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New to Storage Auctions? / My First Storage Auction ... Now I'm Hooked! NEED ADVICE FOR NEXT TIME!
« on: December 24, 2012, 04:10:09 PM »
So, I decided to take the fam to a storage unit auction down the road last wed. or thur. It was on a whim, kind of, but I just had to. I'm a sucker for the shows. My goal was to at least *bid* one time on something. I was not planning on buying anything. Mainly because:
1) I'm a newbie, and didn't expect to buy a unit until my 3-5th time.
2) We have limited garage space
3) How the heck are we going to transport it? That would be a lot of work.
So anyway, there were 11 units up for auction, or so, and 20 people there. It looked like there were not many newbies, so I thought I could learn quite a bit.
The auctioneer had a cowboy hat on, which was a plus, and a fast talker. That alone was enough for me to go
On our way, we saw a lady selling some things out of her unit, so my wife and I split off for a few minutes to see what she had. My wife has a good eye for kiddo things, so she went ahead and made a deal with a lady. She spent $80 with her, and it looks like we'll pull $250 profit out of it all!
Well, the next to last locker, I saw some things that I liked, and it was like a switch turned on from "I don't stand a chance...I'm just a rookie" to "Anything below $450 and this is MINE!"
Well, I got it for $375!!!!
It took 2 trips to bring it all home, and it was exhilarating. I was careful, because I was told by someone that out of every 100 units you buy, generally, 99 are junk.
Well, this one was an awesome starter! 35 new Pampered Chef items, 29 new interior decorating items, tons of various kitchen things, some jewelry, 13 purses/bags (Coach, BeBe, and even some fake LV / Chanel), lots of toys, etc. Heck, even about $50 cash!
It took a lot ... and I mean a LOT of work to process through it all. I think my wife came close to pulling an all nighter going through things, and I had spent a few days just listing all the stuff.
As it sits now, we have pretty much everything listed online (or 99% at least?) and are $116 away from being in the black with the unit, and have toooonsss to go. Conservatively speaking, I'd say we have $600 cash profit, when all is said and done.
Now, for the questions:
- I asked before, but WHERE TO SELL QUICKLY? I read the faq ... is there anything else people recommend? I typically list things concurrently on both craig's list and ebay. Things never seem to sell as fast as I want them to!
- What is your method of sorting / processing / listing it all? It was almost as if we had to shut down life for a day to get situated. Don't get me wrong, it was a flat out BLAST for us, but holy smokes - time consuming! I think next time, we are going to have several piles: Trash | Recycle | Goodwill | Research | List
- Any other pointers???
1) I'm a newbie, and didn't expect to buy a unit until my 3-5th time.
2) We have limited garage space
3) How the heck are we going to transport it? That would be a lot of work.
So anyway, there were 11 units up for auction, or so, and 20 people there. It looked like there were not many newbies, so I thought I could learn quite a bit.
The auctioneer had a cowboy hat on, which was a plus, and a fast talker. That alone was enough for me to go
On our way, we saw a lady selling some things out of her unit, so my wife and I split off for a few minutes to see what she had. My wife has a good eye for kiddo things, so she went ahead and made a deal with a lady. She spent $80 with her, and it looks like we'll pull $250 profit out of it all!
Well, the next to last locker, I saw some things that I liked, and it was like a switch turned on from "I don't stand a chance...I'm just a rookie" to "Anything below $450 and this is MINE!"
Well, I got it for $375!!!!
It took 2 trips to bring it all home, and it was exhilarating. I was careful, because I was told by someone that out of every 100 units you buy, generally, 99 are junk.
Well, this one was an awesome starter! 35 new Pampered Chef items, 29 new interior decorating items, tons of various kitchen things, some jewelry, 13 purses/bags (Coach, BeBe, and even some fake LV / Chanel), lots of toys, etc. Heck, even about $50 cash!
It took a lot ... and I mean a LOT of work to process through it all. I think my wife came close to pulling an all nighter going through things, and I had spent a few days just listing all the stuff.
As it sits now, we have pretty much everything listed online (or 99% at least?) and are $116 away from being in the black with the unit, and have toooonsss to go. Conservatively speaking, I'd say we have $600 cash profit, when all is said and done.
Now, for the questions:
- I asked before, but WHERE TO SELL QUICKLY? I read the faq ... is there anything else people recommend? I typically list things concurrently on both craig's list and ebay. Things never seem to sell as fast as I want them to!
- What is your method of sorting / processing / listing it all? It was almost as if we had to shut down life for a day to get situated. Don't get me wrong, it was a flat out BLAST for us, but holy smokes - time consuming! I think next time, we are going to have several piles: Trash | Recycle | Goodwill | Research | List
- Any other pointers???
I'm in southern Texas.