OMG, seeing that many folks out for a couple of lockers would turn me off.  Thanks for sharing the pics.

I forgot to mention how many lkrs there were at each place.

The first auction had 12 lkrs.
The second auction had 25 lkrs.

The 2nd one had a lot because they had to roll over an auction from two months ago; mgr was hospitalized.

That size crowd has become typical at an auction with 10 to 15 lkrs.
An auction with one or two lkrs will only bring about 15 to 25 "bidders"

In two weeks there will be 3 auctioneers going at the same time in a 15 mile radius. Hopefully that will split the crowd and I will make the right decision about which ones to go to.

As of Jan 31, 2011 there are about 930 members and 950 or so posts.

The admirable thing about this is that 900 or so of those members haven't made a single post.
I say this is a good thing because maybe 880 of those 900 are probably "newbies" who are doing
a good thing by doing a lot of reading (hopefully) and not a lot of posting at this point.

This reflects what they are doing at auctions...watching for the most part. The ones who are buying are
typically paying too much (IMHO) and will get a lesson in buying/selling and lkr contents pretty quickly.
I mentioned in another post the fellow who paid $825 for a lkr that should have gone for about $200 tops. He hasn't been to another auction since. Guess he is stacking his gold bars.

Meanwhile the statistics here speak for themselves. It will be interesting to see the continued new membership numbers here and if the really new "buyers" start to make some headway....certainly SOME of them will.

Well, I buy things like an ocscilloscope at the flea for $30 or so and sell them on eBay for $100 or so. I think that's better than reselling it at the flea for $40 (a $10 profit) and then see the flea buyer put it on eBay and make the $70.

This is true of good quality tile cutting machines (not Harbor Freight) and any number of other items I could mention. I really think eBay is a winning proposition. Where else can you expose an item to millions of potential buyers? Craigslist can't do that, local newspaper ads can't do that, a flea market can't do that.

The only venue I don't use for selling is the yard or garage sale and that's because I'm selling at the flea market where the crowd is MUCH larger.

The exposure to the largest possible audience works for me and eBay offers that and attracts specialized audiences for specialized products.

Well, as Gabby Hayes used to say, "I'll be horn swaglled !"

Now we can look up Gabby Hayes as the younger members here won't know him.

Interesting to see on IMDB the filmography of Haff. The bio at the top of the page talks about his
antique interest, but barely mentions any of the film stuff except for one brief note on My House Is Worth What?

But, given an actor's bulk of time on unemployment, maybe the auction biz is a better money maker for him than acting.

The dope on Ton is probably equally interesting.

Never occurred to me to look either of them up. But then, I didn't know an Atari 2600 was valued at $250 either....

Surprised there aren't more californians on here

It's just like the zombie movie I just flipped through while channel surfing...all the California auction buyers are fighting off the crowds !

In Everett (North of Seattle) there is a facility that EVERYBODY that is there for the auction has to go in the office and put down a $100.00 cash deposit.  They give you a little bidders book (it's a silent auction) and if you win, they will put your $100 toward the cleaning deposit, which you will get back once you empty your unit.  If you don't buy anything, then they call everybody back in the office after the auction and give you your money back.  It does help keep the crowds a little smaller, and you don't get all the kids running around.  If you don't put down the $100 up front, you don't get to look!

This is the way the one sealed bid auction in my area is conducted, but last time they didn't get a $100 deposit from me because I gave them my resale number.

HOPE is a good thing !

Welcome !  Start looking around the various threads. There is a lot of info there already and we're always ready to hear new ideas or shared experiences.