We get a lot of old (sometimes damaged) furniture in lockers, and if you are handy with basic woodworking, painting, staining and most important....re-imagining....working with old furniture can be a profitable aspect of locker buying.

Here's one of the places to start:

pinterest(dot)com/extexan/redoing-old-furniture/

The show's not even on the air yet but here's one of the lead actors' store info.

facebook (dot) com/UnforgettablesStoreTreasures

Go canucks!

Some months ago an auction friend bought a locker with dozens of large cardboard boxes showing as well as 4 door vertical lockers.  It was the contents of a former roller skating rink. 



I forget what he paid for it, but it was reasonable considering he got around 800 pair of roller skates !  Sizing them out was the biggest chore of course.

He was in a bit of panic early on so I bought 50 pair from him at a dollar a pair and sold them for $5  a pair and advertised them as coming out of a local rink that had shut down. They sold great as a nostalgia item for the most part.

Meanwhile, he had the locker for a month and even though he had contacted area-wide rinks about buying them he had no takers. Finally, toward the end of the month he got a bite and sold them all to an existing rink. He had sold most of the lockers one set at a time...they always seem to have a market around here either for storage or for decorating.

He did well on the locker, but that was mainly because the rest of us didn't want to do the work. I was happy with my small piece ! 

Don't I know it. I've been doing this 10 years, and the best advice I can give someone is to not focus on large units. The huge spenders will "duke it out" on them, and most of the time, lose money.

I have bought over 400 units, and the most I have ever spent on one is $575 + one month's rent. And it's a big money maker. KEEP IT SIMPLE!!!

You and I have been doing it about the same length of time and I pretty much agree with what you said above. However in my area spending $575 on a locker now will get you pretty much what you could have gotten for $250 over two years ago.

Sure there are good ones all the way from $5 to $600 and if one looks carefully and has a certain amount of luck thrown in there can be great if not adequate rewards.

I hardly buy ANY lockers anymore preferring to "pick", and the last couple I have bought have only been in the $100 range and came out OK.  It's one thing to have the money (whether it's $500 or $1,000 or more) and it's another to decide to spend the big bucks. In my area the crowds are going down somewhat; if the prices start to fall too that will be great, but the regulars are hungry for inventory and some are paying for it.

Aside from hiring a moving company (you're kidding right?) the other two ideas work. The do-it-yourself option is of course the best; the heat? part of the business, as is the cold, the wind, the dead mice, the trips to the dump, the cleaning of the items, the sale of the items. That's what this business is about (on the negative side).

On the positive side you mind find it fun to go on a treasure hunt in a locker you bought; to make money on sales, to get stuff for your own use, etc etc.

The alternative is some regular 9 to 5 job which is more guaranteed to keep you out of the heat (unless you're a construction worker or a gardener) and to give you a regular paycheck and medical benefits. Only you can decide what works for you. Try it out. If you don't like it in 3 months to a year, quit.

Your link in reply #3 goes to  an unusal place.  Just post your seller name or the actual word for word title of your item and I'll get a link posted here for you.

MM...what is Lanset.com? Is that your site?

It is an internet provider available to anyone.