Ok im talking to the old time buyers.   We know what manager specials or abandoned units are.  Part of the business -but back in the day the managers told us that they took stuff left in other units compliled it in one to get rid of it.
But in last year their been a phenomen; I call, manager greed.   These mostly are independently owned storage places or ones that are maybe 4-5 places at most.  PS  or mini-u  never seen it, U-store (cubesmart)  dont think they are but they still dicking around.  Ive seen many made up units by managers with the help of auction buyers in last year. Yes your fellow auction buyers colluding with managers to make up these units to sell.  Think about it the buyer knows how to set it up to make it look like a good unit and the manager gives them a 10x10  or so and they split the money.  And once you hand them the money really nothing you can do.   I knew the places in town that the managers set up units not to make money but just to get rid of the **** left behind.  Now they think they can make money...and they can because newbies buy into it.   It got so bad at one place  they went from 45 buyers  to 3 buyers the next month

As to storage shows.  They are all fake.   They recently did auction hunters here in denver,  I was at one place  the producer came up to me before auction and told me to bid  he would pay for my unit and to make it "dramatic"
well they picked the worst place in town  all crap   But I spoke to Allen and ton for over 4 hours as we waited.
Allen has done this but he is an actor. Ton has no idea  how he got roped in i dont know.  Allen sorta knows his **** but tons along for the ride.   They bought one crap nothing unit near the end  to say they bought one.   After it was over they made the crowd stand around a closed locker and film me bidding against Allen and ton...had to do multiple takes 
me winnning some
me losing
me talking smack
them talking smack
next day I go back  to pick up the one liittle 5x5 I bought   they were loading up that crappy unit with stuff and filming them coming out of the unit just all happy holding a $1500 thing that we all know they planted.  Hell that crappy white van of theirs was broken down out in the parking lot  and they had to call in a mobile mechanic to work on it
What did i get for my 5 hours their?    $20   and had to sign a waiver releasing my image     Ill be on sometime in April

The put everything in one unit that doesnt fit in the dumster units are becoming more popular than ever. And people pay big money for those units. sad.

I liked the live show.

Did y’all see Alan point out something in a locker for one of the other bidders after the other guy won one of the vaults? I think that was cool of Allen to point something out for him and the affection he showed him after doing it. You can’t script that stuff – It looked real to me. I can only imagine the guy bided more than he thought he should have and Allen showed him where the money was in the vault. That is what I think happened.

How about towards the end when Allen was (I think) getting intense with Blaze over that gun? I think that was about as real as it gets! Neither Allen or Ton wanted to sell the gun at what could be considered a loss because they were running out of time and they showed it honestly I thought.

Was the environment staged? Of coarse it was – It was live TV and there had to be some sort of a controlled environment involved. Was it scripted? Maybe a general outline was done. I don’t think it was scripted any further than that.

Was it fun for me to watch? Heck Yes! I had a lot of fun watching and playing in the Twitter-verse during the show.

Were the vaults staged? Who knows and who cares! I guess somebody could look up the legal ads for the past month or two for that storage company. Maybe there would be some clue there that would say if the vaults were staged or not. Either way, I don’t think the participants knew what the contents were beforehand.

Great Job SpikeTV!

Yes I did see allan point that out to the other bidder! Its called acting and for ebtertainment purposes. Horriable acting. So fake

craiglstauction

Great post on scrapping.

A couple of quick bits of info. that may be of interest.

"Had a fridge on the truck also that they wouldn't take as the freon wasn't released yet or something."

Please do not think you can make just a little bit more money by releasing the freon from that heavy ass frig, freezer, or air conditioning unit. The fine is $10,000 if you get turned in and prosecuted.

"The van seats that I got in one unit while heavy I just tossed in the trash also.  Didn't want to spend an hour cutting the foam and crap off. "

It used to be that you could still sell those items that are not completely stripped or a given class of material, ie. #1 copper, #2 copper, etc. As mentioned, ask to see what they will or will not take.

"I actually just scrapped my second car today, an 89 Lincoln - got $500 bucks."

If the buyer does not go over the car with a fine tooth comb, before he gives you the price to buy, you may want to considering removing the radiator and heater core (copper) Also, you get more money for generators, alternators, and starters then just let then go as steel or aluminum. Depending on how deep you want to go, the wiring may be worth spending a few minutes. I think you should ask the recyclers you sell to it they take catalytic converters. I think they pay quite well for them.

Good luck to all. 

Wayne

Had a fridge on the truck also that they wouldn't take as the freon wasn't released yet or something."

As Im also a hvac tech (freon) Is just a trade name from dupont like coke,nike,etc. Freon is a trade name Correct term is refrigerant ! And yes its a 200,000 fine or more for releasing refrigerant  in the air.The Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer (a protocol to the Vienna Convention for the Protection of the Ozone Layer) is an international  But what you are missing ids the refrigerant is worth huge bucks and the second most trade product on the black market. R-12 and r-22 are very expensive. And refrigerant  never goes bad. Alot of folks reclaim the refrigerant  and make big bucks . Just my 2 cents

A friend of ours that we met at the auctions finally opened a store 800 a month on a month to month to see if the store would work and that store is packed every day.  She keeps it clean and very organized and moves product around. Makes about a grand a day. And the prices are super cheap. Not like most places that try to make all the profit back on one item .

Consigned or not consigned if I  wouldn't care if I knew I could make my money back on the unit. Yes it diminishes the element of surprise but I'm in it to make money and only bid on what you know you can sell. Other than that its Barry bidding in hopes of finding the pirates gold.
 But Yes your situation sucks. And never go to an auction the day after the tv shows air cause mass people and high insane prices.

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Research! That's my new best tool to use. With all the scams of storage owners/employees going thru units cherry picking what they want! I like to do research to find out as much as possible about the storage property I go to. There are just way,way to many stories with proof of how these units have been gone thru and picked of what is valuable. What do you expect these shows have changed buying units for the worse. Sad but true! Everyone wants a piece of the pie.

That is "Real Deal"   should be called  "Real Boring"

And its be canceled