Auction Scene #7...July, 2012

Go ahead and guess what this sold for...10 x 10 with a dismantled keyboard as well and maybe 6 totes.

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Ok going off on a limb and say $3500.  In your area mine around the $1500 mark Ok I am cheating... 

OK, will wait for a few more guesses on this one but should reveal by end of today, July 10.

So my online unit ended up having some Marilyn Monroe framed art in it that was well taken care of. Sold the appliances yesterday for 150 and have a total of 165 in the unit so should come out with an ok profit.  Slow week which is to bad as it is very hot and would detour most from coming out. Two day of caravans the end of next week.

MovieMan I'm gonna guess about 1500.00 for the unit.

Happy Bidding All!!

Went to a facility about a half mile from the house today.  Five lockers, three total junk, two mostly junk.  Was in on one of the better ones at 190 and it was almost done, then a new bidder jumps in and I let him have it at 270. 

Same auctioneer has another auction Thursday, but it's at a trashy facility and it's usually pretty crappy there. 

On the plus side, there were only about 20 people there today compared to 70 last time!  Low unit went for 10 bucks, high locker went for 350.  Wish there would have been a little better stuff, I could use some inventory!

The best one had a bright yellow Matco tool box about 4 feet wide 2 feet deep and 4 feet high. Maybe 10 drawers; a good looking tool box and aside from the yellow its most distinguishing feature was.....the black vinyl rails on the drawers were DUST COVERED.....BUT....there were two sets of disturbed dust on each grip...where you would put your left and right hands to open a wide drawer. Each drawer had this pattern.

The other notables in this locker were 3 hard case guitar cases, 3 amps, Fender and Marshall brands.

Go ahead and guess what this sold for...10 x 10 with a dismantled keyboard as well and maybe 6 totes.

OK, had some good guesses on this one's final sales price.  I told my two cronies there that I thought it would go for $2000. They thought not and they were right.  It went for $1,000.

Yes, six months ago it might have gone for $2k but not that day. One of my two cronies went to $600 on it and when it went for $1K he the told me that he thought I would jump in somewhere around there, but I was just afraid of it at that price. An empty tool box and 3 empty guitar cases wouldn't have been worth much....IF EMPTY.  Wasn't willing to gamble that much.

So, the smaller crowds and sporadically lower prices are a good indicator that things might be settling down.

The guy who paid $1K was known to my two friends but I had never seen him before...he was from out of town.

Well caravan time for me in the morning...if we have any units.  Last 4 months have seen less then a dozen units between 7 locations.  This is the auction that is telling for me also on crowds.  We have been getting lots of out of towners and newbies.  If we are under 30 people I will be very happy.

Monday is my 3 caravan location that my daughter loves.  She made out like a bandit last month.  So hopefully we will get another unit or three in the next few days.

The caravan has come and gone and finds me with 2 units for $155 total.  Crowd started out around 30 people or so - down a few people from last month but still a number of newbies.  By the time we finish for the day the crowd was down to a dozen and lost all but 1 set of newbies.  Units today were so/so with a few good units.  Prices were more reasonable with the biggest / best going for 600, 800, and 900.  I got a 1/4 full 10x10 for $110.  Had it at $50 till one of the newbie's jumped in.  Two large dog cages, drop leaf table, some firewood furniture, and a few other odds and end items.  Figure the drop leaf, and 2 dog cages should net me $150 or so.  If do that is $40 profit before some of the other items.  I really wanted the unit for the dog cages as may keep them for self.

Second unit was at the last facility of the day.  It was rare this place never has units.  Maybe 1 unit in 3 months.  Today they had 6 (3 abandoned units and 3 advertised).  Lady at the counter said first unit was marginal so I was thinking cloths and stuff.  Get there and it's another 10x10.  4 drawer file cabinet, large dolly, large piano/furniture dolly, 5 trash bags, xmas tree box, xmas tree, etc.  Saw 2 move blankets in a corner.  Tossed out a $25 open, one of the other regulars $35, so I went to $45 and won.  Is a good unit for price.  The trash bags - 4 of them had moving blankets folded up inside.  One bag of cloths.  Tubs had various items in it but a number of new cell phones (older).  Guy was a sales rep for Verizon.  Even have a huge canvas picture/advertisement sign of the verizon guy.

So all in all a decent day.  Can't wait for monday now.

The caravan has come and gone and finds me with 2 units for $155 total.  Crowd started out around 30 people or so - down a few people from last month but still a number of newbies.  By the time we finish for the day the crowd was down to a dozen and lost all but 1 set of newbies.  Units today were so/so with a few good units.  Prices were more reasonable with the biggest / best going for 600, 800, and 900.  I got a 1/4 full 10x10 for $110.  Had it at $50 till one of the newbie's jumped in.  Two large dog cages, drop leaf table, some firewood furniture, and a few other odds and end items.  Figure the drop leaf, and 2 dog cages should net me $150 or so.  If do that is $40 profit before some of the other items.  I really wanted the unit for the dog cages as may keep them for self.

Second unit was at the last facility of the day.  It was rare this place never has units.  Maybe 1 unit in 3 months.  Today they had 6 (3 abandoned units and 3 advertised).  Lady at the counter said first unit was marginal so I was thinking cloths and stuff.  Get there and it's another 10x10.  4 drawer file cabinet, large dolly, large piano/furniture dolly, 5 trash bags, xmas tree box, xmas tree, etc.  Saw 2 move blankets in a corner.  Tossed out a $25 open, one of the other regulars $35, so I went to $45 and won.  Is a good unit for price.  The trash bags - 4 of them had moving blankets folded up inside.  One bag of cloths.  Tubs had various items in it but a number of new cell phones (older).  Guy was a sales rep for Verizon.  Even have a huge canvas picture/advertisement sign of the verizon guy.

So all in all a decent day.  Can't wait for monday now.

Nice job Craig....it's all another buck in the pocket!!

Not so much from July, but inventory from Jun is finely moving. I ended up with a 5x5 for 10.00 that was loaded with high end mens clothing. I don't do clothing... I moved some of it, but then just donated the rest. It also had a crystal chandleir and some other stuff. So far I am at 10x my money, but what to do with 4 bags of Polo, Nike, Gap, Banana Republic, shirts and jackets.

This week I am going out of my normal caravan to see what is available 40 miles away. Wish me luck.

Monday found my daughter and I at her favorite location since she can bid (with my approval of course).  Unlike last month only a few lockers at each place this time.  First facility 4 units - nothing great, crowd is about normal for this place with a bunch of new faces and some older newbies/regular returning after a hiatus.

Second facility we picked up a few more people.  8 units here which was a surprise.  One nice construction looking unit with a .22 rifle but showing.  Unit only went for $475 to a newbie which surprised me some.

Third facility got rained out.  Wasn't so much the driving rain and wind as much as the lightning going off everywhere.  So we go back today at 4:30.

I did win a small 5x10 which surprised me.  Did an opening bid while people were looking of $50.  I figured it would go for $100 - $150.  1/2 full, 6 or 7 decent chairs, table, a number of odds and ends.  Think the 3 prostetic legs is all people saw.  Sold unit untouched to my buddy for $75 as he needs inventory for his store.

Frustrating morning.  Auction at 10:00am at one of my favorite local places - a little more high end and usually lots of good smalls.  At 8:00pm Tuesday night, received an e-mail that the locker count has dropped from 17 to 14.  At 9:00am today I get an updated e-mail that lockers are down to 10......you can see where this is going......

I arrive at 9:30am and there are several cars in the lot (about 6 or 7).  I go in the office to sign in, and it's packed with people paying up.  In fact, in a matter of minutes, the parking lot is clear, I am the only buyer there (my bidding number is 1!)  It's now about 9:45am, and a handful of other buyers show up to be told the bad news - the locker count is down to 2.  During the next 10 minutes two more people race into the parking lot, run in the office, and pay their bill.  So it's now 9:58am and the auction is off.  Alrighty then

10 units being paid off in less than a hour....holy cow!  The worst part about this is most of the lockers in my area lately have been junk - and this place normally has decent stuff.  Now I will have to wait 2-3 months to find out, since they only occasionally do auctions.      

Went to three auctions today by the same auctioneer. He is the best of the 4 regular auctioneers so I asked him what the "trends" were right now.

1) Crowds about the same (that's not true in my area...they are smaller)
2) Prices about the same (again, in my area they are down)
3) Number of lkrs up for sale...DOWN.  (now THAT is true in my area)

He does more selling some distance away from me and his answers to the first two questions tell me to
stay away from there (too far for me anyway).

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Meanwhile the units at the first place went for decent prices. First 3 lkrs were 5 x 10s and I started the last one at $100 after the  first two went for that. HOWEVER, there was one other guy there who loves to overpay and he did. I went up with him to $350 and someone else took over and the overpaying guy got if for $475.

The next place had 5 lkrs. Three by same owner but sold separately. The first one, 10 x 20 with about 50 garbage bags (dust covered) along one long wall. Other wall mixed bag. All looked old. Guy got it for $100...probably a good buy.

The next two from same owner were 10 x 30 and this time larger stuff. First one started out at a reasonable $100 but one of the year old newbies gave a $500 bid thinking he would get it. I knew for a fact he had $950 on him and that was his last bid as a newbie took it away at  $1000. Finally, mr. 950 got the next and last same owner lkr for $750.

All three were from an elderly woman who had put everything she owned in them, but nothing looked that great to me.
The only thing I remember was a little breakfast table (yellow formica, fold down leaves)...could have been worth a bit especially if chairs were in there, but nothing else great showing and a lot of broken wicker stuff and baskets.

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Third place we went had 3 lkrs. First was mgr's mattress lkr (hooray !). Second and third, nothing special. So, with maybe 13 lkrs total at all 3 places, I bid on one and got none.

Have to say the "picking" is looking better all the time, but If I can get a really good one every two months + picking I would be happy. Been 2 months and 9 days since my last lkr buy.

That sucks Movieman about not winning anything.  Think I'd of had to bid on the all bag locker.  Is a gamble but I've done better then expected with those bags.

I have to agree with you on picking.  My buddy that has a store summed it up this way.  He makes his money on the yard sale and "come to him" purchases for the majority of furniture, etc.  The units provide the random smalls and flavors to his inventory.

That sucks Movieman about not winning anything.  Think I'd of had to bid on the all bag locker. 

Well, I don't know about it sucking. Fact is I could have bought any one of them...heck, I could have bought all of them, but to what end. A lot of work, some reward (unknown of course).  No, I think I did what I should have.

I worked in my permanent locker this afternoon...gave some stuff to Goodwill, threw some stuff away. Object to clear some space for some items I have in a temp lkr that ends Aug 15th. Nope, I have no regrets; as I said "picking" is looking better all the time and I have already stopped going to as many auctions as I used to. I think the handwriting might be on the wall...unless of course I find that "special" lkr ....one more time !   

Finally!  The crowds seem to be at least slightly thinning and the prices seem to be coming down.  I went to a facility today that has had 60-80 bidders for the last year or so.....today only about 15 bidders.  Had 8 lockers for sale, and they all sold between $1 and $200. 

I got a little 5x5 for 60 bucks.  No big ticket items, but a nice stainless microwave and a couple of tools and I'll have my money back.  Leaves me lot's of stuff to take out to the swap meet this week end. 

I have many auctions to go in the next week and a half, so we'll see if this was just a fluke or if things are really getting better.  I've got my fingers crossed!