I saw the quest to get people to post about their treasures.  We were going to take Feb off but went to an auction last week and won 1 locker for $475.  I did not want it, it was a total boys unit but my husband was intent on it being his.  Could be the military black boxes stacked in front with a half naked statue of some chick with wings and a sword perched on top of them- I don't know, either way we won it. 

It is the best locker.  About 75 unopened vintage Ral Partha and Grenadier D&D figure sets.  200 vintage Magic magazines.  200 vintage D&D handbooks and guides and accessory kits.  20 Unpainted dragon sets.  Snap on tools. magic the gathering, yugioh, warlords, science fiction books, aviator suits, snow boots, military tags, unique coins and foreign money to name a few.  No trash.  No dump run. A $150 dolly brand new.  A nice broom and professional dust pan and a box of cleaning supplies.  A bow and arrow set with case, a some kind of gun long barrel - no gun- plus more.  Oh yes, comic books.  of course there are lol. 

I would, and tried to when we first got in the business.  It ended up backfiring, I got harrassed by the owner and then the owner's daughter, and I tried to sell them a particular item they kept whining about for a measly $10 and then they never showed up.  I sold it on Ebay for $100 later.  Now when I see owners there trying to win their stuff back, I just steer clear.

Me and the husband- Ok mostly the husband- and if it's very heavy a friend or two like this week with the 6 we had to clean out in 48 hours.  I would hire someone though if the score was enough to make up for the cost of it.

Cash most likely, just because, although there was someone today telling everyone how she found $400 cash yesterday from a unit she paid $5 for.  (noone was impressed). 

I have found that I am uncomfortable telling our friends that a book sold for $575, though I don't know why I am?  I don't even want them to view our listings really, which is strange. I feel like it is just a glimpse of the total picture, and gives the wrong impression about this business and our life now. This could also be because we have had more than 5 people we know, wow you do storage auctions, I want to do that too and follow us around.  I prefer to be vague and not talk specifics in person though I don't mind sharing basically anonymously online   

It is slower in the Pacific NW for sure, several places actually told me that they specifically are not holding them this month because of the holidays.   Around here anyway, January should be pretty busy.

Looks clean, nice!

My husband is more of the storage gambler than I am, sometimes it pays off and sometimes... umm... not.  We often split up and go to different places if same auction times.  Even with some of the losses, he has done pretty well with his 'gut' including one that I didn't want that he won for $55 3 months ago.  I have to give him credit, we have made about $2000 so far, and will continue to make money off of it for the next 6 months.  From the door all you could see was stacks of old newspaper that looked to be a hoarders unit.  Everyone groaned and walked off except for him and one other guy.  We found thousands of old books -1800s and early sports books- in the back under the piles of newspaper... one that brought $300 itself and a few others that brought a total of $850 on Ebay as a group.   

I was going to delete and never come back but decided to placate movie's old eyes 


A few weeks ago we found an actual treasure chest from 1877. Technically it's a Victorian era woman's dome top trunk done in really ornate tin and wood.  It's so cool, I just love it.  We paid $165 for the locker and I was excited about it until we (husband and I) started digging and realized the furniture was extremely beat up and we had no  choice but to go to the dump.  They were using this antique storage to throw their random bills and hair stuff in... I mean really, it's not refinished so they truly just kept damaging it.  We will definitely get our money back from the locker, but it was a lot of work.  

The best one out of the 5 we won we paid $130 for and we almost sold everything in it, from the new bedset to the tables, kid stuff.  It's really interesting to see how quality stuff sells fast no matter what time of year or area you are in if you price it right, and average stuff can take forever even if you are practically giving it away.  

The worst unit we got out of the 5 ended up being a straight up 'tweaker' unit, paid $110, with dirty used needles scattered through everything.  It was horrifying, and I told him unless he sees a pot of gold sitting right out front in plain view I never want to deal with an obvious unit like that.  I didn't even want to touch anything, so we carefully took out all the electronics and good stuff, and made a dump run with everything else.  

We try not to go to the dump very often, I try to give away stuff for free or freecycle as much as possible but those 2 units there was nothing else we could do.  

The most surprising unit we won out the last tour we bought for $95, and all the old timers were laughing at my dh when he won it.  I did not want it, but he was determined that there was something in there.  It appeared to be a trashy unit with old car parts up front and lots of old boxes in the back, and stuff was scattered.  I wasn't thrilled about it, but ended up finding several large boxes of legit collectibles and cool stuff like original coke crates, 1st edition yugioh cards, train set, etc.  

So the most profit came from the good quality stuff locker, the most surprising was the most trashy looking locker, and the worst was the tweaker locker.  The other 2 lockers were run of the mill average ones that I'm still sorting through and have been selling a few pieces of furniture from here and there.  We are going tomorrow, so hopefully it will be a good day.