Your assesment rings true in my area too.

One store owner drives 100 miles (one-way) to auctions in my area!  He can't afford to take that box-truck back empty so sometimes he pays a premium for stock. Hope he's making some profit.

Couldn't have been me, only 3 of the 5 units I bought were junk. 

40% of your units were good....that's a fantastic ratio !

First off, if you're actually siting home counting posts then you need a hobby. Second I said, "posting messages online". I did not say only at this website.

Well, excuuuuuuse me !  My hobby is waiting for your reaction to my posts...talk about needing something to do. Aren't there any electrical contracts floating around your area to take care of?  It's a toss-up on which of us needs a "life"....Cobia is a distant third !   

If you don't mind me asking...you keep saying it doesn't cost anything to list, yet you keep spending money to run the site. Why would you keep the site up and running without any revenues to support it?

He's a philanthropic kind of guy; does it out of the kindness of his heart. 

But I saw potential.. and it will make me money..

Yes, I think you said you might clear $100. At two days of work just tearing out the carpet/etc that doesn't amount to much.

I think the real value of this buy was that it will make you more cautious in the future in any regard.

Movieman, haven't you figured it out by now....

Yep, I figured it now. That's why now my main source for goods is PICKING !

I went to two auctions today that were only attended by NINE, count 'em NINE, people. And only 4 were regulars.

First place at 6 lockers and I bid on one (small but had at least ONE good item) and I stopped when the other regular went to $125....I bid my limit and didn't want to gamble on the rest of the contents (not much). I would have been really happy with it at $75 or so, but not to be.

Of the other five, there were two good ones but they went for $400 each and again I would have been comfortable with $250 to $300 based on what I saw. Just not that into gambling these days.

The second facility only had two lockers. First sold for $40. Second was a 10 x 30 about 3/4 full (aisle down the middle) but most particle board (which is OK if in good shape) and 13 year old Maytag washer/dryer. It went for $500...not enough smalls for me...and too many BIGS.

******

Yesterday I saw a guy (new of about 6 months) pay $350 for a lkr (10 x 15). I told him there was an item I was interested in so he took me in after he paid. The item wasn't quite what I wanted, but the information I gleaned WAS.
Boxes were empty. Cover over about a 10 foot by 6 foot area was covering low, lateral files cabinets (full of papers),
other stuff was worth about $200 at the most. His comment, "Man, I got screwed!"  Should have been "Man I screwed myself!"

Maybe he sold it locally as a private sale.

That's probably it. It wouldn't be hard to do since his phone number was in the ad. The only thing he might have lost by not letting the sale go through as an auction was the potential of a higher price, but with only a few days left and no bids he might have been better off just taking the local offer.