I bought a unit for $150, it was full of furniture.  Unfortunately, the furniture was crap, BUT, my wife and sold it all and made 630 off of it.  So we had a profit of $480, we were hooked.  This unit also has some Cobra CB radios that sold decent on ebay.  Lots of trash though.  That was the hardest part for me when I first started was managing all the trash and junk in my garage.

I'm curious Terry, was this auction advertised online, e.g. auctionzip.xxx?  Also, what region of the country are you in?

Baseball cards still sell.  You won't pay off your mortgage with them but they can bring in some cash.  It's all about attitude and hard work.  I know a guy who buys sports cards off of craiglist in bulk, and strips them down and sells everything from it and makes a huge percentage of profit.  He will even sell the plastic card sheets in bulk that he pulls from card books on ebay and they sell.  The common "crappy" cards he will sort into team lots and sell them on ebay and some where some one is searching their favorite team on ebay and will throw down some money on it.  Of course, though, I'd much prefer the easy dream too and hit a unit packed full of perfectly graded Mickey Mantle rookie cards.

Eventually people will get their fill and the numbers will dwindle.  The number one reason why most noobs will struggle to find success in this line of work is a majority see it as a get rich scheme.  Unfortunately for them, they will quickly realize that notion couldn't be farther from the truth.  People are lazy as hell and once they realize how much work is actually required to make profit, they will be turned off and look else where.  I was at an auction the other day and some noobs were shocked that they had to deposit money to the storage unit and wouldn't get their money back until the unit was cleaned out, and at this particular business, it was a $100 deposit.  That definitely turned them away from bidding.  I could be wrong I guess, lazy people can change too.  I also avoid all auctions listed on auctionzip.xxx, to much traffic, and those auctions are the easiest for noobs to search. 

I've sold so much stuff on CL that's under $50.  I don't set an amount/limit on an item for it to qualify for CL.  If I know it will move, I'll do it.  Beats taking up space in my garage. 

What I threw out was broken stuff.  Not taking my chances throwing items in working condition. 

When delinquent tenants unit is behind, the managers/operators of the storage facility need to post an ad, it is the law.  So, naturally, these companies want to get some money back, so it is a common procedure to cut the original lock, open the unit, and list off items they see, from the entrance of the unit.  they do not start climbing through the unit looking for stuff, because they can't.  They composite a list of what they see, e.g. Bikes, couch, end tables, boxes, TV, misc. item.  This is simply a list of what they can see from the entrance.  Some units are so packed with stuff that there is now way a manger could crawl through looking for the "good stuff" unless the remove items to clear up space.  That takes a lot of time.  I wouldn't be concerned about shady operations.  No one is forcing you to bid, if you feel like the unit is suspect, don't bid.

You'll find that the majority of storage unit companies don't "cherry pick."  One, it is ILLEGAL.  Two, word gets around and soon less people will show up, which hurts their chances of recovering any money.  The main reason companies auction off units is to free up space and get another tenant in.  Plus if they cannot sell off a unit, they have to take the time and money to clean the unit and prepare it for business.  Very rare that storage managers will rip off units.  Another reason is that all the items in the unit are legally still the tenants until the auctioneer says "sold."  There are times that right as a unit will be on the chopping block, a person wil come in and pay off the unit right before the bidding starts.  If the managers are stealing, they would be in deep ****.  Because, like I said, everything in that unit is still the tenants.  Does it happen?  Sure.  Is it common?  No.