Really nice living room set.   Saw them all the time, now that I want one.....nope.
Right when the housing bubble pop'd and forclosures started you could take your pick.
Unit after unit of nice, new stuff.   Now its back to the "why would someone even store that?" furniture.

That's the truth!! 

Guns are always hard to find.

I'm still waiting on canoes or kayaks & nice salt-water fishing tackle.

I've had to spend more time in the field like Movieman mentioned with picking and other avenues for getting inventory. Over the last year the quality of items in storage units in my area has gone down noticeably, and over the last 6 months the number going up for auction has gone down too. I attribute this to knowledge of the renters knowing their stuff WILL get sold at auction because of the TV shows, and probably a slight improving in the general economy.

I don't even think of the flea market sales in terms of profit anymore, it's just the last place to dispose of items that won't sell in other venues and the last stop before the donation center. I can see why Movieman would say profit is down, I know everything I buy has risen in price over the last 5 years but a load of stuff taken to the flea market doesn't bring in anymore money now then it did 5 years ago, so all costs are up over this time period but sales are flat.

Although I am more knowledgeable as to what things sell where and I don't take nearly as many goodies to the flea market for other pickers to pick off me as I use to. All that means is I make the same money but the buyers have less profitable items to pick.

Does anyone know if you can sell gun parts, ammunition, etc. on Etsy?

As long as you made them yourself out of Popsicle sticks and toothpicks! 

And how many would that be ?

Last year I bought 4, count 'em 4, lockers. This year my intent is to break that record by buying fewer than 4.

I should have taken up serious picking 2 years ago like some of my cronies did, but I stuck it out.  I still go to a handfull of auctions very close by, but haven't found a locker worth buying at a reasonable price since last May I think it was.

The end of the year between Thanksgiving and the New Year or until tax return checks start going out is supposed to be the time to pick up storage units on the cheap. Not so this year. No doubt the crazy crowds from a couple of years ago are gone but bidding really has not come down in any permanent way. Sometimes I will hit a light crowd and bidding will be reasonable but for the most part the new part-timers who have stuck it out just love to gamble or make money on small margins. I think the long term effect of the TV shows is units bid for about twice as much as before the TV shows even if the crowd size is about the same as pre-TV show crowds. I'm not looking forward to the new crowd of tax return newbies this Spring. I too am moving away from storage units as being a primary source of inventory and doing a lot more picking and wholesaling.

Is it legal to keep furniture, appliances, electronics or equipment if it's owned by a rent to own company?

Does a storage lien supersede the rental company's ownership?

Does anyone actually call the rental company to find out if the property has been paid for?

Are you talking about the stuff that gets sent straight to the auction house? 

Mostly cold calling in the beginning, now it's a matter of trying new things making new connections, and always trying to pick the brains of my local Craigslist and Facebook group buyers to see what they do for a living, what there hobbies or interests are, and who they know.

As far as my cohorts in the auction scene; they ain't sharin' chit!

The deep web is the subject of the Time magazine cover story on November 11, 2013.

Two statements from the story:

1) The web we know...19 terabytes of info....the deep web...7,500 terabytes of info.
    It is content not indexed by search engines, including illegal commerce sites like Silk Road,
    password protected sites, databases and old websites.

2) Topics of interest:
   
    fake passports, hit men, drugs, explosives, child porn, stolen identities, counterfeit currency, guns, etc.


Given #2 above are we still interested in selling an old lamp there ?

Bitcoins?  A whole other story. They are non-traceable and only have value for buying other things with bitcoins, though I suspect there is a place on the deep web where you can trade bitcoins for real cash...at a discount...giving money laundering a  new role in the 21st century.  A bitcoin's value fluctuates....currently in the $200 plus range.

The deep web?  Possible new home of Storme and Mr. Andersen. 

hmm, sounds like the beginning of the Matrix movie or some kind of blackhole a person could get sucked into if they are not careful.