I went to a place today that had 5 lockers for sale.  As I'm just dipping my toe in the waters to test them right now, I had my wife along to discuss what we thought we should bid on any of them.  Keep in mind that we don't own a truck, or even a large car, so furniture units would be difficult for us, and would require at least a rental for us to move them.  I know, I know, get a truck or get out...  but we're really just giving it a whirl right now to see how it goes.

today was a silent bid auction.  The first unit was 10 X 20 had some torn up furniture, a air conditioner, and more...  the furniture made it so I wasn't going to bid on it at all, as it looked like dump run stuff.

The second one, a 10 X 20 was...  almost empty.  From what I could see at the door, it had a bad of some old bread-like substance, a bag of empty energy drinks, and a baby rocker...  the rest was in boxes.  I discussed with my wife, and we came up with $21, just to take a chance in case no one else wanted it.

the third one was another one with potentially larger items (I saw a matress in the back of it that looked covered up), which again put it out of our range.

The fourth and fifth were both 5X10s, and were interesting.  The fourth one had at least a box for a flat panel 17" computer monitor, and a box for a computer, among other boxes.  The fifth one had a nice dresser set, and several rubber bins that you couldn't see inside...

We went $50 on the monitor one, and $80 on the dresser one (the dresser was nice, so a truck rental would be worth it to us, as we might have need for the dresser ourselves).  

We got the nearly empty $21 10X20.  In the bags, we discovered a lot of in poor condition baby clothing and items.  However, we found a $25 gift certificate for a local restaurant, which we're deciding on whether or not we want to keep to go eat on, or sell it for $20.  We also found a complete set of Spongebob Squarepants toys from burger king from a couple of years ago, and a large SpongeBob stuffed animal in great condition.  

Also, we found a Pyramid 4 channel Car Amp...  which even looking up online had yielded painfully little information about what it might be worth.  Also, I have no idea how to test to see if something like this is working.  I think I might take it down to the local pawn shop and see if I can get $20 for it, as I really can't find much information about it otherwise, but other ones roughly like that (I've discovered that Pyramid is the really low end of car amps) are going for around $50 used.

So, for $21, we're looking at getting back about $60, plus dinner!

Oh, almost forgot, we found some jewelery that we suspect to be fake, but we're going to get it looked at as well.

As part of my old job, I used to handle a lot of the lost and found for a state agency (think lost at parks, that kind of thing).  What I enjoyed about it, was digging around and looking at everything.  This kind of scratches the same nosy itch, only I get to take the stuff with me.  

While I wouldn't say I'm hooked... I certainly enjoyed the crap out of it today...  even though we had our first snow of the year while I was cleaning it out.

Striped...

Hey Rebecca.

Thank you for the advice...  I've actually read through your entire blog...  every post (and I check it every day!).  I love the letters from the Storage Lockers.  I've read a couple out loud to my wife, trying to accurately capture the bad spelling by reading the words incorrectly is a challenge, and, hilarious.

I do have a couple different pairs of gloves, a thicker one for the moving, and some thin vinyl ones for digging. 

Keep up the great blog!

I appreciate the posts Movieman.  This is actually an extension of the niche buying/selling I've been doing for a while. 

I used to buy concert T-Shirts at salvation Army/Goodwills and sell them on EBay (used to average around double the thrift store price, or about $10 for a $4 or $5 shirt).  Then, more recently, I would buy used board games at garage sales/flea markets, to take them with me on my yearly trip to a large gaming convention that features a big auction as well. Typically, I would pay for a sizable percentage of my trip through selling these off.

So, I see this as expanding from a niche market to a broader market.  I understand that failure is an option, which is why I'm taking the gambling "only bring what you can afford to lose" mentality.  I'm not blinded by the TV shows...  Which is to say I'm not doing this to try and make a living at it.  I'm viewing it as a hobby for a while, just to see if I enjoy the process.

It actually reminds me of a job I used to have, I used to run the lost and found for a large spread out company that ran the length of New York.  The kind of company that had people all over the city going through it every day.  My favorite part was digging through people's stuff.  Strangest thing ever found?  A Tombstone.  Filled out.  Creepy.

-D

I do have those... Vehicle, the dump is only a few minutes from my house, I have an unused shed in the backyard for storage (it's closer to a barn than a shed in size, storing things is not an issue)

Wait, solid work ethic?  Crap...  Where can I buy one of those?  :-)

Actually, I feel pretty prepared.  I went through over the last couple weeks and literally read every post on this forum.  This forum really developed into a wealth of information.

In fact, I'd like to thank everyone that has posted on here before.  and to other n00bs, I suggest reading everything you can find online with regards to storage auctions.  This forum is the best one I've seen, and there are a few excellen blogs on the subject too (I really dig the Storage Heroes blog)

-Deric