Movieman, you're totally right as far as the evaluations being way off.  Not only are the appraisals from the professionals unrealistic, but the buyers 1st guess on items as they're pulling them out are 4-5 times high. 

I can barely stomach watching any of the shows now because of how predictable they are.  If it's a crap locker you know someone's going to score an item in the back work 2-3K.  I've been doing this over 2 years and have purchased 94 lockers and have yet to find any single item of value over $900.  I can literally count on both hands the items that have been worth in the $500 to $900 range.  These guys find items worth over $1,000 in every other locker!  If you're new and thinking about hitting it big with one purchase you're better off going to the casino.

Just the other day the Texas big guys pulled out a Lane Cedar chest in decent condition.  "That's an easy $400-$500 all day," said the bigger man.  It took me 3 months to sell a cherry Lane Cedar chest recently and I got $80 for it here in the Seattle market. 

Merry Christmas and a Happy and prosperous New Year!   

Thanks for the comments.  I just had a garage sale so my double garage has the room.  I was able to sort and load the 3 units from the 1st facility onsite, and then I packed all of the 10x20 into one side of my garage.  It was a solid wall of product (over 200 boxes) 8'wide x 7' tall x 25' long or so.  I just finished sorting the 10x20 which generated a lot of great garage sale items, awesome furniture, donations, and a fair amount of trash.  Both facilities were within 10 minutes of my house which was a plus. 

Time to focus on selling for two weeks and then back to the auctions....

When the right situation arises and the deals are too good (this is rare) have you ever overloaded yourself with too many lockers at once?  I've been really patient the last few months and was lucky to find a little honey hole of a facility that only hosts auctions once a year.  They do it silent bid by appt. only, and before I sealed my bids I got out of the manager that she only has 6 total bidders turn out for the auction.  I actually saw her list on the counter and only recognized one of the names.     The next day she called me with the results and I picked up 2 10X10's and a 5x10 for $377.  The next day I picked up a 10x20 indoor full house hold unit completely packed for $449 at another silent auction right down the street.  I'm not complaining and will do well with these units, but it was quite the undertaking to move this large amount of product.  You never know when these types of opportunities will arise, and I think you need to capitalize if you have the time and space.  Thoughts?

I started reading that long winded response and got bored quickly and stopped reading.  Maybe it was because I had the Monday Night game on?  No, just boring and a waste of a read.......

LOL!!

Oh great.  How do you say "Yup" in Canadian, eh?

Sorry it was a bust for you.  I too am hoping that this month brings some reasonable opportunities, but I'm afraid that like Movieman my expectations will fade with the sound of more "Yups" and crap lockers going for 10 fold.....