jim paid for a survey which indicated that females felt the name Storage Battles had violent connotations. Not only that, Storage Battles doesn't rank well in the search results.