I have seen a storage unit with a minimum starting bid of $3000.00. Minimum starting bid units are just part of the experience.

Hi all,

I am somewhat new to the storage auction scene. I have attended several auctions and bought my first unit last week.

The woman who owned the locker attended classes and taught crafts.  We found hundreds of unpainted ceramic figures,

enough to open a store!  I am trying to find someone to buy in bulk to get it out.  We also found about 20 different doll

molds, doll parts.  Craft flowers with the tags all still on. Tons of paints and glazes a lot still sealed.  Found an airbrush set with the retail price of 118.00 unused.

  A huge victorian dollhouse kit that retails for 228.00.  Lots if new in box emmett kelly clown figures, some limited edition.  A snap on channel lock pliers, on ebay now. Paint brushed thousands of craft beads,  new in packages, sealed stamp pads.  Hundreds of fabric patterns and fabrics. It was like a craft horders paradise!

The unit was 5x10 crammed full. We paid 45.00 for it.  So far I sold a ceramic book I found for 20.00. Just have to get all this stuff listed ugh!

Welcome to the wonderful world of "I see all this money in front of me, now how do I sell it!" It can be quit chalenging knowing you have hundreds of dollars of merchandise for the right buyer, it's just finding the right buyer or letting them find you.

Well first time for this particular auctioneer.  Very large crowd, over 60 with maybe 20 regulars. two facilities and 16 units (combined). 
First facility~nothing but trash units.  Didn't even consider bidding on any.  A buddy of mine got one for $5.  Had a safe in it (yep....my first safe) that had the back cut out of it, some crap furniture, a lamp (his $5 investment was covered with that) and a few boxes.  He lives right around the corner so no issues with travel.  About the only thing of note was I found .70 on the ground~score!?!

Traveled about 20 miles to the next facility, where they had 9 units.  picked up another 15 or so.  This was an all indoor facility and it was crowded!  First unit was a 5X10 packed to the gills with tools, sports equipment and the like.  I loved this unit and bid it up to $600.  It went for $750.  After that the units got worse and the prices higher.  3 units all belonging to the same owner contained art (y'all know how much I love that!) and ended up going for $1200, $1800 and I have no idea on the last as we left.  Sad thing is somebody made the comment that it looked like possibly an art teachers unit.  You know what.....the more I think about it.....I think he may have been right.  Oh well.....wasn't my money.

All in all a bust of a day, but I did talk with our Dave Hester and he confided in me a bit, so that is a plus.  Keep your friends close kinda deal~

Big caravan on Thurs and this one isn't listed on Auctionzip or the like, so hopefully crowds will just be us regulars there.

 

You seem to mention "art" in a lot of units you see. Are units full of artwork that common in your part of the country, or do you just naturally key in to spotting artwork in units? We don't tend to see much good artwork in units in my part of the country.

I am being quite serious and not trying to offend. I have come across regulars that the past few years have either kept to their little groups and barely spoke to anyone out of it or regulars that have been very friendly with all around. This month already I have been witness to regulars that were friendly, all of a sudden being very brash and sarcastic to people they have always been nice to.  I was surprised and asked one person if they had done something to offend and they laughed and said no, they didn't know why the other was being rude.  I have also noticed some that have been in their little groups (nothing wrong with it by no means) all of a sudden being nice and talking to "outsiders" at one auction and then snubbing people the next.  I was wondering if it's the pressures of the lack of goodies in the units that make it tough to stock their thrift stores or are they seriously bi-polar? Anyone notice a change in their area or are you maybe one experiencing mood swings? What gives?? I am a people watcher and this month has been more than interesting.  

I have to admit, I am not as friendly as I use to be. The attitude of the newbies has changed a lot in my area. Most use to come out to lookie loo, watch the process, and decide if storage auctions were right for them, some would jump in and bid, some would win, but generally not to big a deal. More so now it seems the newbies are either intent to run up the bids cause they think its a game, or try to figure out who the regulars are and bid on anything they see a regular bid on and try to win it no matter what the cost. The newbies of the last couple of months have been more agressive, more arrogant, and more a pain in the butt. I don't "be friend" newbies at the auction anymore, and when I am talking to other regulars about the business, I keep my voice low and watch out for eavedroppers.

Did not miss a thing. We used a good example for focus on Charity. You think we dont care about bidders? You are wrong. Auction Hunters are the most important part of the process. I dont know where your units are, but ours are not (majority clothing). Good news bc the storage industry would go out of business if people only stored old clothes.

I think the real rub is that all the TV has prices up and competition entering the market. For 25 years units sold for under market and now for the last year units are selling for over market.  The storage industry chose to hide the process bc they were afraid the public would not react well if they knew we sell their stuff. TV outed the process and the inside auction gig is no more a secret. It will never go back to where it was, but it will lower over the next few years. You have 2-5 more seasons of TV to watch.

I applause the change bc it will make the whole process more professional and the market will settle the price and the industry will be better off.  

You can blame whoever you want or work within the conditions of the day. You can ***** about ST all you want but we have done a very good job with honestly conveying information. You have seen all the get rich quick schemes allover the web...none with us.

ST

Lance,

Acman lives in Michigan, I attend auctions in Tennessee, Georgia, & Alabama. Where I attend auctions, 90% of units have clothes in them. 40%-50% of them have more clothes in them then any one person can sell in a month. I am interested to know what parts of the country have storage units with very small amounts of clothing in them. I guess if soemone was a "cherry picker" and a professional hobbyist they can avoid units with a lot of clothing, but for the professional/consisent buyer I believe they are going to get a lot of clothing from buying storage units.

They cancelled the auction for this weekend and moved it to next weekend. The usual auction for next Thursday has not listed yet so I don't know if it is happening or not. Had a major expense show up, so I might not be buying anything but cheap units, if I can find them, for the next couple of months, unless I a get a gift from Uncle Sam. Oh well, so is the life...

I think it just amazes me how these prices are still going for so much! I know that a fool and his money are soon parted, but this is outrageous.

 I mean I can see what you guys paid for units pre and post SW because of my Sealed bid auction and hitting public storage places. I just wish I had done this 3 or 4 years ago when I originally heard about this. My only hope is that one day SW will at least put something at the begining of the show saying that lockers don't always hold antiques and that this is not a get rich quick method. But I realize that this will never be the case.

Question to everyone else here.  Do you guys try to inform people who are looking into getting into this or newbs at the auction hoping to get a locker no matter what?  I just wonder if it would have an impact on prices?

I have tried in the past, but it's real tough when you got 60-100 new faces at the auction. Another thing I have noticed over the last couple of months with the newbies is not only are they bidding a lot higher then newbies over the previous year, there seems to be a real difference in attitude. It's kinda like all the brash poker playing egomaniacs have come out to gamble now. I wonder if its just a sign that the bad economy has turned the corner in my area so people feel more free to waste money, or if something esle is going on? Definitely a difference.

The other thing is even if you tell several people that no unit is worth over $250, then they see you bid on one and think going $275 isn't going to hurt, and then the other folks you didn't talk to start bidding and so it goes up, up, and away...

I had to laugh onetime when they were in Florida.  They talk about all the stuff they had take to a flea market and in 6 hours they sold just over $3000 worth of stuff.  I want to take stuff to that flea market.

All you have to do is take $30,000 worth of inventory to the flea market and you will sell it for $3,000 in 6 hours! LOL