Yes

Yes, bugs & rats are common in this industry.

Yes and no. After you've been in this business a while, you get desensitized. If I see a stuffed animal covered in rat feces, obviously I wouldn't resell it because someone's kid is going to be snuggling with it. But if I found a box of dishes covered in dead roaches, I'm going to wash them. That's an extra $10-15. If you find an old dresser that you could sell for $75 more if it were painted, you would paint it right? Same thing with cleaning items.

Our business can be disgusting at times. I'm sure no one here likes finding someone's crusty underwear, sex toys or urine in a coffee can, but these are realities in our business. You gotta take the good with the bad.

This.

I wouldn't sell clothing, stuffed animals, etc. that had been soiled* but those are items that are hard (if not impossible) to sterilize. A box of dishes, a statue, a coffee table, etc. can be cleaned and if I would use it, I would sell it to someone else to use.

The fact is, a lot of things get sullied and you never even know it. A rat can crawl across a can of beans that you then use to make chili; a roach can walk over a roll of fabric used to make your bedsheets. Germs and such are all around us, and fortunately, most things can be cleaned.

There's a difference between throwing out a $.25 mug because it isn't worth your time - and tossing out hundreds of dollars of merchandise because you don't believe in the power of Dawn dish soap.

It's up to you what you do, but even bidding carefully and perhaps even just picking at small auctions, garage sales, etc. you may have a very hard time. Most things get dirty, and in some areas rats/mice/roaches may be almost impossible to avoid. Hell, I stored my OWN belongings for a year once while traveling only to find that mice, geckos and scorpions had gotten into them. Was I going to throw out my family photos, furniture and dishes because of that.

Looking at anything in life as black/white with but a few exceptions is going to make life hard. That's doubly so with the auction business.

Clothes - High-end, good condition name brand clothes go in the store/on eBay; lower end but still good quality and condition clothes get bundled up to go to the auction or the garage sale/flea market. Everything else that isn't rags goes to Goodwill/other charities. Retro (80s and before) clothes go on eBay/in the store or taken around to resale shops; usually sell this sort of stuff the fastest.

Smalls, kitchen goods - Straight to the auction. Nicer stuff goes by itself, junkier stuff in boxes.

Small accessories, low-end small antiques/collectibles - Either go on eBay in a lot, in the store for cheap filler or if it's getting overwhelming/is kind of tacky, it goes to auction. If I have enough stuff that is similar to fill a box, I'll sometimes list it as a lot on eBay. Starting bid is enough to make some profit, and sometimes you end up with a surprisingly high sale (a bunch of low-end military junk got me $115 after a bidding war).

Higher end antiques/collectibles - eBay, the store, and where ever it may be relevant to advertise them.

That said, I've taken a few pretty decent antiques/collectibles to auction. It's a promised sale, even if you only get 1/8th the value - and after having it sit around for 6+ months you'll take it.

If you want to get rid of Goodwill-esque junk and still make some money, look up your local auction houses. Hell, go to a few and see what sells and what doesn't. Around here, I usually take my "better" stuff to Big Bear, my unique antiques/collectibles/art to Shipshewana and my junk to one of two small places by me.

Unsure if this is the right place to put it, so I apologize if it isn't!

In the business, what do you personally collect, if anything? Is there anything out there you can't part with when you find it in a storage locker, at an estate sale or some place else?

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I personally have a weak spot for taxidermy. Yes, that's right. Taxidermy.

If I see one ****ty stuffed squirrel in a locker I'll bid it up that much more. If I see one tacky deer hoof candle holder on AuctionZip, I'll drive an hour to attend that auction.

I've gotten enough dead deer to have my own (entirely male) herd at this point.

I usually prefer absolute (by the piece) auctions, garage sales, family-run sales, and just about anything to an estate sale - living or dead.

A regular estate sale run by a professional company after the death, illness or forced retirement to a senior center of an individual usually has very few, if any deals. You may see a few items priced right for your own collection, but generally they're asking only 10-25% less than retail on Day One for their items. Plus, having worked with a few of these companies, I can assure you that they usually know (more or less) what they are doing and will grab any major deals before you do. Anything you find is only there because every bargain hunter before you and the company didn't specialize in that item's area.

Some of them get pretty cheap the last few days, but they're still one of my least favorite places to go. By then, there isn't much to pick through and it still often isn't a hell of a deal.

Estates run by someone living are either a bit better or a hell of a lot worse. You have the benefit of the owner being there, but that's a double-edged sword. You can haggle with them directly and skip the middle man in most cases, but there's also a level of emotional attachment that keeps you from getting those items. I've talked people into giving me things, but I've also mentioned items the person didn't know were for sale and had pulled from the sale.

One way to potentially turn a profit with these groups is to drop by on the last day and leave your card all while pointing to that big truck or van of yours. Most estate companies are run by women or older people (frequently both), and they often don't have the time, resources or energy to dispose of what doesn't sell if they're expected to clean out the entire house. Three times I've gotten the contents of an entire house, post estate sale; twice for free (the third estate asked I pay $100 for everything).

Even then though, don't bank on what you saw when you got the stuff. The only time I didn't get screwed by the company was when I did pay for it. The other two times? Things began to disappear whenever the company was left alone, and it's sure funny how it's only valuables that vanish!

At least at absolute auctions, the auctioneer very rarely gets to pick before they sell - and it sells for whatever price is decided.


Bonus: A small estate sale story that still has me in a tissy -

When I bought the house I live in, it had been abandoned for a number of years with the entire contents of the house (including food) in it. As it so often goes with families, they're more than happy to let something rot away (and some things did, due to a leak in the roof) until someone else wants to enjoy it/profit from it. Before I was allowed to move in, they hired an estate company to sell everything.

Most of it wasn't especially valuable. A few nice pieces that were worth X here and Y there, but nothing unique or worth losing sleep over. With the exception of one Botero painting. For those who don't know Botero; good. His art style is that if a talented but troubled ten year old, but he's famous enough to have a wikipedia page and his art can sell highly.

Before the company went through, I asked to buy the painting and a few other things directly from the seller. They refused, claiming they didn't want to go against the contract they had with the company. No amount of begging or bartering would get me that painting, but I decided to show up at seven AM to be first in line for the estate sale.

Only to come in and find... the painting wasn't there.

But the owner was.

"Oh, hey buddy! I guess I should of sold you that painting," He says to me, "They (the estate company) told me it wasn't worth anything, and asked if they could give it to their daughter. Figured why not!"

The grin on their faces. It was out of a Botero painting.

(Unsurprisingly, they were one of the ones that picked through everything before giving me the remaining contents)

Never been in that situation, but as I generally follow the rule "Bid on only what you see" pretty strictly (with a few exceptions that might make me bid another $50-150; after all, if it's all alright on the front or the area's good, I may gamble)...

Well, I probably wouldn't be as adventurous as some. In a very good area, for a large unit, I may go up to $250. Beyond that, I can't justify the potential loss. But I'm quite the cheapwad, really.

If they're still in their expiration dates and smell/look fine when I open them, I eat them. If they're really close to expiring or 1-2 years expired, I'll give them to my relatives to feed to livestock.

Older than that, and in the dumpster they go.

Having been in and out of a lot of storage facilities - and not just when buying a unit or storing personally - I'd say that one of the reasons may be what each party stores.

A man is more likely to store valuables or things he at least values. He's also, I'd imagine, more likely to sell items he deems "worth" something in a time of need than a woman. I've known a lot of guys who store car parts, merchandise, their "mancave" items, etc. in a storage unit but very few who store their entire house or personal items. Most of the ones who I've known who DID store their whole house or personal items only did it because of financial ruin (divorce, loss of a house, what have you) or due to having far too much crap/a hoarding issue.

On the other hand, women it seems are more likely to store excess stuff, personal items they want but don't need, a relative's (kid, dead parent, whatever) junk to "go through later", etc. Plus, you have a lot of single mothers who may be forced to rent one due to financial or space constraints.

It being slightly skewed towards women doesn't surprise me, and I wouldn't be surprised if womens' units didn't go up for sale more often. That said, I don't think it is necessarially the fault of the women; finances or lack of interest in the stuff is more likely than pure flakiness.

It depends on the furniture. If it's something unique, uncommon or very old, I'd get it looked at. A number of years ago (20ish; I was 4-5 when it happened), my mother picked up a chair at a fleamarket for $5 - only to find it was a 400-year-old french piece. Needless to say, it went to get some new fabric and a new life. More recently, I have been given a victoria era sofa that's worth a pretty penny despite its rough shape, and worth far more repaired.

If it's just generic, new or junk though - toss it, give it away, or sell it cheap.