Storage Auctions

Show Posts

This section allows you to view all posts made by this member. Note that you can only see posts made in areas you currently have access to.


Messages - Cobia

Pages: 1 ... 48 49 [50] 51 52 ... 76
736
General Storage Auction Talk / Re: Here is amother pic of A unit that is going for way to much! Take a look
« on: March 27, 2012, 07:30:14 AM »
Quote from: money4nothing on March 26, 2012, 05:43:42 PM
Take your bet and raise you to $3200.    ::)

Could be wrong but in my area maybe $2200. When the crazes are out.

I could see that unit hitting $1500 in my area on a good day, or bad day depending on how you look at it. Proabaly $1250-$1750 on major well advertised auction trail, $700-$1000 at small less advertised independent auction.

737
South East / Re: Kentucky auction advertising
« on: March 26, 2012, 07:35:23 AM »
Quote from: che85mor on March 25, 2012, 11:29:06 PM
Does anyone know how Kentucky advertises their auctions, or if they do at all? I've searched through ads dating back to 2008 and there are less than 10 for 5 counties.

Check the storage lein laws in your state and make sure the storage facility is even required to auction the storage units. In Tennessee, the facilities are NOT required to auction off the leined contents from the storage units, but many of them do anyway. The facilities that don't take the contents and sell it themselves (you would be surprised how many small Mom & Pop storage facilities own thrift stores as well) or they have friends or business partners who they give or sell all the contents to them.

738
Stories about Storage Auctions / Re: Auction Scene #3...March, 2012
« on: March 26, 2012, 07:29:42 AM »
Quote from: Millertime on March 25, 2012, 08:22:11 AM
Well, took my wife to an auction yesterday hoping to change my luck. Bang, picked up 2 units. The problem is the unit I liked is not looking to good and her unit is looking real good. She saw one thing in a bag, had a "feeling", and damn she was right. She might going some more. Prices and crowd were a little better than I've seen lately and only 4 miles from the house, didn't want to go home empty again.

Millertime, I think you may have just touched on something important here. Many of us have been dealing with a lot of newbies and super high prices the last couple of months and it has been discouraging. Getting in a negative mood is gonna start making all units look like "junk" for the money so we might miss some good stuff right in plane view. It's good to have some "fresh" eyes on the scene, especially from someone who is not emotionally attached to the outcome of the auctions.

739
Stories about Storage Auctions / Re: MY RAT UNIT
« on: March 26, 2012, 07:17:24 AM »
The smell of the rat urine is why you only paid $475 for a packed full 10 x 30! At least in my local you would have paid 2 to 3 times that amount easy, so must of been the odor.  ;)

Anyway, don't worry about being new to Ebay and thinking nobody will buy from you. When you have something listed in demand, they will buy. If nothing you found in the unit is selling on Ebay, then look for some things around your house that you don't need or are willing to sell and check the completed listings. When you find some in demand go ahead and list them, and they will be gone. This is a great way to start your sales cred. I think the second or third thing I sold on Ebay was a WWII helmet. A guy from France bought it, he paid for international shipping and I had no problems. He didn't care about my Ebay rating, he wanted that helmet and so did the other folks bidding!

740
Other Forms of Selling / Re: Outlet for albums?
« on: March 23, 2012, 08:10:05 AM »
Quote from: che85mor on March 22, 2012, 10:23:46 PM
I doubt that there is a great condition jacket and disc combo in the whole stack. Either one is jacked up or the other. If you still want a list I'll do it but it's going to be next week before I can. Daughters sweet 16 this weekend and it starts tomorrow at 9a and ends saturday at midnight so ugh. Will take at least 4 days for me to recover. As I'm getting older my party recovery time has more than doubled what it was in my 20's  ;D

Youre not supposed to "party" with your teenage kids and their friends, it's against the law.  ;D

741
Stories about Storage Auctions / Re: Auction Scene #3...March, 2012
« on: March 23, 2012, 08:03:11 AM »
Quote from: acman on March 22, 2012, 12:00:40 PM

Btw almost 4 months into the year and I am 0fer on lockers. Can't buy a break right now.

Don't feel bad. The prices are crazy stupid in my area right now. We were warned it always gets bad around tax return season with the newbies and thier tax return checks but this is rediculous! Definitely worse then tax season last year without a doubt.

Going rate for a 10 x 10 half-full is now $800, 10 x 15-20 half-full is now $1000. I know some will say I need to suck it up and I have to pay to play, but I have done enough research to know that there is a 80% chance of zero profit in those size units at those prices. (based on the standard quality of the product we find in units in my area)

Oh some "Fools Gold" stories from the last week.

STORY #1: 5 x 10 unit, empty except for small plastic storage trunk. Retail price new $30. Winning bid $93.50. Of course a bunch of us gather around so the lucky gambler, I mean winner can see whats inside the trunk. Drum roll please.... EMPTY!!! YOU GOT TO BE KIDDING ME, HOW COULD A COMPLETELY EMPTY STORAGE UNIT WITH JUST A PLASTIC TRUNK INSIDE BE EMPTY!!! Oh well, if you can't gamble $100 on unit in this biz, then you should just stay home.

STORY #2: (not an eye witness account, so some facts might be fuzzy) 10 x 10 unit?, 2 power tool cases showing (Dewalt?), 4? gun cases showing, 2 LCD flat screen TV boxes showing, other nice nickety nacks showing. Winning bid $1700-$1870 (can't remember if the buyers premium was all ready added into the total price). Eye witness asks to see the guns, might be interested in buying them. 1st. gun case, empty. 2nd gun case, empty. 3rd gun case...you get the picture. Tool cases? Empty. LCD TV boxes? Whew! That was a close one, they're not empty, they're full of........ clothes!!! Oh well, hey if you can't gamble $1870 on a unit in this biz, then.....?????

742
General Storage Auction Talk / Re: Anyone else watching the live AH debut?
« on: March 23, 2012, 07:34:59 AM »
Quote from: craiglstauction on March 22, 2012, 07:09:26 PM
Safes, lock boxes, chest, metal cash boxes - all are things I love to find and open.  Granted 99% of the time they are empty, have paperwork, or pictures....but I still like to gamble.



Yea, you and everybody else at the auctions nowadays. I can tell the economy is getting better by how much people are dropping on units, and as for pointing out valuable things in a unit to my competition...Yea, I do that AALLL the time.  ::)

743
General Storage Auction Talk / Re: Collusion & Fraud and a grand down the drain?
« on: March 22, 2012, 06:45:47 AM »
Quote from: money4nothing on March 22, 2012, 06:18:47 AM
Not going to bother with watching like Movieman can't handle much of that.

Rockin what are you going to do with 5 minutes of Fame?  ;) 8) JK

Makes me suspicious of StoreMe I accused of being Glendon and he has not been on here for a day to busy making a video.  ???

Just my opinion.

Glad you have moved on. Think I would still be stewing.

You might want to watch it, you are qouted in the video too!

744
General Storage Auction Talk / Re: Not in lein auctions becoming more popular?
« on: March 22, 2012, 06:11:16 AM »
Quote from: bwd111 on March 21, 2012, 06:50:06 PM
Seems like 4 out of 7 units being auctioned are not in lein auctions? Do you see these poping up at every auction you attended? Its like a picked over units where 90% of the stuff is junk. At 4 bucks for a gallon of gas what a waste of time and money.

Yes, these are quite popular and the norm in my area. That is why at most facilities a person is really taking a risk bidding more then they can see from the door. There is only really one company in my area that has a reputation of "guaranteed" lein units, as is, like the renter left it, and locks cut off in front of the crowd. Unfortunetly, everybody seems to know this reputation, even the newbies, so prices at this companies facilities are always the highest per unit.

745
Stories about Storage Auctions / Re: Auction Scene #3...March, 2012
« on: March 19, 2012, 02:06:05 PM »
I concur with Movieman and Alias,

I don't see any predicitable trend in the storage auction industry as far as bidding and crowds. One or two auctions the prices will come down and seem about reasonable and then all of a sudden the next auction comes and the prices go right up to and past what they have been since the start of the TV shows. The faces change but there is always somebody willing to gamble their money. There is almost no such thing as a $50 unit any more. Units last year that were in the $25 - $50 range (or $5 to $25 pre TV shows) are now going for $100. It seems like nobody can let anybody get anykind of room for less then $100. So many people think "Hell, I can risk a $100!"

I'm changing my strategy a little bit myself. I am trying to hold my money and "pick" great units. I know, they are few and far between, and I will have to pay a premium, but kinda like Movieman said, i am getting a little tired of the low profit units myself. Thought about fighting for a unit today, a 10 x 20 packed out! Then I realized there was nothing really showing but a bunch of nice totes and marginal furniture plus the usual mattress & boxspring to the dump. Not to mention the hours and hours of loading, unloading, sorting, researching, listing, re-packing, hauling, shipping, meeting customers, etc. There was NOTHING in view that said I could make my money back, forget about doubling the money. Of course a unit stacked like that has a lot of stuff so who knows what was in those nice newer totes or what the furniture you couldn't see was like. Nothing but a big gamble based on volume. I'm gonna stick to units where I can "see" and count my money first, then take a risk on the totes or boxes. Not spend hundreds of dollars on totes and crap furniture just because it's "packed out".

END OF RANT, SUCKS GOING HOME EMPTY HANDED FROM THE AUCTION!  >:(

746
Stories about Storage Auctions / Re: scored my first locker
« on: March 19, 2012, 07:31:54 AM »
Quote from: bogeyman on March 17, 2012, 11:35:46 PM
After 3 nights of sifting thru..pulling trash..scanning barcodes on new items..estimating on misc. dollar here dollar there items..if i figure 40% on new toys. ..I estimated the value at aproximately 950.00!!!. Now the task of getting it sold...one question...i have some video game cases with the manuals but no games in them. I called a place called gamestop to see if they would be interested but they dont sell their games with the cases...any ideas as to how i should get rid of them or should i just toss them...they are not figured into any value yet.

Empty video game and DVD cases sell pretty good in lots on Ebay. You need atleast 10 cases and upwards of 20 or more to really get high enough bids to make it worth your time to list, pack, & ship them.

747
General Storage Auction Talk / Re: Scrap metal - is it worth it?
« on: March 16, 2012, 01:47:40 PM »
Just took a load of scrap metal to the yard today. 620lbs yielded $81. Going rate is $13/100lbs.

748
General Storage Auction Talk / Re: Do your local auction put out ads like these refering to the tv shows?
« on: March 16, 2012, 01:42:12 PM »
Quote from: bwd111 on March 16, 2012, 01:16:49 PM
I mean how stupid is this bussiness getting? http://www.ksl.com/index.php?nid=218&ad=19607778&cat=7&lpid=&search=

Except for the "Best looking Leprechaun" contest, yes, I have seen some storage facilities take advantage of the popularity of the TV shows over the last 18 months. Few and far between though.

749
Flea Markets / Re: Different flea markets are different.
« on: March 16, 2012, 08:50:30 AM »
I have 3 flea markets in the city where I live and they all suck! Mostly walkers and pickers. The flea market I sell at is in a city 40 miles away, it has real shoppers. The money made is well worth the added expense of gas.

The flea I sell at is demographically 60% hispanic/immigrant, 35% Caucasian, 4% African american 1% Asian & others.

So when I have an expensive item new or fairly new I have to use different startegies to try to get the most money from the sale.

Caucasian shoppers tend to be more knowledgable about products and thier related costs. They tend to know when I am offering a good deal and will let me know it, but they are commonly still "tighter" on the purse strings.

Hispanics tend to not have a clue about products and value and don't know a good deal when they are looking at it. ($200 retail price item I am selling for say $50). They do know dealing is based on the "haggle" so they don't think they are getting a good deal unless they can haggle me down. They do tend to be "looser" on the purse springs up to about the $50 mark, anything higher is pretty tuff to squeeze out of them.

I my case if I am selling a $200 retail item at the flea and a Caucasian customer inquires I might say $60. They tend to know it's a good deal and if they are really interested but aren't sold yet I might drop it to $50. When Hispanic customers come by I tend to start rather high, say $100 and see what kind of reactions I get, probably have to drop it to $75 and let them "haggle" me down to $50 or $40.

My main point being I have found that for the most part my Hispanic shoppers don't recognize good deals right away so I don't make the price really nice when they first walk up.

750
The Lounge / Re: 1873 j. howard collier lithograph
« on: March 16, 2012, 08:16:58 AM »
Who's feet are those?  ;)

Pages: 1 ... 48 49 [50] 51 52 ... 76