Auction Scene #11...November, 2012

Gettting a jump start on November here a day before Halloween...thinking maybe an early start will avoid the auction zombies (newbies) !

Be sure to look at Cobia's entry October 30 in the Auction Scene #10..... October, 2012....a good view of late Oct doings in his area...hopefully that will spread across the country!

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Meanwhile only 1 auction coming up this week for me and doesn't usually amount to much.

See the thread link below for some low-level analysis of the Auction Scene Thread series for 2012.

http://storageauctionforums.com//index.php/topic,2866.msg20395.html#msg20395

Well I actually get Thursday off so can hit the 7 facility auction.  There is also a seperate place at 5 that I've never see do an auction.  They have 3 units in the paper.  May or may not make that one due to family obligations.  Hope to see and buy some good units in the morning.

I went north yesterday for an auction. This was my first time every exploring this way. I live on the edge of what they call the Salad Bowl of the country. Lots of farm workers to the north and I wasn't sure if the units would be any good. With the lack of auctions to the south I figured lets give it a try.
My store if pretty full and I had a small list of what I was looking for. About 50 people showed up. About half were just looky loos. Total lockers available at auction time was 36 and one van. I was surprised that only one regular from my stomping ground showed up. (the drive was only 45 minutes) First unit (inside) was garbage. Second unit (again inside) had lots of kids toys. (not what I sell) Third unit was baby stuff. (again inside and doesn't sell for me) $100.00, $150.00 and $80.00. Next unit was outside. It was opened and I thought wow this ones been here for a long time. Dust everywhere. So I start talking to a local who lives in the town that told me this facility was built about seven years ago. Every unit that was opened outside had the same problem. The dust is so fine in theses farming communities that is gets under the door and coats everything.
I did leave without anything but not for lack of trying. Most units went between $100 and $300 dollars. The five I really liked, so did their whale, and he out bid me an all of them. ($800 to 1300 way to much for my wallet) If I really needed inventory I would have went higher but was really looking for a bargain. The van ended up being a 1998 Mitsubishi box truck and it went for $1050. If it runs the kids that bought it got a steal.  
The auctioneer was fast it only took two and a half hours to finish. Just wondering if I had bought a unit if all of that dust would have blown off by the time I got it home.
All in all I will keep looking for auctions to the north. Most of the stuff wasn't bad, just dirty. I did make friends with the regular from my area. She just does this for fun and so I gave her my card. Next weeks auction is south.

Thursday was a bust for me.  For a change we had a good number of units.  We also had a good size crowd with a number of "newbies".  Bid on a few units but wasn't in an agressive mood so lost.

Friday was U-haul.  First location only had 1 unit that went for $25 as there was only 1 person there.  Talk about luck.  Downtown had 12 units for the day which is a large number for them.  Some decent units also for a change.  I was able to slide in a picked up a small unit with a love seat, chair w/ ottoman, and some misc items for $50.  That was one of the cheaper units of the day.

Shawn

Went to 3 auctions on Thursday, Nov 15, 2012 all with same auctioneer.

Crowd was decent (15) Lockers were mostly average to below average with one exception.

First place had 5 lkrs and none were memorable. I think one went for $300...I didn't bid on it.

Second place had 8 lkrs and all but one were below average in looks...a couple of them went in the $200 range, but each of those had about 4 to 8 dump loads in them.

The best one here was a 10 x 20 that was neatly stacked with old boxes, an old round top frig, some large aquariums; boxes nicely labeled and sealed and dusty ! I thought I would go $500 to $600 on it. Bidding started pretty slow with 3 or 4 of us bidding; all but I and one other guy dropped out in the $400 range.

He and I went at it in $25 jumps and occasional $50 to $75 jumps. Didn't take long to go past $600 but I wasn't going to let this guy get it cheap and as he is one who wants them all I knew he would ride the wave to the top. I stopped at $950 and it was his for $975.

Looked at it afterwards with him and looks pretty good...how much profit not known till the last box is empty.
I was bidding partially on a box that he didn't peer into (open top with some jumbled stuff). The small red plastic boxes inside were neatly labled .45 Cal and were reloads.  The box stuck in the top of that one also had what looked like a blue pistol case and as it turned out later, it was along with another and also 3 cardboard pistol boxes with brand names. Naturally all five boxes were empty.

There was also a box showing at the preview (before bidding) and it said "gun books", so my interest was piqued.

When he and I got in there after payment was made he opened a few of the boxes and found 70's vintage hi-fi stuff from Pioneer, etc. Some money there. He was going through those boxes like Barry on TV and one of the big aquariums suffered for it...oh well.

Anyway, would have been sweet at $500 or so, but he is a glutton for lkrs (and punishment)...and still an auction "friend"...a year ago I got the win from him...also a grand.

Forgot to put in the results of the third location mentioned in the post just above.

There was a couple there (mid 50's) with two boys in their 20s.  The wife was taking notes on every locker up for sale (maybe 8 of them). More on this later.

Anyway, the door goes up on a 10x20 and it is packed left to right (10 feet), top to bottom (10 feet) and presumably all the way back.

The couple buys it for $350 and are as happy as clams. The ONLY thing of value showing in that solid wall of crap was the end of a pickup truck tool box (diamond plate). The rest looked like parts, clothing, CRAP.

Later I walked over to them and said, "Let me guess...that was the first locker you've ever bought"

He: "How did you know?"  

I: "Well, you'll get some good experience anyway...a few dump runs there"

He: "Yeah, we knew it wouldn't be as easy as it looked on TV."   (you think?)

I: "I was wondering why you were taking notes on all the lockers you saw?"

She: "We just wanted to keep track of what was in the lkr and what the lkr sold for."

Bottom line on this one: Probably another newbie will bite the dust.

We have a older couple in 50s / 60s maybe that have been buying like mad.  No clue how they get things cleaned out on time or what they do with all the stuff.  One of the ladies asked and they just like "buying".  Will see how long they last.

They'll last as long as the social security checks keep coming.

Forgot to put in the results of the third location mentioned in the post just above.

There was a couple there (mid 50's) with two boys in their 20s.  The wife was taking notes on every locker up for sale (maybe 8 of them). More on this later.

Anyway, the door goes up on a 10x20 and it is packed left to right (10 feet), top to bottom (10 feet) and presumably all the way back.

The couple buys it for $350 and are as happy as clams. The ONLY thing of value showing in that solid wall of crap was the end of a pickup truck tool box (diamond plate). The rest looked like parts, clothing, CRAP.

Later I walked over to them and said, "Let me guess...that was the first locker you've ever bought"

He: "How did you know?"  

I: "Well, you'll get some good experience anyway...a few dump runs there"

He: "Yeah, we knew it wouldn't be as easy as it looked on TV."   (you think?)

I: "I was wondering why you were taking notes on all the lockers you saw?"

She: "We just wanted to keep track of what was in the lkr and what the lkr sold for."

Bottom line on this one: Probably another newbie will bite the dust.

At least they are collecting data and trying to do some research. Thats more then 90% of what most newbies do. I remember seeing some others do this as well, document how much units went for and what they saw in the units. Now that I think about it, most of them never moved into the bidding/buying stage so they must have looked at their notes and concluded that buying storage units would not be a profitable business/hobby.

You forgot to say, "Boy you guys got that unit cheap!!"

At least they are collecting data and trying to do some research.

You forgot to say, "Boy you guys got that unit cheap!!"

I guess (collecting data) and given they are newbies they don't consider such factors as how many bidders are there, how many are regulars or newbies, etc, etc. You and I know that comes with time and regular attendance....and keeping "data" and impressions in your head as well.  Could have recommended photographs to them but why help them.

"...got that unit cheap !" HA !  They'll find out soon enough the true "cost" of their investment when they unload that pile of crap.  The mgr told me later the fellow had another lkr he had lost a few months ago and that it was crap too. The mgrs have a good feel for their customers based on their data gathering when the customers come in and offload and when they make a thousand excuses for being late on rent.

Ya - getting in good with the manager(s) has saved me some time and gas money.  There was 1 unit in my local town up for auction this month.  Talked with the site manager as I also have a unit there for overflow.  He told me the unit was crap.  They came in and just tossed everything in, along with food.  So the unit stinks, has ants/roaches, etc.  He is just glad he can have the city clean it out when it don't sell.  Also told me about a car that is in one unit that should come up in January.  They are in court now getting permission to sell the car.

Got one today...a 10 x 30 that has the contents of a 10 x 10 and thin at that.

Only spent $80 on it and bought it because of two items I have had luck with. Maybe another 12 or so smaller items and the rest either trash or to Goodwill.

It was one of two lockers and the other was a real 10 x 10 that went for $175 I think. Probably worth that!

Anyway, first one I've gotten since I think early October....but picking continues to be good.

Been to a few auctions this week. One thing that has changed since last time I posted (last month?) is a complete reversal in demographics. Now the old timers (pre-tv shows) are coming back out and the newbies are only a trickle compared to the wave after wave of the last two years.

Units have been sub-par (not good) 90% are junk to very low quality, the other 10% average quality. Everything is being bid on and won, and some units still too high cause of the 3-6 month newbies & the new newbies.

One thing I noticed is there appears to be a circling of sharks waiting on the albacore tuna, instead of catching the sardines. Based on "murmurs and talk" through the crowd and some of the bidding behavior of the old timers that are back; it seems quite a few people are waiting on "jackpot" units or at least very nice units to bid or spend their money on.

I can think of only one "jackpot" unit I have seen and it wasn't sold cause the opening bid was $3000. I have seen some very nice units and I have won some very nice units, but the demographics of my area just do not lend itself to having very wealthy people leaving a huge store of expensive things in a storage unit. Not likely to happen very often.

It will be interesting to see how this new strategy of waiting on the great units to bid on works out for the entire auction crowd.

My auctions are done for the month due to work.  However, I have noticed the same as Cobia.  Many of the auctions I did attend had a larger number of regulars coming back.  One of the auctions was like a high school re-union.  We still have a number of newbies, 3 month newbies, and the like.  But more and more units are going to regulars, and the general price has come down.