I notice a lot of people complaining about how these shows have ruined the art of making a living from reselling storage unit finds because they have caused the prices of units to skyrocket.  All of the complaining is done around the premise that the shows only air the good units, and rarely show the bad.

Well, most of the early posts in this thread were made 4 months ago in January, 2011 when I first started the thread, and since then (in June, 2011) we are starting to see some reports of less activity by newbies though some larger cities still report large crowds.

Your idea about doing YouTube videos is an interesting one though. Now if there were only time to do it; like you, many folks are doing more than one job to keep the bills paid, and those who do it full-time are spending time trying to squeeze out the last nickel too. 

Went to 1 of 2 Public Storage auctions today. First one I often don't go to because of its location and clientel.

Second one only had 4 and none were special. One 10 x 15 about 1/3 full looked ok and went for $125. I paid back a favor and didn't bid against the regular who got it.

Another regular got a couple for $35 each.

Only 12 bidders there...guess others were out of town. Too bad the lkrs weren't better !

I got a safe in a locker the other day and posted a pic and description in another thread, but that thread is now locked so I couldn't post any more info about the safe (or any new pics).

Here are two pics of the interior (after "cracking" it) and some text description of what was inside.

I'll post additional information in a second post here about getting SOME safes open and then I will lock this thread down. No need for anyone to respond to it.



Above, the unopened safe.



Door of the safe contained some .357 rounds. I had also found some in the lkr and was hopeful the safe had the pistol.



In pic above you can see it was mostly paperwork; social security disability papers, child support papers, car repair papers dating back to 1995 (?) several baggies of pictures of his wife and child. (the wife...what a nightmare she was!), a small glass vial 1" tall and 3/8" across with only remnants of a white powder. No pistol!   Oh well, another time.

Oh, I forgot the 4" x 4" x 6" box with a Colts Christmas tree ornament (made in China!).

Welcome to the forum!

IF ONLY WE COULD SEE THE FUTURE !

The things you mention in regard to what you have going for you sound good.

What scares me is that you would give up your job. I realize that you can't get out to auctions, so that definitely is a problem in KEEPING your job while you TRY OUT auctions.

The general advice in these threads is DON'T QUIT YOUR JOB. But people ignore that; most of the time we don't hear back from them about what is happening either with lkrs or with their lives.

A person can make a living doing this, but a lot of it just doesn't depend on the resources you have or the fact that you are a hard worker (all important things). One of the ingredients of success here is LUCK OF THE DRAW. Will you make a wise choice and get a good locker that will more than pay for itself? More often than not (IN MY OPINION) it is a crap shoot even when bidding on a lkr that really looks good.

I got one the other day for $300 that will pay for itself 7 times over IF EVERYTHING SELLS FOR WHAT I THINK IT SHOULD. If it doesn't then it will still do OK but not as well.

On the other hand, if you buy standard lkrs (THE NORM) you may or may not make money on it. It may break even or you may lose money.

OVERALL, I wish there was some way you could SAMPLE this business without leaving your job. REMEMBER, you are only ONE OF MILLIONS who hate their job....seems to be a part of life. MAYBE you could get a part-time office job BEFORE quitting your current job, then you could explore buying lkrs and still have some steady income. You would be surprised how quickly you could use up your savings buying lkrs and paying bills.

Let us know what you do.

Here's another one since the "newbies" are still going strong in some areas.

My third auction in 3 days and....no small crowd today.

Unlike the other two auctions, this was one of the 4 major auctioneers (out of 6) and the crowd was there.
I haven't seen this many NEWBIES in a while, even a few weeks ago the crowd was smaller making me think
we were in auction recovery.

Today there were about 75 bidders, and of those, 70 were newbies. Only 5 of the regulars there. I've never seen so many unknowing, out-of-place types in my life...see two pictures below.

So, the trend hasn't totally gone down yet. Don't know when the new season of Storage Wars starts again (soon I think) but not looking forward to it for the impact it will have on MY business.



Black shape above covers the obscene gesture made by a raggedy newcomer !



I left after 4 of the 14 lkrs sold. No point in sticking around, though I would like to have gotten a chest shot of the guy who had some 10 x 25 binoculars hanging around his neck; never seen that before but even funnier was the fact that he didn't have a flashlight. He knew I was behind him with my light and waited a couple of times for me to light up the view for him. I just waited for him to walk on and THEN turned it on. Get a clue newbie ! (either that or bring NIGHT VISION binoculars!)

This was a typical printing process in the 60's at every newspaper in America, and I WOULD GUESS is just that, a local player getting ready to take a shot. I could be wrong; it could be worth thousands, but I doubt it. This is just my opinion, other people will have other opinions.

Went to my 2nd auction in 2 days today (Thursday the 2nd of June, 2011) and found a small crowd again.

This auctioneer is another of 6 in my area and would have to say in a tie for 5/6 th place. Still, nice to go to this one. There were 12 of us there and 9 were regulars, but the 4 lkrs went for decent prices. I got a 10 x 10 with a safe. I paid for the other contents and safe will be gravy if anything in it. I turned it over and upside down and heard small sounds; not as many as I would like, but we'll see. If you want to see a picture follow this link; that thread also tells about opening some locked safes you might get in a locker.

http://storageauctionforums.com/index.php?topic=1276.msg5815#msg5815



The next week or so will see the top 4 auctioneers having auctions, so will see what THEIR crowds are like.