I went to the first local auction of the year yesterday. A hand full of people I saw at the first auction a month ago. There were two units being auctioned. After doing some research I found some possible information. One locker belonged to a 70 year old gentleman, who had been arrested recently on DUI charges, and the second belonged to an 82 year old woman in a retirement village. It’s a bit easier in a smaller than 200,000 population area to find info on people with rare last names. I find the research helps a little bit, or would seem to.

There were about 15 people present. Five I would say were bidders and the rest were more interested in looking. The first locker belonged to the 70 year old man. In it was a stuffed toy horse, a broken table, a recliner and a couch, older washer and dryer and some wine bottles. These lockers were not completely closed off from the elements/weather. There were some leaves and lots of dirt. The furniture and stuffed toy were water stained, and the washer and dryer looked old and as if they had seen better days. The bidding went to $115.00.

The next locker was very dirty and things had been thrown in, some clothes were not in bags or boxes just thrown in. There were some bags of trash (really trash, open food cans and news papers wadded up and such in them) and lots of old cassette tapes, ironing board thrown on top, mattress with box springs that had lots of water stains, a old lamp and some odd stuff. I was told later that it went for over $500.00.

I admit to being new to this, but not to auctions. I wonder if anyone bidding really saw the true value that was visible for the prices they bid. I hope they make some money and don’t just have to make dump runs. The apartment building where these storage units were located is one of the cheapest in town, so there’s another clue.  I am sure many of you that have been doing this for a long time could shed some light with a lot of wisdom. Here is my opinion. The first locker, get a clue, washer and dryer units in our area are on craigslist for $100-150 a pair.  The other unit was at least on the visible part a dump run. $500 is a lot for something that looks like it was packed with a front end loader.

Well there is another auction Friday with 15+ units at several nice locations, I’ll see what that’s like.

My first storage locker auction was fun. There were around 20 people. Some serious, some just having an afternoon of fun, enjoying seeing the insides of the lockers. I found most of the people interesting, but a very diverse crowd of people. Some professional business type people, some flea market people, some retired people, some housewives, some farm guys, and all were very pleasant people, about 20 in all. Lockers ranged from $75-$475 and were what I would think of as pretty standard.
One woman seemed to be trying extremely hard to win every locker, the word win here may not be appropriate, since she would go after every locker and seem so happy at being high and getting the contents. One locker had cheap headboard, broken dresser and a tire. The furniture was very poor quality. She “won” for $75 the only bid. One locker had an older dryer, an empty box and street sign (illegal here), she paid $85 for that one, and would seem to be in heaven for having bought it. She seemed very nice, but I would guess she is shooting then aiming.
One gentlemen regaled me with stories of his wins and losses. He said he bid $350.00 on a locker the month before only to find out that the Colt pistol boxes (4 of them) were empty along with several high end rifle and shotgun boxes. He said the only other thing was a bag of clothes so he threw it all in the dumpster. I did inform him that empty Colt boxes can fetch $125 or so on eBay, he thought I was lying.
Oh well, we all live and learn.
Greg