I went to the first local auction of the year yesterday. A hand full of people I saw at the first auction a month ago. There were two units being auctioned. After doing some research I found some possible information. One locker belonged to a 70 year old gentleman, who had been arrested recently on DUI charges, and the second belonged to an 82 year old woman in a retirement village. It’s a bit easier in a smaller than 200,000 population area to find info on people with rare last names. I find the research helps a little bit, or would seem to.
There were about 15 people present. Five I would say were bidders and the rest were more interested in looking. The first locker belonged to the 70 year old man. In it was a stuffed toy horse, a broken table, a recliner and a couch, older washer and dryer and some wine bottles. These lockers were not completely closed off from the elements/weather. There were some leaves and lots of dirt. The furniture and stuffed toy were water stained, and the washer and dryer looked old and as if they had seen better days. The bidding went to $115.00.
The next locker was very dirty and things had been thrown in, some clothes were not in bags or boxes just thrown in. There were some bags of trash (really trash, open food cans and news papers wadded up and such in them) and lots of old cassette tapes, ironing board thrown on top, mattress with box springs that had lots of water stains, a old lamp and some odd stuff. I was told later that it went for over $500.00.
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. Here is my opinion. The first locker, get a clue, washer and dryer units in our area are on craigslist for $100-150 a pair. The other unit was at least on the visible part a dump run. $500 is a lot for something that looks like it was packed with a front end loader.
Well there is another auction Friday with 15+ units at several nice locations, I’ll see what that’s like.