A theory that there are fewer good (or even average) lockers due to people paying up their locker bills might be right in my area at least. A result of the tv shows might be that lkr owners are seeing that their stuff will be sold if they don't pay. 

That's my theory too.  Not only are the "get rich quick" crowd watching the shows, but so are the people renting the storage units.  I think they see that their stuff could be sold, so many of them are not putting their best stuff in there like they used to.

Overall, I see the quality of lockers has declined dramatically.  I hear this from other seasoned bidders, property managers, and even the district managers.  Even some of the newer buyers that got in at the beginning (or was it really the end?) have mentioned that the quality has really dropped just since they started.

I did have a customer get to me a bit a few weeks ago. I had an item listed at $350 and they were coming from 40 miles away...thought I had it made. She offered me $300 and I said "I'm pretty firm on that price." Her comeback was "Are you sure about that ?"  Pretty "ballsy" for someone who might be making an 80 mile round trip for nothing, but I hesitated before responding and she came up with "How about $325?"  That was fine with me and considering that I had only paid $30 for the item it was REALLY fine!

We had some commercial double sided and single sided gondola shelving on CL.  Guy calls and we agree to hold it for him and he agreed our price was firm.  He rents a Uhaul truck, and drives all the way up from the Portland area (we had our racking in Everett, about 30 miles North of Seattle).  He gets here and then he wants to bargain.  We were like "buddy, you just rented a uhaul and drove hundreds of miles after agreeing to the price.  The price is what it is, we aren't dropping it a dime".  He pissed and moaned, but what was he gonna do?  He whips out the cash and we loaded him up.

Meanwhile, Clist has been pretty dead for me the last 4 weeks or so. Either the wrong items, wrong pricing or ?? . 

Craigslist has been slow for a while now.  Not just me either, I've talked to at least 5-6 people locally that agree it has really fallen off.  Also, I've noticed that on my ads for anything that's over 100 bucks, most of the offers I'm getting are people that want to trade stupid stuff.....it's like nobody has cash any more! 

I love Kmart around Christmas time!  Try getting in to Walmart and the crowds and lines are terrible.  But, head over to Kmart and associates are standing around with nothing to do, there's no line at the registers, it's like your own private little store!  I don't know how they stay in business around here!

I put the small car specific ones out at the garage sales or swap for $2-$3 each and always sell, and I put the big thick ones out for $7-$10 and they move fast!

Went to a small facility today.  Nice crowd, mostly regulars.  Anyway, this place is a "silent bid" type auction.  First unit I got had three top boxes showing....you know, the big ones that sit on a bottom box and hold lot's of tools.  There was also one bottom box showing, and a couple of smaller tool boxes.

I hate to disclose my secrets in case one of my locals reads this and starts bidding against me, but here goes:

I whipped out my bid slip, and I tried to give it my best guess what it might be worth and how much some of the other bidders might go.  I ended up bidding $375.88 (I never bid a solid number on silent bid......I always add some cents).  Anyway, all bids are in, and second bid was $375.00!  I won it by .88 cents!

So we do a few more lockers, I lost another one by 30 bucks, didn't bid on a couple of others. and came to another locker I was kind of interested in.  Had a perfect armoire in it, and nice table with leaves, another glass table with the glass, a nice persian style rug, and some mattresses. 

I don't like mattresses that much, but I have sold quite a few and made money on them.  I also know that most of the guys there would be scared away by the mattresses.  So I asked the owner if I bid on it, would he give me more time to clean it out.  He said I could have an extra week.  Cool!

So, I bid 101.88 on it.  Okay, this is no BS, and there were lot's of witnesses, but second bid on it was 101.01.....I won it by .87 cents!  I couldn't believe it....two in one day and I only left 1.75 on the table!  I'll NEVER get that lucky again!

That's what I hate about the silent bid auctions the most....you want to win without being 100 bucks over the next highest bid.  That was close!  As a note, a friend and I lost one at this same facility a couple years ago by .01 cent!  That was a bummer!

Anyway, started going through the tool box one.  I was going to take a picture before I dug in, but got excited....sorry....

So far, I got three top boxes, one craftsman, two other I forget at the moment.  I got two bottom boxes of which one went with my craftsman top box.  Now the good part......tons and tons of tools!  Usually they aren't there, or they're all chinese junk, but I got a lot of craftsman stuff! 

Also, got a snap on tool cart!  I was using that to move stuff back and forth to my truck....I may keep that at home and not sell it!  Got a newer video camera, and jumper box for starting cars, a car floor jack, a 1/2" impact gun and a 3/8" impact gun.  A really nice craftsman tool box....like an ice chest with handle and wheels, like new. 

Anyway, I'm far from through it all, but in addition to the tools and other stuff I've already mentioned, so far I have an army foot locker, nice crab ring with rope, (perfect time to sell that!) sewing machine in cabinet, lot's of fishing gear and a nice large plano tacklebox, dewalt screw gun, mechanics creeper, ton's of Chiltons manuals, brand new pair of boots, couple pairs of converse and shaq tennis shoes, some pretty nice jackets and lot's and lot's of other stuff I haven't even made it to yet.  I am thinking I will do very well on both! 

As I clean them out over the next couple of days, I'll try to get some pictures up here. 

I know it's hard to believe, but I think the show is getting worse all the time! 

Finally!  The crowds seem to be at least slightly thinning and the prices seem to be coming down.  I went to a facility today that has had 60-80 bidders for the last year or so.....today only about 15 bidders.  Had 8 lockers for sale, and they all sold between $1 and $200. 

I got a little 5x5 for 60 bucks.  No big ticket items, but a nice stainless microwave and a couple of tools and I'll have my money back.  Leaves me lot's of stuff to take out to the swap meet this week end. 

I have many auctions to go in the next week and a half, so we'll see if this was just a fluke or if things are really getting better.  I've got my fingers crossed!