Show Posts
361
Stories about Storage Auctions / Re: Auction Scene #11.....November, 2013
« on: November 15, 2013, 09:57:15 PM »Halfway through the month and one post by someone not named Movieman? Let me contribute!
Thanks for the contribution! I think this is just another indication of the general decline in interest about talking about auctions. Sure, people are still going and still buying, but it's more like work once you've bought 10 to 50 of them, and unless something really fun pops up in one, it's just another day at the office. Meanwhile...
*****
I went to one auction today (one of 4 or 5 by same auctioneer) and the crowd was large again...maybe 40 or so...up from 15 to 20 of late. No telling what accounts for this up and down.
Place had 10 units. First one was a 10 by 10....chock full of mattressses. I don't even know what it sold for. I walked off to next row. Next two were 5 x 5s and went for I think $75 and $100 which was 50 and 50 more than they should have, unless I missed something about black garbage bags being the next big thing in luggage.
So, 3 down, 7 to go. Then #4 opens up...a 10 x 24 with doors at each end. Looks pretty good with a lot of totes AND neat cardboard boxes, but with miscellaneous stuff strewn around too. A couple of mysterious heavy plastic cases (one was a rectangular guitar case (bet it was empty), a spider box (temp power distributor), some plants stands, a PLANT (in dire need of water !), some stereo stuff, about 4 shelving units with small stuff on them. Overall a good looking locker.
I would have paid maybe $600 to insure some good profit, but it started at $400 and went up from there pretty fast. Slowed down at about $1,200 but the auctioneer milked the regulars and newbies for the last dime and it went for....$1,700. So my $600 bid x 3 almost. Don't know what kind of profit if any they will make.
Never saw this guy and his wife before, but he got on the phone right away and just after the last locker was sold his pal drove up in a $30,000 big Diesel truck towing a 16 foot or so ($5K ?) trailer to haul it all away. I stopped by later in the day to talk to the mgr and she said they had taken it all out in one swoop and when she asked how they did, she said they were happy, so maybe they knew more about it than I did.
Anyway, that's my story...except for the fact I didn't get a locker there and skipped the other locations so I could work on 6 picked items I had acquired at a flea market and yard sale earlier in the day !
