Auction Scene #1...January, 2013

Went to an auction today with 24 lockers and two vehicles for sale. Sounded promising as facility hadn't had an auction in over two years.

This facility used to be a large lumber yard type store with a lot of open space in the store plus a lumberyard out back.
The regular sized units inside don't have tops (no ceiling) but wire mesh over the tops. It's another 20 feet to the actual ceiling of the main building.

I have gotten good lockers in the past, so was looking forward to it.

They also have rinky-dink container type lockers outside...all 5 x 5 or 5 x 10 kinds of things.  Of the 24 lockers, 16 were outside. Units sold for $1 to $180. The 180 should have been $80, but oh well.

Inside the usual 10 x 10s didn't have much to offer but sold for $25 to $250. Only one of the people I run with got any of the 24 lockers. Regulars couldn't get away fast enough from the outside bins and the inside ones weren't inspiring either, but were better at least.

A 1992 RV (trailer) went for $600 despite the leaky roof which resulted in green mold growing in the walls of one bedroom.  A "quilted" looking food trailer went for $3,100.

So, another day with no buys from me, but getting more OK with that as the picking is doing well and I have stock that hasn't seen the light of day in a while.

Public Run has been this week.  Yesterday was a big waste of time.  I don't know for sure, but like someone else said, I think the New York show has brought some more future millionaires (cough, cough) out of the woodwork. 

Prices are down on some lockers, but they are full of garbage......one guy is buying up a ton of $1-$50 lockers, as many as he can get.  Last month he did that too, and he told me that after he paid for diesel for his big truck and paid dump fees, he still lost money.  Usually, when it looks like junk......it's junk.  Sure, there are exceptions to the rule, but basing your business model on "getting lucky" is a poor business model in my opinion.

On the brighter side, a friend of mine went on another run happening at the same time and scored a nice little unit with a bunch of tools and stuff for only $35 and he should probably come out with around $400........the downside being I don't get to share in any of that! 

I still think that the overall quality of the lockers has declined dramatically over the last couple of years.  Too many storage locker renters watching the show and either not putting their best stuff in the lockers or pulling it out before they get locked out. 

Doing a lot better picking right now.....and have bought a couple of nice estates lately.  I'll keep doing a little bit of everything to keep the cash flowing!

Went to auction today, advertised 5 locations, but last 2 were cancelled. About 50 people there.    Most lockers were trash, I did see 1 that wanted to bid on, It had a pretty nice bed frame and dining room table although i could only see 2 chairs for table. the mattress looked totally trashed and alot of clothes in trash bags. I was thinking I could maybe get it for around $400, wound up selling for $650. I just didn't see spending that for a bed and table. only other locker i was interested in, only had a washer and dryer, I bid $100, and it quickly went to $275, I wasn't gonna pay more than $200.

Well I could tell the NY Storage wars started up.  Saturday was my 3 facility auction that I've done well at before.  This month we had over 30 registered bidders, a good 60 - 75 people total for a big total of 7 units.  Only about 10 regulars, everyone else was new faces to me.  Only 1 good looking unit that I'm sure was up there in price as it had a small digital lock style safe in the front, lots of furniture, and was packed.  Only 1 other unit was decent, the rest were 0 bids for me.

Auctions really kick off again next month.

Finally made some auction purchases in January, 2013, BUT......not lockers.

Again the piece by piece approach is working. I went to a piece by piece auction featuring 20 lockers and YES it did take six hours but I spent over $200 and got what I think will convert to 2.5 times the money.

Several years ago I couldn't stand this approach and thought it was a waste of time, but with prices and the trash value of lockers in my area being prohibitive right now (at least to me) I'm liking this approach better all the time.

YES, you have to get used to watching stuff come out of a locker and being spread in the "street" between lkr rows, but just like buying a full lkr, you can sometimes tell immediately if it will be a good one or a loser as the stuff spreads out.

One thing I have noticed is that more and more the regular storage lkr buyers are starting to appear at these things and YES this can even affect prices HERE as some of the dummies who pay too much for a full lkr also pay too much for one-at-a-time items.

The main advantages are:

1) buying what you want
2) NOT getting all the non-sellable stuff (burned pots/pans, broken (non-repairable) items
3) NOT getting outright trash
4)
5)
6)

So, the month is ending on an OK note, but nothing like it was prior to December, 2010 !

I've approached a few people at auctions looking to piece meal thier unit and they've always turned into Gathom from 'Lord of the Rings' protecting thier Precious.   lol

Prices are up in Atlanta.  Thrift store owners are packing it in for irs refund time.  Always like this here.  Thrift market seems to be doing very very well.  People who have opened stores in the last 2 years are growing a lot.  Units have less quality but scrap has been paying the bills.  I really do think that it is mostly the state of the economy.  People have less money so the stuff they store isn't very good.  Lots of furniture with Goodwill stickers on it.

Went to one auction yesterday (Thursday, Jan 31) and crowd at this location was at about 40...a good half of them were regulars and those were the people who bought maybe 7 of 8 lockers.

Most interesting lkrs were 5 that looked like they had the remnants of a surplus sale somewhere. Lots of old electronics, old creme-colored computer towers, etc.

I've done well with those in the past but I didn't bid on one of these lockers....just didn't want to do the work. Call it lazy if you will, but I have been spoiled by picking the last few months and dump runs and heavy lifting are becoming a thing of the past.

One lkr DID have about eight  good looking boxes but I guess the frig and freezer turned me off...not to mention the $400 plus one of the "gamblers" paid for it....aside from the two bulky refrigerator items that works out to $50 a box.

I've always liked the facility and have done well there over the years, but things change (or I've changed) and I'm not the competitor I used to be....buying has evolved for me...it's got to be a great locker for me to buy it anymore.