Went to two auctions today by minor auctioneers.

The crowds were as THIN as the #of posters in these threads the last few days !  

While that seems like a good thing, (12 bidders) the lkrs weren't that great either. I got one 5 x 5 full of boxes on a gamble...paid $130 and starting to look like a break-even with a fair number of boxes just holding OLD PAPERWORK !

Good grief locker owners...you DON'T NEED TO SAVE PAPERS FOR 10 YEARS !

Anyway, there were 4 places at one auction and one 10 by 10 with clean low-end furniture only went for $50; again AFTERWARDS I thought I should have bought it and then sold the big stuff to the bidder who got it for $50, but frankly I didn't want deal with the big stuff if the other person didn't buy it from me, so, oh well.

The 2nd place had 3 big lkrs and maybe 5 small ones. One 5 x 10 showed a pressure washer, gas trimmer, etc along with assortment of other stuff...went for $500 to a regular. That person also bought one for $200 that was a 10 x 20 pretty full, but an old barbecue, big 25" (300 pound) tv, etc. Another 10 x 20 went for $400 and a 3rd one went for $500 so the prices were pretty good, but I didn't bid on any of the big ones...getting lazy I guess and stuff didn't look that great.


But overall, I feel I can almost say the worst might be over in terms of big crowds (in some states, in some cities)...there is not going to be a SINGLE view about this for some time yet from what I gather from some of the other states still running high.

Here's a quote from member gapajeff who is in Pennsylvania:

"I've from South Central PA and things are pretty hectic here. Around the small towns its mostly regulars and 2 to 3 newbies. But when I get close to Harrisburg, or Baltimore MD, the attendance goes from 15 people, to around 150 people. Anything looking better in other parts of PA or MD?"

Ebay seems to be making it harder and harder on sellers.

Taking away the sellers ability to leave negative feedback.

Constantly raising fees and charging for fvf on shipping.

It makes it harder and harder on the seller.

Everthing you say is true, but I still believe it is a great place for selling items. Where else can you get the same size potential audience for your item?  I only sell to the USA, but still it's a huge number.

I've been selling there for almost 8 years now and I think it helps when you have hundreds of feedback; one user with 10K feedback said for him that is a bad thing. It helps to be a power seller and whatever they call recommended seller.

Went to my first weekend auction today, 50+ people. Never like that on the weekdays. 10 units up for sell, cheapest went for 50, top 650. The top unit had alot of nice clothes and over-all a really clean unit. Looked like a soldiers who got deployed and didnt keep up with the rent.

Doors and sky look the same as here; so does the crowd !

Only difference is the gravel instead of concrete. 

Welcome fellow Californian!

Let us know what you experience...yes, prices are still a little high here in the west and northwest.

I have DVR, so I record every Auction Hunter and Storage Wars shows. Then I just watch at my convience. Just got through watching them now. My question is where is that place in North Texas that Auction Hunters went to? I am intrigued and want to go there myself with about $3000.

It was said to be about 225 miles N. of Dallas, and Thomas Hayward was auctioneer. He has done Bekins in my area, and my guess is that it was the Bekins lot. Some research on Bekins might reveal a Texas location that meets those criteria. Or, drop an email to Thomas Hayward auctions.

The 1986 Geraldo Rivera show about finding and cracking Al Capone's safe is well documented on Wikipedia among other sites. It was a 2 hour long show, and could have been an hour long or even 30" and still done the job.

Here's a pic of the crime boss's safe: