Trashy unit? Are you kidding? Based on what you described (washer & dryer $175, furniture $130, clock $60, art $115) thats practically a treasure chest in my neck of the woods! LOL.  Looks like you turned a profit as well. Anyway, like others have said welcome to the club! The sad thing is if your not careful those units can get A LOT uglier.

Don't forget to consider having a Tetanus shot/booster. You need a new one about every 10 years. I sliced my leg on some rusty metal equipment I was cleaning out of a unit and it made me think about it.

@ AlabamaDude,

Yep, the worse they can so is no. I have been to some auctions where the auctioneer or facility manager won't take less then a $25 bid, but if it is clearly a trash unit or very little contents then most auctioneers will take a $1 opening bid.

I won a unit like that for $1 just for the treasure hunt and experience. I found $2 in change, found about a dozen pieces of clothes that were sellable, a couple of old video game cartridges, a couple of sellable books. Might make $20 at flea market with what I found. The bad news, spent two hours cleaning it out and $5 at the dump.

I don't think I will do any more trash units, even for $10 or $1, if I don't see money in it, I'm not buying it!

@ Bayernscr,

"Went to the first auction at 10 am...30 people or so in attendance...The first locker looked really good...10x20 neatly organized, alot of boxes, you could see tools and "guy" stuff...Went for $850....The next 5 were all ****....and went for over 600 each.. Not one should have brought more than 100-200 in my opinion..people showing up in their personal vehicles bringing the family,"

I know what you mean. I think the cost of living is more in your area then mine, so to see obvious new husband and wife teams showing up to the auction with 2 or 3 or 4 or more stair-step kids and then dropping $1000 on most likely their first units, and then they are excited about it!!!...I just think, oh those poor souls, they have no idea what they just did!

I have seen buyers remorse set in immediately a couple of times already. One senior couple dropped $750 on a stacked 10 x 20, but there was a 10% buyers premium they forgot about. oops, that will be $825. When I went in the office to pay for my $120 unit, $132 with buyers premium, they were both shaking like they just stepped out of a swim in Lake Michigan in December!

Another couple dropped $2000 on a stacked out 10 x 30. Looking at what was in there, tons of furniture, a seasoned locker buyer with the ability to move, sort, and several sales channels would make good money on that unit, but the couple that won just stood there dumbfounded after they realized they had one. People kept trying to talk to them about the unit they won, "So do you have a moving truck and some guys to help you" "Do you own a thrift store?" They stood with thier mouths open just staring for a few minutes. We all started walking to the next door and the couple was heading to the office (I guess one 10 x 30 for $2000 was enough for the day) the guy was just drenched in sweat! Now it was a hot day, but just a few minutes earlier he was only glistening, and now he was drenched and he did'nt move the first box yet!

I am still waiting on...

1. a "guns" unit (unit with multiple handguns, rifles, shotguns, etc.)

2. a gold & silver collection (unit with hoards of gold $ silver coins, & jewelry)

I don't ask for much, do I 

" Any working washer or dryer, no matter how old will bring $150 within hours on craigslist."

I would have to drop it to $75 in my area to get it to move within hours on Craigslist. Same with average refrigerators. Just shows how prices vary by region.

It depends on the stuff in the unit and how large the unit is and how much time I have.

When I encounter a unit with stuff just thrown about and not properly packed I tend to sort out garbage into separate garbage bags and put the good stuff in boxes or totes.

When I am not pressed for time and have a small unit, I tend to look through the boxes on site and look for goodies.

When I have a large unit, no time for peeking, load it up and get it out.

Jeremy,

In my opinion Glendon Cameron is an expert on the storage auction industry. I purchased one of his books and this is my advice to you. If you have done zero research into the business, have not attended any auctions, and no nothing about storage auctions, then his book(s) would be a good investment. In my case I had already started buying lockers before I purchased his book, so most of the information I had already learned on may own and in some cases already made some of the mistakes he warns against. I would suggest watching his videos on YouTube, there are about 180 videos devoted to storage auctions and you will get 75-80% of the information in the book(s) from the videos. If you like what you see purchase the book(s).

Don't expect Glendon or any other source or forum to tell you step-by-step how to take $500 to the storage auctions and two years later have a chain of thrift stores in your city/region.