No doubt this has been safely stored somewhere for the last 50 years !

http://www.rollingstone.com/music/news/beatles-autographed-wall-from-ed-sullivan-show-headed-to-auction-20140206

Some of the data above speaks only to number of cities and size of the states mentioned, but it is to indicate that for the most part population density is going to be a big factor in how many lockers are for sale in any given city/state.

A state like Alaska obviously has a lot of territory but not many people. The most populous states will obviously have more lockers up for sale.

Hence, there are no tv shows named:

Storage Wars, Montana.
Storage Wars, Nebraska.
Storage Wars, Iowa.

I'd have to say yes.  Only purchased in two different states, but in general California does have some pretty decent lockers.  That being said, the competition here is pretty fierce.  If an epic unit comes up for sale, be prepared to duke it out with a large group of whales and drop a substantial amount of cash to win it.

And of course it would be appropriate to note that you are in SAN DIEGO, which is quite a bit different than living in say Bakersfield, Burson, Turlock or Redding, not to mention the other almost 500 incorporated cities/towns in our state. 

Sure, we all want to find gold bars, vintage collectibles, but what DO we (or you) find in storage auction lockers on a regular basis?

I'll start:

Mattresses (mostly bad, some good)

•   In January of 2011 a member named Mr. Andersen said this :

So is it like they say, that there are more good stuff in CA???
Here in memphis where i am, it can be either hit or miss, and when you miss you miss BADLY, lol and when you find a good one it is never like you see on tv from CA. The best i find is new stuff like, car parts, jewelry, and furniture. Sometimes odd collectibles.
But i have never seen guns, pinball machines, jukeboxes, or any of the good stuff on tv. lol


How about it California members….is it true that crap in California is better than crap everywhere else ? 

If interest in storage auctions is slowing, why would we be looking for other ways to make money? Wouldn't it be time to get back into it since there will be fewer people in attendance?

That's one way to look at it. But, I think Cobia is a pretty good example of what is happening at least right now. And I parallel his experience.

When I look at his eBay listings it's pretty easy for me to tell that the bulk of his listings are NOT from a storage locker.

My personal experience (and that of a half dozen others here) shows people pulling away from buying lockers. Maybe some of the regulars will drift back in (and out) but once someone has started a physical store with a lot of overhead they want to maximize their effort and at least in my area, the quality of the lockers doesn't provide them with enough goods to do that, so they are looking elsewhere for stock.

It may be an area by area thing too.  A big metro area like Dallas/Ft. Worth, Seattle, New York, Los Angeles, etc may have better lockers, but those areas make up a very small part of 50 states full of empty land and few lockers.

Has anyone noticed how we seldom if ever hear from a lot of the plains states, some of the southern states about anything going on in the storage auction business?  Maybe there just isn't much going on there.

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.

In my opinion, for what it's worth to anyone reading this, the next year or so (maybe 18 months) will see a drastic drop-off in any interest in things storage auction related.  I think the trend is definitely down...but fortunately there are other ways to make money.