After months or years in a given area the courtesies between experienced buyers start to sort themselves out, but there are always variables and people change too.

Consider this story. Really happened.

Buyer A gives buyer B a ride to an auction because buyer B's car was out of commission. Ride to an auction 30 miles away.

Buyer A bids on a lkr. Buyer B bids against him and wins the auction. Buyer B says to buyer A..."You should have brought more money."

Don't know about your sculpture, but I know it will beat out the price on a last supper pic made from dryer lint which was recently featured in an associated press story in the print media.

Here's something that happens once in a while and I'm sure  many of you have seen it, and if you are a newbie who hangs around for a year or more, you will too.

There are basically (I think) 2 categories of these folks...the two general groups would be:

1. The weeper

2. The antagonist

The weeper is self-expanatory and can be seen at the auction, just after the auction, or when YOU contact them about getting stuff back. I prefer this to having the property manager do it because there are SOME items I would want to sell back to them. Most property managers are smart enough NOT to give your number to the former lkr owner.

The antagonist takes several forms too, but here is one example: (feel free to add your own)


We were well into the auction with a locked front gate preventing anyone but code owners from coming in. However, a former lkr owner came in when a legit owner came through the gate and on foot she tracked the crowd down. About 100 feet from us a property mgr got a hold of her and grabbed her top. She backed out of it and her huge form came running toward us in semi nude state. It was a scary sight. They gradually got her out of there.

Where are PODS auctions listed?  The only auctions I ever see around here on Auction Zip are for self storage units.  I also checked the major paper for legal notices, but no auctions of any sort were listed.

If the PODS are sold by one of the regular area auctioneers, you'll see them there. BUT, I check not only those auctioneer lists but auctionzip and newspaper legals as well. My PODS were listed in the legals.

Auctions only need to be listed in one newspaper of record so if a PODS is in city A and city A is 50 miles away from city B where someone is checking the legal notices, it won't pop up in city B legals but will be in city A legals.

Is it really though?  I understand defending your livelihood, but I also sense some immaturity in some of these posts.  I hear a lot of people on here commenting about people showing up and not even bidding.  Did all of you bid and buy at your very first auction?  Did you know all of the unwritten rules of the auction world at your first handful of auctions?  I doubt it.  If you did, more power to you.  The point is, the game has clearly changed.  The once private storage auction world has now been exposed, and the new competition is likely here to stay.  I'd guess that just as many "regulars" will end up being pushed out of the business as newcomers.  

A newbie buys one for $1400 or more and doesn't have the cash to pay for it. Mistake one and two.

Auction is resold and goes for the more realistic price of $300 or so.

Yep I call that justice. The final buyer will make some money. The first buyer would have lost big time most likley.

Had to be a coincidence. The producers would not knowingly cooperate on something like this.
Now word might have slipped out from one show that a shrunken head would be on and the others would try to jump in, but the fact they all appeared on the same week would be  (I think) a coincidence.

I think I only saw Barry and his cooler of 5 or so (fakes) but it was interesting to see the expert talk about his find.

Any good treasure hunter has to deal with snakes now and again. Fortunately, in the lkr area the snakes I have found have only been of the "skin" variety; one was rolled up (with its rattles) in front of a mounted squirrel on a nice wood mount.

In California we have some the strictest rules regarding waste.
In my area there is a public facility designed for nothing else than the collecting of haz mat materials like paint, etc. When I take stuff there they unload it and some containers they will put in a little room for sale (partial cans of product).

They also take electronics.

One facility in my town pays by the pound for electronis (tv, monitors) but only allows 5 items per year on a driver's license and they maintain a database which tracks it.

Tires are usually $7 at the local landfills but now they are running a "take for free" deal through the next 6 months. This is to prevent people from dumping them out on county roads.