Has anybody run across any auctioneers with shills / fake buyers in the crowd? I've had a couple situations come up recently, involving two different auctioneers, that have been really frustrating. In the first case the rumor is that the auctioneer has people in the crowd bidding just to get the price up. After hearing this we payed closer attention to exactly who was bidding and there was a guy from out of the area that none of the regulars knew that was bidding on almost every locker. The auctioneer was calling him by name and a peek at the sign up sheet revealed that the guy was from the same town as the auctioneer. On the other hand the bidder did win at least two of the lockers so maybe he's legit? One of the regular buyers in our area has had previous issues with this auctioneer where at an auction he was outbid on a very expensive unit (several thousand) and afterwards the auctioneer contacted him to say the buyer backed out and did he still want it for his last bid? He thinks it was a shill and he refused the offer.

In the case of the other auctioneer, I've only attended his auctions twice. In both cases people in the crowds ended up very upset and there were shouting matches between the angry buyers and the auctioneer. Funny, I've never seen this happen between any other auctioneer and a buyer but it's happened twice now with this auctioneer. Anyway, the auctioneer has a couple of guys that stand to either side of him watching the crowd to spot bids. It's very chaotic and loud with them alternately shouting out "here" and pointing into the crowd. Over and over again there is confusion over the amount of the last bid and several times when bidders tried to see who the supposed bidder on the other side of the crowd is it gets retracted by the spotter with a "oh wait, you had the last bid". Hard to explain but basically it appears that the spotters are just getting a buyer to keep bidding himself up. If anyone else reading this has been to this auctioneers auctions you probably know exactly who I'm talking about.   

"DID YOU GET A CROWD APPEARANCE FEE-OR DID YOU JUST SIGN A WAIVER FOR APPEARING ON THE SHOW? Or with 'reality' shows-do they even have to do that?"

No appearance fee and yes we had to sign a waiver. They also covered any writing or logo's on our clothing with black tape. Regular people in the crowd did do some bidding but of course they aren't wearing microphones or being filmed. Basically there are camera guys following each of (and only) the main characters. I would imagine if there was a unit that was absolutely not worth having their character win it they would just let a regular win it and then edit it out of the show. They only showed, I think, 3 of the 5 units sold that day on the show. Also they do 'library footage' between lockers where they just point the camera at different people in the crowd and instruct you to raise your hand as if you were bidding or making an 'I'm out type gesture' and they add these shots in later so when you see crowd bids they are not the real bids that actually happened. Based on how high the units go, I really think the show is paying for the units because the actors/buyers don't seem to care how high they go. It's just about winning the unit.

I don't understand how Dave Hester's legal battles preventing him from attending a few filmings has anything to do with the show being fake. It's a TV show. A real TV show. The cast are real auction buyers. The auctions are even real auctions (sort of). I imagine either the producers or Hester's attorney suggested he stay away until things settled. What does that have to do with the authenticity of the TV show? The only 'fake' part would be what they supposably find in the lockers. As we all know the cool and valuable finds are few and far between. It's reality TV so obviously they have to spice it up to keep up their ratings otherwise who would watch it. I guess you could define that as fake but I just think its TV's spin on a real profession.

I was in attendance at an auction that they were at and aired from last season. It was a real scheduled auction that I was attending with the intention of buying. It was a shock to all of us when the whole Storage Wars cast and crew showed up. There were two locations. Pooring rain. First place had about 5 units. Pretty ugly units, not staged. The cast bought them all but some of the regular buyers bid as well and could have bought them but of course prices were ridiculous. Second location had only 3 units and at the last minute the show decided to pass on it and said they had enough footage from the first location. I got a unit at the second location, good one too. Anyway, back to the first place, they didn't film the part where they find out what they got until the next day so none of us were there. This is the fake part, lol! Without bothering to go into detail, there were some subtle changes that resulted in some cool finds. Ran the dvr back and forth several times to check and yes there were some add ins that weren't there the previous day. That is reality TV for ya. I have to say I watch the show in a whole new light after that experience. Ok, yeah maybe it's a little fake. Now if you want to talk about total fake, lets talk about Storage Hunters.....aaarrrggghhh

I totally get what you mean. From the time you pay for the unit until the break even sale there's always that feeling of concern and the minute you break even and realize you still have stuff to sell a huge weight is lifted off your shoulders. My favorite units are the ones where there's one nice item you can sell immediately to get over the hump.

another one: little velvet or wooden jewelry boxes with nothing in them but a tiny note describing the item that should be in them. "Mom's antique 18k necklace", "Dad's gold cufflinks".....

Bought a large household type unit a few days ago. Lots of stuff. Several dump loads but plenty of good stuff to offset the trash. Oddest thing in the unit was a rectangular wooden box, maybe 1' by 2' with a cross on the top. Several ziplock bags of locks of hair. All labeled with names and info like first haircut...Then further down the bags of hair contained what appeared to be cat hair with pet type names on them. In the bottom of the box were....the cats! Cremated remains of 4 cats. All I can say is thank goodness there were no human remains.