Lookey Loos Part 4....April, 2011

We continue our monitoring of crowds and prices in April.

Didn't want to start this on April Fool's Day....there will be enough jokes that day ! 

I was at an auction the other day where crowds weren't too bad. Maybe 20 people at the most where as a few weeks ago this same circuit had 60 plus people.

Prices weren't bad. Many units going for more than I'm comfortable paying but no more of the $1000 for a unit with regular household stuff like old cpu, 27" tv, etc.

Thats good to hear. I have been laying low last month waiting on things to get better.
going to wholesale auctions to keep something to sell.
 Doing OK but not near as much fun.
Last unit I got was 2 weeks ago.  2 push mowers showing. 8 boxes. 4 medium uhaul- 4 plain a little bigger. 
few pieces of well worn wood furniture, small bookcase, end table and 4 chairs. I also got glimpse of chainsaw blade and end of what looked like a carved bone sword handle.
Got it for 210 and walked away grinning.
 Went back next day to move unit. Grin soon turn to frown. bone handle sword is plastic bone.($15 at best) off brand 14" chainsaw.
I'll make money on this unit.
 But the boxes were where I thought profit would come from. 2 bigger boxes old clothes. 1 box of towels(rags). 1 box somebody cleaned out their desk. $10 maybe. 4 uhaul medium boxes of paper. Files. High school teacher with old student papers.   
I love doing this.

Terry...

Sounds like the typical locker we get and don't want. I love to gamble on boxes, but they are a risk. Sometimes I've found even super clean boxes and other items don't pay out. I went against another regular bidder on a 10 x 15 that looked really good...nice clean boxes, in quantity and other stuff looked good too. I went with her to $635...she took it for $650. Later learned from her that the boxes were great but their contents were run of the mill clothes, papers, typical household. I think she broke even, but she had told me she would lose money. We sell 8 spaces apart every Saturday at the best of 4 local fleas.

Yea  but I love the boxes. That where I make the most. I've got about 2.5 gallons of quarters saved this years. 

Went on the Public run today.  It's a sad day when I bid $1600 on a locker, and I'm THIRD Bidder!  Ouch.  Ended up going for $1900.  

Bid $1100 on another one, and I was FOURTH on that one, it went for $1750!

Even the small one I bid on and thought I had for $500 ended up going for $550!  It just wasn't meant to be today I guess.  

Lot's of auctions tomorrow, so I'm going to try to go to one off the beaten path and hope for the best.

Crowds are still large, although I think they have peaked and are starting to drop some.  Still too many, but at least there is some hope!  Prices are still way high on most of the units though.  

Went on the Public run today.  It's a sad day when I bid $1600 on a locker, and I'm THIRD Bidder!  Ouch.  Ended up going for $1900.  

Bid $1100 on another one, and I was FOURTH on that one, it went for $1750!

Even the small one I bid on and thought I had for $500 ended up going for $550!  It just wasn't meant to be today I guess.  

Lot's of auctions tomorrow, so I'm going to try to go to one off the beaten path and hope for the best.

Crowds are still large, although I think they have peaked and are starting to drop some.  Still too many, but at least there is some hope!  Prices are still way high on most of the units though.  

if ya don't mind my asking what part of the country are you in.

Up in the Seattle area. 

OK, April is here and I have to say while I am usually optimistic, the auctions in March didn't bode well for April.
I am beginning to think it will be next fall before things begin to return to SOME KIND of normalcy...will never be like it was before the tv shows.

I say this for two reasons:

1) The newbies (in my area) are starting to actually buy, AND some of them are getting smarter, bidding what a locker is worth, (or maybe a little more) so there is room for profit.

2) The newbies KEEP COMING...and I mean NEW newbies. These are folks I haven't seen before. There are so many watching the TV shows, they just have to come out thinking it's all greenbacks and goldbars. So, the crowd condition still exists AND some of them are actually learning.

Nope, in my opinion we're in for a bit of a wait as the spring/summer weather increases their desire to make a buck just as it does for us.

Monday....back to work moving stuff from newly bought lkrs to permanent lkr.

Tomorrow, April 5, 2011 attending the one auction in my area that is sealed bids. An opportunity to
get a lkr at a reasonable price but with the danger of losing it by a few dollars...a bummer. I once bid $400 right
off the bat and got the lkr, but only made $135 profit and the next highest sealed bid was $265 I think; if only we could
truly read the competitor's mind, but it is fun to try to figure out what the others will bid.

Sealed bid auction today and a good crowd...18 of us and 14 were regulars so we were bidding against people we knew.

This auction was only in the paper; not on any list. Funny small crowd because not a one of the 4 main auctioneers had anything going on anywhere today so I expected more bidders. 

I went between $400 and $500 on two lkrs and got beat both times by $25 to $35. Went by one of them later and it was coming out pretty good.

I got one for $150 and I already know it's nothing special....no Auction Hunter biggies in there !


One couple  bought 5 lkrs, one of the old-timers bought 2; actually, I think 6 of us bought all 15 lkrs.

Today, Wed, April 6, 2011....

Went to two of three Public Storage auctions.

Crowd at first one was about 18. Bids were pretty reasonable...for junk.

Crowd at 2nd auction about 12. Two lockers, first one went for $100 or so for a 5 x 10.
Second lkr was a 10 by 10...I went to $750 and it went for $850 I think it was. A good solid looking locker.
If I had continued it would only have been driving the other guy up, and he stayed out of it until I dropped out of the running and then a couple of more bids against the newbie and he got it; since he is one of the regulars in my area and we sell at the same flea market, he deserved to get it without having to pay more than he did...and the favor will be returned some day.

Went to one today with 5 units. Crowd not bad....maybe 25 people.

Lkr #4 was good, good, good ! It was a 5 x 15 packed with tools from front to back.
Several red roll-aways, smaller tool boxes, tools hanging from ceiling (new torch head and heavy yellow tubes) and at the back floor to ceiling wall to wall banker boxes, marked with typical household.

The overall impression of this one was how Neat or Clean it was...to me that always says a lot, but also means a high price. I was the last one to look at it and the auctioneer asked me what I thought it would go for. I said 1,500 to 2 (K) but tempered it with "but since there are only half the number of heavy hitters today, maybe less".

Bided my time and thought I would go to 1200 or so but thought it would go higher and it did...$1500 even.
At that price it will probably break even (I think) but another guy said he didn't think it would and he would have paid $500....even 8 months ago it wouldn't have gone that cheap. Anyway, a nice clean tool lkr and I would loved to have had it, but working for free on the chance of a few hundred profit just doesn't make sense to me (though I've done it before !). The red roll-aways were not Snap-On or anything, but even Craftsman sells, and at 500 pieces at $3 each would clear the lkr.  

Wow sounds like that lkr had potential depending on whether or not there were tools in the roll a ways, other wise it could have turned into a big loss!

Yeah I agree, it may have looked good but tying up 1500 actually more than that cuz you don't know how high the other guy was going, at any rate, tying your money up and hoping to make 20% profit on the 1500 just doesn't cut the mustard for me.