Fooled by an optical illusion

I bought a decent locker today. I won't make a lot of money on it but my wife I will get to keep some stuff we like and need. The whole reason I bought this locker was because it had what I thought was a compound bow & arrows. I've been wanting to get back into archery but I refuse to pay retail for a bow when I know it's just a matter of time before I find one in a unit.

All I could see was the top third of the bow and it had 2 pulleys, so I assumed it was halfway decent. Turns out, it was two kids compound bows up against each other and they're only worth $30 bucks each.   

Have you ever been fooled by an optical illusion?

Bought a unit one time that had an awesome art deco dresser. The way it was sitting it looked great. Once I got inside I found that the side facing away from the door had fatal water damage and two drawers were only fronts. I was disappointed as me San Fran buyer would have paid good money for it. Went into the garbage. You win some and you loose some. 

Not so much an optical illusion but a classic newbie mistake.  A big unit I bought had four guitar cases and two speakers with fender covers.  Cases were empty and the covers were the only thing fender made in the unit. 

Not so much fooled but took a gamble.  Little 3x4x4 unit with a few garbage bags and had a stack of extremely high end kitchen appliances.   Sure enough the garbage bags had actual garbage and all the boxes were empty.

Luckily no one else wanted to risk it and I got it for $20.  Lost $20 and an hour of my life taking stuff to dumpster but for $20 it was worth the gamle.

Did get outbid on one like yours.  Front was all stacked nice and neat. hidden behind that was just dumped in and total crap. Bid went high because down one side it looked like stacks of aluminum.  Looking at nice boxes and stuff we figured it was a machinist.   Main attraction was scrap.

Boxes held nothing and "aluminum" turned out to be steel and not much of it.

Guy paid $450.  Add in buyers premium and dump.....
I've never seen the buyer again so never got update.   I'm assuming he lost big and was a lot of work.  I had seen him a lot but he never bid.  I'm pretty sure by the way he acted that this was his first win.

Sucks because it wasn't even a newbie mistake.  Unit had us all fooled.

I think that they all are optical illusions, I see money, but end up with junk.....

I am doing the same right now buying  stuff for the home. I just bought 5 bedroom home from the Guys that did the show flipman on Spike tv the first of the year. And Im going to win the big prize at work for most clothes donated and hopefully get the 60 inch led tv.

I didn't but I need to share this story. I went to an auction last month and there was a 10x10 unit filled with about 20 big plastic bins all nice and neat stacked. I love bidding on units with boxes and bins and this one was making me ansy. Once it went over $400 I backed out. After the auction I waited for the winning bidder to get to his unit and asked if I could just look what he got so I wouldn't be wondering later. To my amazement they were all empty!! He won it at $600. Normally I kinda love the feeling of someone who out bidded me to get nothing but damn. I couldn't feel good about it. My heart went out to him.

After the auction I waited for the winning bidder to get to his unit and asked if I could just look what he got so I wouldn't be wondering later. To my amazement they were all empty!!

You all broke the cardinal rule of auctions...only bid on what you can see, not what you want to see.

Bought a unit once because we saw what we thought was the end of a gun case....it was a pool cue. Unit was full of junk. Bought another unit once because we saw the end of an actual gun case...it was empty and the case was broken. That one worked out ok due to some other hidden treasures. Didn't spend too much on either unit but still frustrating.

I'm truly enjoying this forum more and more. Not that the storage unit sale stories here are funny (even though they are), but there's just so much you can learn about what happens with the whole storage unit game.

I'm truly enjoying this forum more and more. Not that the storage unit sale stories here are funny (even though they are), but there's just so much you can learn about what happens with the whole storage unit game.

We're glad that you're here and enjoying yourself!

so far i've never lost money on an auction trip. On a single unit? maybe.... I don't calculate it like that. I usually buy in bulk but I have definately bought some units that werent what I thought they were. Once i bought what i thought was a recurve bow in case that turned out to be a volleyball net. I've also bought what i thought were magic cards that ended up being something else quite worthless(magic cards are money btw). Theres tons more im sure but i think it happens to all of us.