A facility manager told this story.

We had a customer for 8 years...paid over 10K for her storage rents....every time I explained how much she was spending, including late fees, lock cuts and almost auction's she would cry to me that all her baby pictures and baby furniture was in there. I told her we would keep her personals and she could come pick them up if her unit went to auction. It finally came to that....her unit sold for 5 bucks! Because.....There was only 1 photo album in there with 2 pictures in the whole album. 2 plastic bags of clothes and a desk!!!! She paid over 10K to store this stuff!!!! My customers never stop amazing me with their stupidity!

I'm not much of a public speaker, but I do have a knack for getting my message out.

Getting the word out about one's services in one-on-one personal meetings is equally important (if not more so) than being able to promote a service through the written word on websites.  People like to feel a handshake, look a promoter in the eye and get a sense of what someone is like in person...not just in the printed word on a screen page.

Also, the free aspect is one of the things you promote as being different than anyone else, and perhaps that is a good thing, or perhaps not. The main roadblock (as I see it) at the present time is not having any substanial presence of regular, on-going listings.  Of course if you can't effectively push the FREE aspect, it's a little hard to give them much more than that.

In my area storage facilities don't list their auctions on cList, but I did get a terrific deal on renting a locker through a facility cList ad.

The place was in an OK part of town and the deal was offered by new management. The deal was any locker for $15 a month for each of 3 months. I took the biggest one they had, a 10 x 30. I used it as a clearing house for lockers I bought at their facility each month for the next 3 months and then I was gone.  Thanks managers !

This place used to have sealed bids and now they are using the Dotson crew and there are no deals to be had in any way. Oh well, back to picking.

I got a new flashlight for Christmas......I'm going to buy twice as many lockers this year as last!

And how many would that be ?

Last year I bought 4, count 'em 4, lockers. This year my intent is to break that record by buying fewer than 4.

I should have taken up serious picking 2 years ago like some of my cronies did, but I stuck it out.  I still go to a handfull of auctions very close by, but haven't found a locker worth buying at a reasonable price since last May I think it was.

In my area of central California a 10 x 15 typically rents for $100 to $125 but I talked to someone who lives just 100 miles away in Marin county near San Francisco.  Their price.... $600 !  She called another place and it was only $400 but they had a WAITING LIST !

What are the rates in your area for a 10 x 15?

The only winning move is not to play.

And fortunately the Cuban missile crisis didn't turn into anything worse.

I think you have to be a real vinyl fan to do well in this category, but in my area I often see three guys in thrift stores gong through a couple of hundred LPs to find the winners.

I also see these fellows looking at 45rpms to find that first edition of an Elvis title.

Do any of you have experience with records that makes you think they are worth the effort?

Bump it baby !