9. Umbrella & jacket never know when it might start raining/snowing and bad weather actually ATTRACTS people to the auctions. Sunscreen & sunglasses, you will be surprised at how red you can get during the summer attending auctions all day or all week.
10. For the height "challenged" folks like me, bring a milk crate to stand on so you can see whats in the back of the unit behind the boxes and furniture. Sure a few people will laugh and chuckle, but why should the tall guys get the advantage of seeing everything in the unit? Also makes a good chair so you can take a break when you are waiting for 125 people to look at a unit before the bidding starts.
11. Black gloves so you can slap the little kids standing in front of the unit out of the way without leaving any finger prints on them. (just kidding! or am I?) Actually the gloves are good for if you win a unit you can do a quick search through the unit before the next auction.
12. One of those "Miracle Ear" devices so you can eavesdrop on the other attendies and hear what they are wispering.
13. Binoculars, again plenty of laughs and chuckles, but unless you have better then perfect vision, even with a high power flashlight it's hard to make out everything in the back of a 10 x 30 or 10 x 40 unit.
14. clipboard & notebook, only for the "nerds" who like to track data and do statistics.
15. Business cards to hand out to the "newbies" who over bid on units and get in way over their heads.
16. Donuts, candy, gifts to give out to the storage facility employees and the "main players".
17. Team of experts on speed dail ready to research those unique items that pop up in units that look valuable but you have no idea what they are worth.

holy crap!   this just makes me tired reading all of this. 


Heres my packing list. 

Good flash light
2 long loop locks
lots of cash

thats it. 

put pawn shops on the bottom of the list.


try craigslist, ebay, and your local online paper. 

check ebay first to use it as a price guide.

if not found, 


type the word in the google search bar and go from there

went to my first auction of this year and my first caravan.  It was fun!   No auctions in jan in my area. 

I was excited to attend to an auction and see/talked to some of the regulars. 

It was a pretty fun day.  The auction itself was a joke.  everyone joked and laughed at the items in the storage.  12 lockers total,

all together combined $170.00


yes i said it right.  All trashed or almost empty with broken furniture. 


Maybe next time! 

 

hes an idiot.


when i go to storage auction, i see what I like, not the resell value. 


If i see nice clean furnture and I think i ll use it here or there.  fine.

If i see some potential in the locker, i ll try to get it for cheap if possible.

Otherwise, im not going to be bidding on a huge wave of black trashbag all piled up. 


thats why its important to take a flash light to see any metal or mirror hiding behind the trashbags otherwise your bidding on dead lockers.

ahh, not so much today..   

but the 85.00 loss stings a bit. 

really?  3000 bucks?  whoa.. 


 

Yesterday, I drove over an hour to a town called Keene, Tx for 15 unit storage auction.  

I have never been to an auction that has more than 6 lockers up for bidding.  

Got there and parked besides a lady, my truck started sinking in a sinkhole because of all the rain that we got.  

 


same time, Im trying to get this truck out of it, sank even further down.  someone tried to come to my rescue, and still wouldnt budge.  

Im here freaking out on how the hell im gonna get this dang thing out.  Called a tow and went ahead to the first 2 lockers.  


This is the part that teed me off.  Most storage auctions i went to, started with a low number then worked its way up.  

not this one.  they just wanted their money back (defaulted loan)  first locker was a tiny locker, wanted started the bidding at $205 for a really scummy trashy locker.  WTF!!

2nd locker was even worse, wanted 285.    

he wouldnt go down so he marked it down as no bids and keeping it for next auction (to reel a sucker in somehere and some times)

pissed me off and everyone else.  everyone walked away and couldnt believe the prices.   That storage manager needs to get off from watching too much storage wars hoping the storage business will cash in.  

 

tow driver shows and i got my truck out of the sink hole,  broke my valance off but it was easily put back on later the day.  


to show up at that silly stupid place, costs me 85.00..     60 for tow and 25 for parts to put the valance back on.  


I m this close to calling the storage place and demand my money back.  

but im the one that drove over the sink hole.  


lesson learned and yesterday I was teed off...    


but did i go back to the auctioning?  Hell no with those prices hes starting out with.  Just left