Auctioneer Makes Up Laws As He Goes

You guys probably don't remember the post I made a few months ago about the dancing cowboy who conducts some of the auctions in my area. Anyway, he just keeps on embarrassing himself. Right before the auction, he puts on his headset which is attached to a speaker that is mounted to his belt. He then started giving out the rules of the auction.

This idiot had the nerve to tell people that state law requires them to return photos and personal documents to management. Sure, most buyers do this out of courtesy, but it's not a requirement. You can throw the stuff away if you want to.

Anyway, what really got me agitated was someone asked him if a tenant could bid on their own unit. (Not sure if the person asking was the tenant or not.) This idiot told the crowd that under state law a tenant could not bid on their own unit.     Are you kidding me...it's a public auction. I think I'm going to have to set this guy straight. 

You guys probably don't remember the post I made a few months ago about the dancing cowboy who conducts some of the auctions in my area.

Well, I remember it, but that's either because I have a good memory or relates to the fact that I'm a "stalker" !

In my area we have a similar idiot who on more than one occasion has said "You have to sign in..it's the law."  In reality of course it's for him to show his boss how many people showed up for the auction.

This is the same fellow who pulls bolt cutters out of a locker if he sees them as he sees that as "breaking the law" somehow also. He must have dozens at home waiting to be sold.

He also arbitrarily assigns "deposits" based on his opinion of the buyer's looks and whether he thinks they will leave a mess behind. Unbelieveable but true. 

Due his actions he and his company have been dumped by single-owner facilities and chains alike as they have now gone with an auctioneer who is not on a power trip, but out to make money for everyone concerned (except maybe the newbie buyer !).

Pretty sure I know exactly who Movieman is referring too. Not sure what the deal with the bolt cutters is but I think he does say you get them back after you clean out the locker. They have lost most accounts in my area so I don't see him very often but did attend one of his auctions a week or so ago. He was very adament that everyone on site MUST sign in and my first thought is he wants to show a large attendence.

Alot of facilities around here do their own auctions. Either the manager or the owner does the auction. We have one auctioneer that I dread having to go to. He has only been selling storage units for about a year but has picked up alot of facilities. The last auction was 11 units (most were garbage) and about 50 people. The auction took over three hours. There is no organization. When he opens a unit it is chaos. People pushing and shoving, no lines. Then he starts a $20.00 unit at $100.00 and tries for several minutes before he will come down to a reasonable starting bid. His wife even brought the previous owner of the locker I purchased over to plead for some of his stuff back. Unfortunately I am in a small area and I don't have alot of options so I have to keep dealing with him.   

Then he starts a $20.00 unit at $100.00 and tries for several minutes before he will come down to a reasonable starting bid.

An auctioneer around here does this but starts a $1K. He keeps it up until someone throws a lower bid out which he takes and then runs with it from there.