Nothing wrong with that. If that's what the scene is, that's what it is.  There's also the Treasure Chest (or whatever area) to post good finds in as well.

In California the weather is generally good enough that people will still have yard/garage sales throughout the winter, but not as many of course.  The fleas (outdoor) go year round as well. Two years ago I missed 4 Saturdays because of rain, but the other 48 held up !

Auctions not affected by weather here...people turn out even more in the rain figuring others won't do so, but then everyone comes !

Since this is a public thread, I don't plan on posting about a bunch of "treasures" I find. Every once in the while I might mention something interesting that I don't think would cause a big stur; but your never gonna see me say on this site;

"WOW!, I won a unit for $200 and sold all the furniture in it for $4000!!!, this is soo fun & easy!!!" (disclaimer, not likely to happen in real life, but if it did, not gonna advertise)

Most will probably continue to be, depending on competition and interest at the auctions, "Won a couple of units, look pretty good, should make a little money on them, YAWN!"

My theory is there are a lot of "sleepers" still lurking out there waiting to get in the business. Most are probably those who got in with everyone else when the competition was the fiercest, got burned, and are now waiting to try again when the time is right; and those who have been interested but haven't made the step but it is still in the corner of their mind to jump in this business some time in the near future.

The last thing I want to do is give "signals" to the public at large "That the time is right to get in or back in to storage auctions."

I agree. Almost everything will eventually sell if you have it priced right. Especially at garage sales!

Thread drifting again but...

Reminds me of my favorite line I use at my yard sales. "I can't sell everything for 1 dollar!!" Typically happens after someone looks at, let's say a $200 TV and I say it's $25, OR A $50 vacuum cleaner and I say $10 and then they look at me like I just slapped thier momma!

Heck, even Glendon Cameron agrees with me about having a web site of your own. RE:

If anybody wants to find out how easy and cheap it is to have their own web site, contact me via the private messaging system here. I can offer great hosting solutions that won't break the bank.

Yep, thats one part of the business I am struggling with, not very tech savvy & typically I don't care for computers (except for forums like this). I started a website 2 years ago but really couldn't figure out how to draw traffic/customers to it. Didn't think I was getting my moneys worth so gave up the site and domain. I started a business Facebook page as well, but not being tech savvy again, not really able to use it to it's maximum advantage.

I had a customer offer to build a page for me at a reasonable price. I think my concern is maintaining it and actually using it, since I don't like spending hours in front of a computer screen. Dealing with Ebay, Craigslist, & Amazon is about all I can take without adding another platform I have to screw around with.

But I agree, having your own website to sell from is required to grow this resell business.

My report about the second half of the month is much better and quite interesting.

Crowds have seemed to stabilize. Average of about 10-15 small auctions, 30-50 large caravan runs. The "storm surge" from the TV shows seems to be over. Earlier this month and last month most of the units were junk. Nicer units are starting to pop up now. The great thing about all the competition being newbies is they can't judge a room so they don't know the difference between bidding $400 on a $200 unit, and than only bidding $400 on a $1000 unit. Thanks to the lack of competition, I was able to land some nice units at the end of the month. I would say that 80% of the crowd has been coming to auctions less than 3 months, and 90% of the crowd less than 6 months.

Did I mention lack of competition? The "Old Timers" have almost completely disappeared. Last caravan run only 2 old timers and they both left after first location. I spent the rest of the day with a crowd of people I did not know. I can think of at least 15 pre-TV show regulars that don't come out to the auctions anymore. I imagine when they here prices are starting to stabilize a few will make their way back out, but it was pretty surreal to think I was the "old timer" of the auction crowd.

I do have one new "young gun" that showed up about 3 months ago, and he has started buying a lot of units of late. He is fortunate that he didn't have to go through the storm of the TV shows of the last couple years, and he is getting into the business as crowds and prices are coming down. Me and another regular have decided to try to give him the education he missed by not getting into the business 2 years ago. The great thing about this guy is he is an open book, and he LOVES talking to the other newbs ALL about the business, all the treasures he has found so far, and all his limitations and weaknesses he has found since starting this business. I think we will have some fun helping him work on his "weaknesses". 

Went to an auction just like this yesterday. Guy cutting the locks for the auctioneer/facility was quietly "nodding" to the auctioneer to run up the bids. We had a bunch of "fresh fish" that took the bait so units were selling way past reasonable. It was a big caravan run, but I left after the third unit at the first location, I'm not gonna support those antics with my money.

Crowd was only about 1/3 from the last time they did an auction. I should have left as soon as I recognized the auctioneer, they pulled the same crap last time and several of the units were obvisously staged. I know for a fact several newbies lost big money last go around on staged units that turned out to have empty gun cases, empty tool cases/boxes, flat screen TV boxes filled with dirty clothes...

@nkrause77,

Weather beautiful or not, people are creatures of habit. The typical yardsale days are Friday, Saturday, & Sunday. You have to build a personal clientele of customers before you can start running yard sales midweek & expect any kind of customer traffic.

Big items are perfect for Craigslist. No responseS? Drop the price and/or bundle items and/or add incentives.

BWD....

Someday you might get in trouble for publishing something like this without giving attribution, but as long as I'm around on THIS forum I'll save your rear when I can.

The post and the quote above are from THIS source:

www.facebook.com/storagetreasures

********

Edit: Maybe it's all right for Storage Treasures to take the idea from DirecTV (that was the original source of the 'idea' for that theme) and maybe they got permission from DTV to use a variation (though I doubt it) AND then there's the photo Storage Treasures used....see it below.  That's a ripoff (I believe) from DTV as well.  Is there no honor ? Come on Storage Treasures (Lance ?)



The DTV commercial in question has the young man shown in the ditch starting out playing racquetball, getting a damaged eye, then an eyepatch and getting chased and beaten up by 3 thugs and thrown in the ditch.

That's why I never say "That's Hot!" I don't want Paris Hilton to sue me. 

Thats a great story/barter. Unfortunately for me, not much bartering going on. Most of the offers I get are rediculously in the favor of the other person. Most of the people I have dealt with seem to be obviously trying to upsell with their barter offers, and not trade one item for another of EQUAL value.

Usually I am selling furniture in the $150 - $500 range and I get offers to trade my furniture for things like, used cell phones, 5 year old digital cameras, used playstations-xboxs, used wal-mart bicycles, etc.

On what planet is any of these above mentioned things worth even close to $150 -$500??

Now if someone offered my a baby black Angus bull, I would have to consider that one!