Went to an auction North of Seattle today (for a report on the units I bought check out the "the Treasure Chest").  Anyway, I'll bet there was half the normal crowd today.  It still had a pretty big crowd and prices are still up, but there were WAY less bidders than there had been the past few months.  Maybe this is a good sign.

Sounds good; if the northwest crowds are getting smaller maybe California will too!

Saw your other post also...looking like good lkrs !

Have had several emails about it, one made an appointment with me begging me to please not sell it before she comes. Which is Saturday, my day of choice.

You know, when someone BEGS me not to sell some Craigslist item before they can get to it, I offer them this idea:

"If you have a PayPal account send me an -other- payment to secure your purchase; it only needs to be 25% of your final purchase price."

So, if they were buying your lkr of goods for $200, they could make a PayPal deposit of $50 and you would hold it for them until that Saturday pickup and payout of the remaining $150.

Of course not everyone has a PayPal account, but some do and this has worked for me on  Clist sales.

I've found that when a few days pass, people's resolve (no matter how fervant) sometimes changes....maybe a spouse talks them out of it, or they find a cheaper, closer deal as an example. Hard to give up a $50 deposit though.

I use the deposit idea at the flea too..."sure, I'll hold it for you. Just give me $10 of the $25 purchase price and I'll put it back for you while you go to the ATM. It will be here for you when you get back."

I've sold lkrs "full" of stuff to other flea market sellers. This is not my main storage unit and it usually has happened within a week of my "auxillary" lkr rent coming due. The lkr I am selling still has good stuff left, but it may have been out to the flea a time or two. I also put a couple of better items in with the other stuff as "incentive" to the new buyer.  Has worked a few times and is a good way to clear space, bring in some income and move on.

If this is the one you had the phone in, then you are already in good shape having sold the phone.

has anyone else run into this extreme minimum bid scenario?  

Yes, and as you found out, the people running the auction (usually the site managers who are doing it at the bidding of the property owner who is often an out of town owner) don't know what they are doing or what to recommend to the owner.

It will eventually straighten out. The first time I saw this the owner of the facility was there and he asked the site manager "How much are we owed on this one?"  What possible difference could it make to the auction buyers? And what did it matter if for some reason they were owed $500 and the goods looked like they might sell for $75. Get a clue property owner!

If your not willing to short thru things, then you can not complain about not finding stuff of value in lockers.
Beeing lazy is one of the biggest reason to failure.

I call it lazy when people don't want to do the little extra, it takes about 2 seconds to flip thru a book.
I have in my last 4 lockers found a total of 75 dollars hidden in bibles. Took me maybe 20 seocnds to go thru those bibles. So you know what, if thats to much work for you, then i don't feel sorry for your comments about how bad lockers are or that there is no value.

A regular bidder here found 800 dollars one month ago in unopend birthday cards, i think that if you open 30-40 0f them it will take you maybe 10-15 minutes.

From what i have been reading in the post's from you Movieman, you complain a lot about not finding good stuff in the units, more or less the last 6 months most of the postings you have done have been negative about the content in your units. Well maybe you should look more in books and pockets. It might give some more positive findings.

And for all the newbies out there, in the beginnign it is even more importent to look everything.

Yet again Mr. A you seem to have to have the last word about any subject which is discussed and you apparently think YOUR opinion is the only one that counts.

I clearly stated (I think 3 times) that what I was expressing was MY OPINION and my experience. You are entitled to your opinion and you recently commented that if all of us were not entitled to express our views, what was the forum good for. You suggested the entire forum be closed if we could not express our opinions (this was after DREW deleted several of your posts).

I believe you started buying auction lkrs in Oct, 2010 and while I don't know exactly how many you have bought, I can't imagine it is any more than 50 or so ... note I say "or so". It might be 25, 75 it might be 100, but whatever it is, it doesn't matter and I don't believe it entitles you to be the "end all and be all" of advice for anyone (new or old) engaging in buying and selling lkrs (anymore than it entitles ME based on my experience to be the "end all and be all" person to listen to. It certainly entitles you to express your opinion (as my experience entitles me to express my opinion).

Sometime ago I called a truce with you regarding your lkr claims, the millions you and your partners have earned with your MLM activities, and frankly I thought I was doing very well by not saying anything about some of your outrageous claims, but now you are calling me Lazy because I don't use the same techniques you do, so time for me to speak up again. Also, I eagerly await the pictures of your $1,000,000 building project you discussed in one of your threads. (yes, that last sentence is sarcasm. If that project comes to fruition, I will fly to Cordova, TN and break a bottle of champagne across the cornerstone.)

This is all I have to say in regard to your post (quoted just above) and frankly I have always subscribed to the idea that all the readers here (regulars and newbies) can make their own judgements about WHAT they read and from WHOM they read it. I stand by that belief.

Murphy's Law #27:

If you sell to a man named Murphy you will be losing money.

Thanks and thanks.  I can't wait to get my hands dirty.

When's it going to happen ?

I also find that holding to a price on an item helps the bottom line... but of course there are exceptions.

When I find a super good, bright orange, like-new extension cord (as an example) I put tie-wraps on it and a nice (computer printed) 3 x 5 index card that says, 100 feet, xx gauge (if I know it) and the price...I get $12 for one like that. ALSO ON THE TAG, I say, "no less" and for the hispanic audience in my area..."NO MENOS".

This gets it put back down maybe 2 or 3 times out of 4, but someone always buys it. It may have to go out to the flea three times, but how much trouble is it to load it back in the truck to make that difference between the $8 someone offers and the $12 I want? Not much trouble and if you multiply that by 3 or 4 (or 10) items, you are starting to look at some money.

ON THE OTHER HAND....I have stuck with a price and regretted it. I had a fancy gold/silver plated bolo tie, brand new with a $60 tag on it and was asking $35. A guy offered me $30 and I turned it down. I carried that in my best aluminum display case for maybe four weeks before another person offered me $25 and I took it. No it didn't cost me much in effort and I made almost as much as I would have if I had sold it the first time, so not a biggie, but I did have to show it a few times without selling it, and I did turn down some $18 and $20 offers !

I guess there is not as much demand for a bolo tie as there is for an extension cord, so that was part of the difference.

*************

I have a friend who is just the opposite and prices everything CHEAP and doesn't want to take anything home, but neither of us has been able to convince the other that HIS method is the best. When you come right down to it, whatever WORKS FOR YOU is the best solution. If you can handle any regrets (or satisfactions) you have one way or the other, THAT'S  the answer.