Six rooms on Saturday, 7/18/15 at a nice, clean, local facility.  Only about 10 buyers.  It was a strange day, since I've been to and bought several lockers at this place, and most of the rooms looked tossed.  I know they don't search them - I mean, they can't due to letting the renters pay up right until showtime.  This place normally has pretty clean, organized stuff and it looked like bombs had gone off in a few units! 

Here's photos of some of the lockers:

$40  http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/Cheesehead99/media/IMG_1596.jpg.html

$130 http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/Cheesehead99/media/IMG_1597.jpg.html

$100  http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/Cheesehead99/media/IMG_1601.jpg.html

$475  http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/Cheesehead99/media/IMG_1602.jpg.html

$265  http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/Cheesehead99/media/IMG_1607.jpg.html
http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/Cheesehead99/media/IMG_1609.jpg.html

I went up to $250 on a unit that had new toys, a rolling toolbox, and some real wood furniture, but it went to $375 and it seemed like a wash without much profit.  A bidder I know won it, and I stuck around while he did some digging.  Most of the toys and kitsch were cheap and not name brand and the toolbox was empty.  He should cover his cost with the dresser and two small end tables, but the back had boxes and other "mystery stuff" so it's a toss up. 

Good luck out there! 

This past Saturday, a Self Storage place was advertising 107 UNITS for auction.  It was down to 80 at showtime, and still at 79 after one poor soul waded through the crowd to pay up.  Below is a shot of a part of the 100+ attendees. 

http://s1078.photobucket.com/user/Cheesehead99/media/IMG_1579.jpg.html

The bad news was - this place was disgusting.   Dirty, moldy, and weather beaten.  They started with a whole row of 5x5s.  They announced they would open five at a time so all 100+ could get a look.  Well, they popped open the first one - and the side walls of the locker were made of PARTICLE BOARD!      And the concrete floor was two inches thick in dirt and mold.   Everything inside was moldy, dirty, and smelled BAD.   One regular said, "This place hasn't changed, it's where storage lockers go to die..."   Yuck.   Obviously every drop of rain that has fallen in the past 5 years went through these rooms.

About the 15th locker or so, they started popping open 10x10s - and announced "This unit has not been opened since 1986!!"  (With pride)   Well, the door went up and everyone scattered from the swarm of yellowjackets.  Inside the room was a 3-foot high fire ant hill and mold everywhere.   The smell about made you gag!   Everything inside was beyond ruined - and there was furniture, bed frames, tool boxes, etc.   Would have been a great unit if the outside weather would have stayed outside.  (The auctioneer kind of dialed back his "pride" when the door rolled up on this soon-to-be dump run).  I waited around until unit 25 in 100 degree heat before I left.  It was so bad even a couple whales left about the same time.  The auctioneer started every 5x5 at $50, and never got over $40 for any of them - and started the 10x10s I saw at $100 - and only one room went over that.   

Lesson learned - I had never been here - this was their first auction in MANY years - and I marked if off my list to ever go again.  Particle board walls, dirty units, not a very clean site - all equals crap on top of crap.    I can't believe the site owners let their lockers get into such bad shape.  Nothing was really sellable.  It was a real shame.  I guess if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.   

Good luck out there!

Here's the TMZ video:

http://www.tmz.com/2015/06/20/storage-wars-fight-video-dave-hester-dan-laura-dotson?adid=TMZ_Search_Results

Plug your virgin ears boys and girls - it's Laura uncensored!!     Does she eat with that mouth!?   

Also, I don't understand it.  The main players are making $10,000-$15,000 per episode (or more).  Why can't they all just work together and cash another check??   Wow.....

Wanted to bring this back to the front:

I was out this week looking for sport cards supplies - you know, the hard plastic top loaders, sleeves, 8x10 hard top loaders, etc.  It's been a while since I needed this stuff, but it was disheartening to see that all three card shops in my town have gone out of business.  I stopped at a local comic book shop - and they confirmed that sports cards have just about died - no more shops, no more shows, etc.  The comic store used to carry some supplies, but stopped when the last stuff sold out.  There's no demand for it.

Point is, this is a REAL down time for sportscards.  The 80s and 90s standard baseball cards have always been worthless - but even the premium inserts, sets, etc. have taken a dive in value.   Who knows if they will ever come back.  I'm hoping so since I, like many of you, have thousands upon thousands of baseball, football, and basketball cards.  

The good news, so far in 2015 I haven't seen anyone burning rubber into the storage facility two minutes before the auction starts to pay their delinquent bill.  In the past I've seen locker renters almost run over auction buyers heading for the office to pay.  Yikes!   

But I totally agree - if you haven't paid in three months, and don't pay by close-of-business on the day before, it's "sorry Charlie."   I can't remember the last auction I went to where the number of lockers in the paper (or even on Friday night when I call) was the number auctioned.     

For some reason, the action is hot and heavy in my area.  Three storage auctions on Saturday, 6/27 (two at historically good places for me) and multiple estate sales/consignment auctions spread out over this coming weekend.  Then three more storage auctions at decent places next week.  WOW - it's been deadsville around here, and now it seems every place wants to "lighten the load" before the 4th.  Anyone else hustling around - or is everyone going on vacation?

Good luck out there! 

6/20/15 - two local storage auctions (both owned by the same folks).  Location #1 had eight rooms listed in the paper - down to four when I called Friday night, and down to three on auction day.  (When I showed up I almost got run over by someone burning rubber out of the complex - must have been the 4th person paying up and getting the hell out of there!!)   

#2 had five rooms listed in the paper - but was down to two when I called.   Yeah buddy!

To make a long story short, it was the same old story.  All five units for bid were junk, junk, and junk.  Broken particle board furniture, rusty lawn mowers, trashed matresses, etc. etc. etc.   The highest unit went for $200 (to the local whale) that included an exercise machine, two mid-century chairs, some bar stools (two broken) and two couches.  The rest of the units were covered in dust, but also were full of garbage and NONE had boxes, tool boxes, or anything that would contain mystery stuff.  It was "what you see is what you get."  Two units went for $5.

Yuck.