Auction Scene #1...January, 2012

Funny how different eyes see different things~

I'm thinking this is the storage equivalent to "beer goggles."

People expect to see treasure, so they trick themselves into seeing it.

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...

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...

We can relate. Only have one good auction next week hopefully some inventory starts moving at the thrift. Or we might just have to stay home.  . All our seed money tied up in inventory.

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.

 

Auctions everywhere today!  I tried a couple of the well known caravans and the crowds were disgusting!  So, thinking I'd be smart, I headed 35 miles North to a "secret" facility that usually has smaller crowds.  

Secret my ASS!  We pulled up, and there were OVER 100 PEOPLE THERE!  WTF is this?  The wind was gusting at 40-50 mph, and it was raining cats and dogs!  Umbrella's were literally blowing inside out due to the wind gusts.  I stayed for two lockers, and after seeing the crowd, how long it was taking, and how much they went for, I called it a day.  

Maybe it's time to get a job??  Just Kidding!!  Even a crappy day of auction buying beats a good day on a real job!!!!

Maybe it's time to get a job??  

No say it ain't so !!!!!!. 

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.

Well I took a early lunch break at 9am to hit a 9:30 auction 10 miles from work.  Almost turned around when called to make sure they were going to have the auctions and got "you can come and wait".  Seems this girl was new and had no freaking idea what she was doing.  Plus, the paperwork was a mess.  So auction started 20 mins late.

Crowd was small.  Only 8 or 9 registered bidders and like 20 people.  That included the 2 facility ladies, and the auctioneer.  We had two cute young ladies that were looky loos.  Another guy that had done storage auctions years ago and had just came back to see what had changed.  The rest were regulars or new regulars.  Three units out of the five.  Prices were ok but not great with a 10% bp, 7% tax, and a $40 cleaning deposit per locker.  Buddy bought 2 of the 3 lockers.  The last locker was the best.  Packed 10x10 to the ceiling.  U-haul boxes, nice brown leather couch upright in front with no rips/tears, baby stuff.  That unit sold for $700.

Only 1 unit at the next facility so I came back to work.  Two auctions thursday (may make 1), and 1 friday.  Need to verify but may even have one this Sunday, which would be different.

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.

It seems to haunt me....kinda like the strippers units for the month of November.....sheesh.  And no "units full of artwork" aren't common.  The two significant pieces we've found were buried in units with visible vintage items.

Like I said~these appeared to be an art teachers units, as there were tons of canvas, framed pieces and the like.  What we could see many were different mediums and talent.  I did think about the first one, but when one of my buddies topped out at $600 and it kept going up.....let's just say the other two art units were not even looked at.

I really lucked out on our first unit with the Velarde, since then I've had numerous pieces worth very little.  The Lautrec litho is not going to be worth much at all, if anything.  At this point I'd take $50 just to get rid of it!  I talked (via email) with a gallery in the Pacific NW and he basically said they wouldn't be interested and perhaps I should try ebay or an antique mall......the kiss of death for art~

We do tend to look for units with vintage items, so perhaps we're finding more art (than average) that way than say those that buy furniture or tool units (although I'm getting to prefer those more).

Thursday the 26th, 2012....will be going to 6 facilities with possible total of 60 lkrs. Should be able to get one wouldn't you think...we'll see !

Tomorrow is another one of the public storage runs.....we'll see what happens.....but after Daryl, Brandy and Jarrod made almost 30K between them the other night, the crowds should be thick!

Good luck MovieMan - but at the normal rate of payment now a days you may be down to 30-40 by auction.  Still that is a large number of units and sure to bring the crowds.

Missing the afternoon PS one due to work.  May hit up a 5:30 auction tonight with daughter just to look.  I've heard mix things about this place so not really interested in buying.  Friday auctions I may not hit since it is suppose to be thunderstorms in area.  Will have to wait and see what 9:45 is like in the morning.  Going to confirm a Sunday auction.  If that is legit I'll be there Sunday with daughter.

Good luck MovieMan - but at the normal rate of payment now a days you may be down to 30-40 by auction. 

You think? 

Still that is a large number of units and sure to bring the crowds.


The first 2 have time conflict so I am going to try the less attended auction and hope to score there
while the mobs are at the other two.  After the first one I go to I join the mob.

Gotta try !

Finished cleaning out lkrs 3 and 4 of the 4 I bought recently and ran into the "newbie" couple who proclaimed
"oh no, this is our second lkr buy!".

While I was cleaning out four 5 x 10s they were still only half way done working on their one 5 x 10.

They had set up a card table and two folding chairs in the hallway, and each time I visited them during a 3 day period they were looking at dozens of little toys spread out on that table. The woman showed me a metal Hot Wheels type car (out of package) and said "I'll look it up on eBay and see if it's worth anything."

I maintained my composure and told her the only ones that are worth more than $1.00 are the redlines (and I explained that to her).

She also showed me a Star Wars toys in the shrink/cardboard wrapper and asked how much I thought it was worth. I told her I would start it at $8 at the flea and be happy to get $5. She was taken aback by that a bit. I guess I take such things for granted due to doing it for years.

Anyway, they are learning...but slowly. They plan to sell Saturday at the flea where I sell...be interesting to see their setup.

****
Meanwhile, van problems. Long story short, thought it was battery but think it is alternator or something. Trickle charge for a few hours. Runs all day, next morning is dead again. Sears said battery is fine, so has to be deeper than that. May have to rent a van for Saturday flea...lost last Saturday to rain.

Movieman sounds like you have something that is draining the battery like a light in the glovebox that doesn't go out when closed, underhood light doing the same, just something somewhere not going off when you shut down.  This can be a real pain to find.  Good luck!