Your First Unit Won!?

Lets her everyones story on their very first unit they won! And how you made out.

I'll start:

It was on a Uhaul tour where we went to about 8 different locations in one day. This was my very first day going to a storage auction. I watched most the day waiting to see if one was good for me. The crowd ranged from about 15-25 people all day. We were at the last location for the day about 5:00pm to my surprise only me and 2 others showed up at this location! So I had it in my mind that this may be a good time to pop my cherry. We came across a small closet size locker 5x5. It was maybe 40% full not much stuff but you can tell there wasn't any junk. I could see from the door a pair of skis, several tupperwares, some nicer brand name shoe boxes and other misc items. Well I bid on this unit and won it for $40 bucks.
The unit ended up having a brand new violin, a document safe with a couple of pieces of jewelery in it, the skis, some scuba gear and a few other misc. items. My total profit on this unit was in the $500 range. And I was hooked from there!

I bought a unit for $150, it was full of furniture.  Unfortunately, the furniture was crap, BUT, my wife and sold it all and made 630 off of it.  So we had a profit of $480, we were hooked.  This unit also has some Cobra CB radios that sold decent on ebay.  Lots of trash though.  That was the hardest part for me when I first started was managing all the trash and junk in my garage.

Yea I never hear the end of it with all the junk in my garage waiting to go to the dump

Imagine getting 18 of them!  Just saying.........

Seven years ago last month....my first locker.
Got it for $250; a 10 x 10 with good quality furn showing. The 3 things I remember about it are:

1) got a Coleman 1800 watt generator (kept it and used it for several years)
2) got a nice Craftsman roll-around with some Craftsman wrenches, etc
3) There was a computer desk, TV stand, but no computer, no TV. I truly think the property manager got those !

Edit: Feb 20, 2011

4) Reminded on a cold flea day that the Dyna-glo propane heater I've used all these years came from
    this locker.

Anybody else have a story about their first unit won?

Hi,
My first unit I won was a 10x20 that I paid $60 for.  When the doors opened up, my first thought was, "Who in the world would buy all that garbage?"  It was loaded with old broken furniture, mattresses, garbage bags, file cabinets, etc.  Well, the bidding went up to $50.  The auctioneer, said going once, going twice.  And I yelled $60!  I guess I scared everyone else off because I ended up getting it. 

It took my husband and I two trips with a 16' U-Haul truck to get it home.  And most of it was garbage.  But, it was loaded with books that I ended up selling on Amazon for close to $2000.  So, I guess you never know what you might find in a heap of garbage!  And I really didn't mind doing the work!  Healthe

My first unit was a 10X20 and i got it for $150.00 i had $390.00 in hauling and dump fees. Diden't know better at the time.
This unit was smack full of trash and rats ( live ones, one jumped on me as i picked up the box) YUACK!

Beside that, i did get a few good thing and a few decent things out of it. Some stuff i kept for my self.

I sold stuff for $880.00 from that unit. And kept stuff that are valued at $1000.00

So i did ok, but it did take a few months before i got my money back on it.
Back then i did not know a jack **** about sales channels ( except ebay nd craigslist ) and today i see that i took alot of stuff to the dump that i could have sold.

But you learn as you go.

My first was a 10x10 that I got for 140ish.  As I recall, it was mostly trash.  I think that I sold most everything (after the trashman) at a yard sale for about $250.  It was a profit, but too much work was involved to get that $100.

The second auction yielded me an old pontiac fiero for $250.  I had temporary tags on it while I was obtaining a title and getting a few small things done to it so it would be registerable.  I drove it to work one day and someone blew through a stop sign and t-boned it right in the drivers side rear wheel, totalling it.  Her insurance company paid me $2500.

My first was a 10x10 that I got for 140ish.  As I recall, it was mostly trash.  I think that I sold most everything (after the trashman) at a yard sale for about $250.  It was a profit, but too much work was involved to get that $100.

The second auction yielded me an old pontiac fiero for $250.  I had temporary tags on it while I was obtaining a title and getting a few small things done to it so it would be registerable.  I drove it to work one day and someone blew through a stop sign and t-boned it right in the drivers side rear wheel, totalling it.  Her insurance company paid me $2500.

hell of a way to make a profit. I would probably still wearing a neck brace

Honestly, it wasn't that hard of a hit.  I was surprised when the insurance company totalled it.  The reason that they did total it is because she hit me right in the rear wheel, which bent the cage that supports the engine.

Honestly, it wasn't that hard of a hit.  I was surprised when the insurance company totalled it.  The reason that they did total it is because she hit me right in the rear wheel, which bent the cage that supports the engine.

I helped a buddy change rear brakes on one 15 to 20 years ago. From what I remember they where not that well built. And if I remember right his caught fire and burned in his driveway a few months later.