I admit to being new to this, but not to auctions. I wonder if anyone bidding really saw the true value that was visible for the prices they bid. I hope they make some money and don’t just have to make dump runs. The apartment building where these storage units were located is one of the cheapest in town, so there’s another clue.  I am sure many of you that have been doing this for a long time could shed some light with a lot of wisdom.

Although I have not done any exit polls or interviews of auction attendies, here is my novice opinion.

Fact #1. We all know the TV shows create the impression that finding really valuable items in a unit are somewhere between a 50/50 shot or 1/10. So the average newbie is under the impression if they buy between 2 to 10 units, 1 of them is going to have a major score in it.

Fact #2. The economy still sucks in this country, and many people are running out on their unemployment checks. They have to make money somehow.

With this information, I believe what we have is a case of "gold fever" among something like 70% of the new crowd, and "I gotta make money somehow!" with the other 30% of the new crowd, maybbe +/- 10% either way.

So what you get is a snowball effect and "cognitive dissonance" when the bidding starts. Everybody can SEE that the unit has about $50 worth of resell items and $30 worth of dump run fees, but too many people don't want to let a possible "jackpot" unit get away. "I'm not gonna let that POSSIBLE jackpot unit get away for $175, I'll bid $200. Someone else, I gotta get in this game and start making money, I'll bid $225. Someone else, I can't let that go for that little, I can risk $250!" Someone else, one of those "old timers" must see something valuable, I'm goin' $300! So it goes all through the crowd until it ends at $500.

It is just so they can rent it without doing anything. Just sweep out. Look out for the units with grease and oil. Here they expect that cleaned up too.

Save your lungs! Make sure you wear a dust mask when sweeping and sometimes you need to wear it when loading and sorting.

So my friend and I are going to our first auctions on tuesday.

The both of us combined are going to have $1000 with us. I told him that we may not end up bidding or getting any units, and that it's good to just get a feel for them the first time, but if a unit catches our eye I think we are going to go for it. I'm preparing for people to bid like crazy and end up overpricing units, so i'm not getting my hopes up.

My goal as far as getting a unit is getting one that is undervalued. I'm going to look for a unit that has hidden value. Should be hard seeing as i'm a newbie but I think we have a good eye for things.

We agreed to get a PODS (Portable on Demand Storage) if needed to store the won contents. Also we should be able to find a truck to use if needed.

So we are going to have our locks, our money, and a plan. I'm going to establish a habit of setting a cap on bidding for units. Any other things we are missing or any advice you can give us?

One other word of advice, especially since it is your first auction, be prepared to get "run up" and basically pay retail for any units you win. The TV shows have made the business way to competative, so any new faces bidding on a unit will pay just above what any old timers or regulars feel is "break even" based on what they see. Once the regulars drop out, now you have to bid against any other enthusiastic newbies, cutting even more into any potential profit. Your best bet is to try to win a cheap junk unit or gamble on a unit with very little in it so you don't lose much money. It's a lot better to get "run up" on a $100 unit that only yields $50 in return, and gives you a little bit of experience; then to get caught up in the frenzy and drop $800 - $1000 on a unit that takes hours and hours to clean out, sort, dump, & sell and then only yields $500 in returns. I took me about a six to eight months to build relationships with the regulars for me to not get "run up" on the junk to marginal units and I still have to fight tooth and nail with the regulars and the newbies for any unit that looks decent.

I don't know what part of the country you are in, but hopefully it is not as competative as where I live. 

Purchased 36 units this year.

Profit/loss to be determined by my accountant.

Highest gross sales from a unit = 10x20 - $4000.

Best ROI from a unit = 10x10 - 17 times the initial investment.

Worst units: closed out = 1 break even, pending = 2 or 3 80-90% recoup of capital. (will lose 10-20% of initial investment)

Most expensive unit 10x20 = $1480
Least expensive unit 10x10 = $1 (this was not the best ROI unit by-the-way) 

Last auction of the year, on New Years Eve cancelled by the auctioneer by phone 15 minutes after posted time, because he "forgot" it was on his schedule. 

I was checking out listings for upcoming estate sales and I thought I should get some opinions, as this would be my first time.

The company I was looking at tends to mostly do 3-day sales over a weekend, where they charge full price on Friday, 25% off Saturday and 50% off Sunday. This seems fairly typical.

For resale purposes, we obvioulsy want to buy as low as possible, but I'm curious what kind of selection is left come Sunday.

Has anyone had success shopping the final day of an estate sale? I'd also love to hear any general advice or stories you may have from your prior experiences.

Estates sales in my area use to be really good for finding stuff cheap before ALL the TV shows. Before the economic downturn in late 2007 early 2008, most of the crowd at estate sale were the same regulars, mostly hobbiest, auction houses, thrift store owners, and collectors, after the economy went into recession I saw more people coming out looking for deals on typical household items and clothing, then came American Pickers and Storage Wars and Auction Hunters and though these shows have nothing to do with estate auctions, the crowds swelled, the auction companies started pricing all the items at retail to re-sell retail, and people started bringing trailers and U-hauls to estate sales to buy up the furniture and other inventory. In my area it's kinda like the storage auctions, anything advertised on auctionzip or by certain estate sale companies I avoid becuase of the pricing and crowds. I have not been to very many estate sales since the spring of 2010, plan on going back out and checking the scene since storage auctions are getting worse with the bidding.

My general advice on how to approach estate sales is first find out about the operations of the companies running them first. Some companies have their own thrift stores, auction houses so they will NOT take low ball offers for buying large lots of furniture or household goods, other companies are just trying to move as much as they can for the family that weekend and WILL take low ball offers for buying large lots of furniture and household goods. Some companies are much better at researching the contents of the house for pricing then others. One estate sale will have Ebay ask pricing on most of their smalls, and another might have closer to flea market pricing for thier smalls.

Generally, be the first person in the door on opening morning, even with the high pricing today, there are still some things that are so unique and collectible, it is worth paying the price and holding it as an investment or heirloom. If overall the prices are to high for resell, then go back the last couple of hours of the last day and see what you can get at an end of sale discount, but remember some companies will deal, some wont. Sometimes the family will be there, and if you tread lightly and show compassion for their loss you can negotiate directly with the family members and bypass the estate sale employees.

Look for things that are not "sexy", have not been highlighted as unique, valuable, collectible by any of the TV shows. Concentrate on ordinary household goods that are still "under the radar" of all the TV shows but still have value. If you develop a niche, there are still things you can find at estate sales that you can buy for $1.00 or less and flip for $10 - $20 (Kinda like knowing your stuff at the flea market). Granted you my not get rich with this approach, but it sure is fun!

I use to really like the "do it yourself" estate sales where family friends are running the sale, but the last couple of times I went to those kind of sales, they got really upset that I was using my phone to research the goods. I got cut off at two different estate sales because they realized I was researching and finding items with value that they were selling for nothing, so I try to be descrete with my research at estate sales, flea markets, yard sales. Most people have become saavy enough to know if they see you plugging away at your phone and then come running back to buy that trinket for $1, that they have underpriced it and my "pull it" from being for sale.

Not sure how fast I would adapt.. Love technology but slow in accepting it.

Glad to see I am not the only person has the same paradox about technology. 

You sir or ma'am are a fine example of what a REAL successful storage auction buyer looks like. Anyone who wants to do this seriously should read your post and understand this is the REAL expectations of money to be made, and you did'nt even mention all the hard work that goes into it.

Welcome, Good Luck, and keep at it, and eventually you will hit one of those 1 in 500 units that make all that hard work really fun!