things that suck

I have a few of those little velvet boxes.  Even found a large Zales necklace box that had the sales receipt in it.  So I knew how much the necklace that USE to be in there cost.

Did find my first 10k gold ring finally in the most unlikely unit / place.  Found it in a man unit on the floor next to a shoe I was about to pick up.  Only worth 20-30 bucks but still a nice find for a $90 unit.  Where as the female unit that my daughter picked out has only resulted in costume jewelry and one .925 italy sterling silver gold color bracelet.

Must have been time for a family outing.  At today's auction, this family piled out of their mini-van and signed up for the festivities.  Grandma, Grandpa, Dad, and kids!  (Four in the photo - two more kiddies got out of the van when the auction started)  Never saw a Mom. 

PEOPLE - what on earth compels you to bring the whole "fam damily" to a storage auction!!??  Then the six kids proceeded to push their way to the front of each locker and scream "Daddy, there's a saw!!!" or "Papa, there's toys in here - good ones!!!"  The (so called) adults just stood back and admired their offspring!!   Then when Daddy would make a bid, one child about 7(??) would scream - "You gonna get this one Daddy!!??  Bid more, bid more, don't let that old guy get it!!"  (I kid you not, and the other bidder wasn't too amused).  All told they had nine people there.  Geez... 

Units from a smokers home with 90% of belongings broken and/or covered in 20 years of nicotine. Add 10 boxes of opened dry goods makes a great home for rats and the like. Should have called the trash guys and taken the loss.

They were getting warmed up for the start of the new season tonight.

My two year old to the auctions with me. She is my 'business advisor' and I love having her along. Of course she isn't the typical American spoiled self entitled brat - of course she is two so she has her moments. I don't see what the problem is with the family spending time together...

The lack of parenting is a different issue than people doing things as a family.

Sam

Sam you might want to read this thread.

http://storageauctionforums.com//index.php/topic,2107.0.html

OK, this might not suck, but I didn't want to start an "Annoy the Crap Out of You" thread.

Went to a facility with 6 lockers run by the owners, not by auctioneers. (In fact, now that I think about it, other than the local U-Haul thing, most every storage auction in my area is run by the facility owners)  There were about 50-60 people there.

Anyway, the annoying part is they don't make everyone line up to look at the unit, so there is a large wad of people in front of the locker. (see photo).  The REALLY annoying part is someone usually in the middle of the pack will yell out "50 BUCKS" - and they take their bid and start up - before half the crowd has even seen the locker!  This started happening at every locker and most bids were up to $300-500 before you got a good look.   

Now I realize it's up to the facility to set the guidelines, and with no rules stated up front, it's every bidder for themselves.  But does this ever happen to anyone else?

OK, this might not suck, but I didn't want to start an "Annoy the Crap Out of You" thread.

Went to a facility with 6 lockers run by the owners, not by auctioneers. (In fact, now that I think about it, other than the local U-Haul thing, most every storage auction in my area is run by the facility owners)  There were about 50-60 people there.

Anyway, the annoying part is they don't make everyone line up to look at the unit, so there is a large wad of people in front of the locker. (see photo).  The REALLY annoying part is someone usually in the middle of the pack will yell out "50 BUCKS" - and they take their bid and start up - before half the crowd has even seen the locker!  This started happening at every locker and most bids were up to $300-500 before you got a good look.   

Now I realize it's up to the facility to set the guidelines, and with no rules stated up front, it's every bidder for themselves.  But does this ever happen to anyone else?

on my circuits it happens constantly and it happens no matter whos running the auction if its an interesting room

Yep, this happens to me on occasion. Typically if they start the bidding before I have had a clear look at the room I jump the bid. When I here $25 then $50 and I am still in line I will typically yell out a $200! or $300! from the back. It's great cause everybody stops to look at the idoit who just yelled a bid from the back without seeing the unit. It serves two purposes. 1. stops the bidding cold for several seconds. 2. Allows me to cut the line to the front, afterall I am actually BIDDING on the unit! The best part, I have never been caught with a bad unit by using this practice. Every unit I have used this tactic on has finished higher then my rediculous sight unseen bid.

Just a warning, I generally get a good enough look to know what size unit and how full the unit is. I'm not gonna yell out $300! on a 5 x 10 with a lot of daylight and concrete floor showing.

Most of the auctions I hit we either form a texas line (Metro), or the auctioneer / facility manager waits for everyone to get a look.  You can give him your bid before everyone is finished and that is what he will open up with.  But everyone gets a turn.

Only one place would start the auction before everyone finished looking.  He quickly learned not to as many of the whales / regulars were in the back of the line.  So he either sold units for dirt cheap since didn't give everyone time to look, or he had this long pause before could say "SOLD".

Myself - I normally get in the front of the line so can get a quick first look and then circle back for another look if want.  One of the regulars is always in front and opens the door so we just follow him.

Myself - I normally get in the front of the line so can get a quick first look and then circle back for another look if want. 

You're reading my mind; I do this same thing. The first pass gives me an idea if I even want to bid on the unit. If I do, I'll swing back to determine value after most have gotten out of the way. Plus I get to focus my light on some of the more valuable items without tipping off most of the newbies as to what is or isn't valuable.

On a separate note; Are there any other regulars here that cut the chase with a high bid when there are a lot of newbies/lookie-loo’s in the crowd? ;o) Maybe I should be quiet about how to thin out the newbie crowd early when there is a caravan…

Yes, I do and there are others here who also do so.  As to being quiet about it, most readers here already know about it and those who don't learn it quickly at the auctions.

Recently I placed the first bid on a 5 x 10 at $100 and there was only about 8 seconds of "shock" before others came in at $25 jumps asked for by the auctioneer. I didn't bid again. Would have been worth it at $100, but not after that.

I prefer to toy with the newbies on units that I don't want. I stick to the small bid increments and then stop when they start slowing down. This way they end up with the less valuable units and they don't have the money for the better units.

It depends on the crowd and units.  If we have a ton of newbies that are bidding we will open at about the 1/2 way point or higher.  So a $200 unit would open at $100 or $150.  If it is a packed unit with lots of boxes - $150 to $200 to start at least just to get the ball rolling.

Now - if it's a smaller crowed (20ish) with only 5-6 of us bidding we will open up at the $25 or $50 mark and keep prices down.  Specially if there are a large number of units and a small crowd most of us "share the love" on average units.  Now a very packed good looking unit -- gloves and brotherly love goes out the locker.

Many of the places around my part now make you go up by $10 increments.  So quickly opening at $50 or $75 on a so/so, empty unit quickly wins you the locker or makes the newbies spend all their cash.  We had one guy show up last month at our 3 facility auction.  No big thing as we get 3-5 newbies each time.  However, he started buying just about every locker.  So he started to get ran up even on the trash units.  He won 5 out of the 13 at that facility but didn't make it to the rest.  Figured he either bit off more then he could haul or ran out of money.  Think it was money as the last few units he bid on but only up to a certain point each time before he got outbid.

pushing a flatbed cart and watching the top tote fall off and being able to do nothing about it , sucks more when it was full of glass