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Okay so I've watched the tv show, and always been curious about storage auctions. I found a list of some near my home so went to check them out. First off as I'm sure you guys know it's not like storage wars, every unit isn't full of gold and rare items worth 10k. That said it was fun, interesting, a way to make some money or find some frugal household items for yourself.
There were some good items like tv's, motorcycles, etc in some units. Most units were average household stuff, dishes, plates, clothes, cheap furniture, etc. I bought a unit for $300. Looked like mostly household stuff but I got a flat screen tv I sold on craigslist for $300 so recouped my money for the unit right there. I had 2 pottery barn stools which I'll be using in my kitchen. A ton of kitchen ware items. like 50 ikea plates, bowls, salad bowls, etc. Lots of kinives, cutting boards, thongs and other kitchen tools. Most stuff I washed and kept some stuff like wood cutting boards I dont trust and threw away
I also found some thomas the train toys iim gonna give to my nephes though I could get a good buck if i sold them. i also got a couple guess purses.
I found many ofthe regulars who do this as a business aren't interested in the household goods items more tools and things that have a bigger resale value and are easier to sell. If your looking to get some household items this is a good place..
Used to do this a long time ago, most winning bids are just too hign now. The unit you mentioned would prob have gone for under 100 ten years ago. You can still find many unique and valuable items though, and it can be great fun, but also a lot of work.
Used to do this a long time ago, most winning bids are just too hign now. The unit you mentioned would prob have gone for under 100 ten years ago. You can still find many unique and valuable items though, and it can be great fun, but also a lot of work.
Yeah I've heard ever since the shows came on it kind of ruined it for those out there who did this as a profession. I'd been wanting to go for a while but never did. A buddy of mine had said the craze surrounding the show has died out and there's decent units at decent prices so decided to check it out.
Id' go again. I dont expect to get rich and probably wouldn't even get into it trying to make a profit but I enjoy going to flea markets, yard sales, estate sales just like looking for cool finds and good deals and this is right up my alley. Will probably be goign to more.
How did you find out where/when one was being held?
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A couple ways actually. I guess they are required to post them in the legal sectionof the newspaper so if you have a local community paper in the back of the legal section they normally post the dates and times of auctions.
There's also two good websites I found that list them. AuctionZip.Com and FreeStorageAuctionLists.Com. There's a ton of websites that charge monthly fees to find out about auctions but I was told not to buy them because the info is out there and available for free. Check your local paper and also those two sites and you should be able to find a few auctions. Something else cool they normally do them like an auction circuit so one you'll go to one storage facility and they'll auction off say 5 unites, then everyone will caravan to another storage facility and do the same thing. THey normally are pretty close together so you'll go to a couple in one town or maybe a neighboring town. It's actually alot of funand you can find some good bargains
I remember going to one of these years ago before the shows were on TV. It's quite an experience and worth going.
I didn't bid on anything but just observed. It is WORK though getting rid of the stuff, and you need to know how you are going to sell the stuff. Looks like it's easy to make a lot of money on it from the TV shows, but actually selling stuff unless you have channels to sell it is not much fun sometimes.
One regular there told me that people specialize in certain things and look for units with those items because they know the value. Oftentimes they will just sell off the rest of the stuff dirt cheap just so they don't have to move the stuff which is time consuming. Seems this could be a good strategy...as time is money.
For finding info you can also try Storage Auction and the name of your city in Google.
You can get really good bargains at estate auctions, too. Especially poorly attended ones. The trick is knowing what you can re-sell an item for, how to reach the people willing to pay top dollar, and being willing to do the work. It can be fun, though, if you have the time.
Years ago, long before the tv show we did this several times. Most of the time we made the money we spent on the unit by selling some of the items in it. We would find things we liked and kept ourselves. Often you have to have all of the items out of the unit and have it cleaned up within 24 hrs., sometimes less. That means you have to own or rent a trailer to transport the stuff unless there was very little in it to begin with. Many times we would have to go back and forth making several trips to get it all. We would drag it all home and put it in our garage and then park the car outside and go through everything, often having to clean it all, and deciding what to do with it. Sometimes you end up throwing away more than you get. Also some of the units are filthy inside and you spend a lot of time cleaning everything. We had a couple of units where we made money on them, but nothing dramatic. We found out about the sales in the legal section of the newspaper.
Last edited by brokencrayola; 07-19-2013 at 10:33 PM..
Reason: sp
Okay so I've watched the tv show, and always been curious about storage auctions. I found a list of some near my home so went to check them out. First off as I'm sure you guys know it's not like storage wars, every unit isn't full of gold and rare items worth 10k. That said it was fun, interesting, a way to make some money or find some frugal household items for yourself.
There were some good items like tv's, motorcycles, etc in some units. Most units were average household stuff, dishes, plates, clothes, cheap furniture, etc. I bought a unit for $300. Looked like mostly household stuff but I got a flat screen tv I sold on craigslist for $300 so recouped my money for the unit right there. I had 2 pottery barn stools which I'll be using in my kitchen. A ton of kitchen ware items. like 50 ikea plates, bowls, salad bowls, etc. Lots of kinives, cutting boards, thongs and other kitchen tools. Most stuff I washed and kept some stuff like wood cutting boards I dont trust and threw away
I also found some thomas the train toys iim gonna give to my nephes though I could get a good buck if i sold them. i also got a couple guess purses.
I found many ofthe regulars who do this as a business aren't interested in the household goods items more tools and things that have a bigger resale value and are easier to sell. If your looking to get some household items this is a good place..
1. TV show is rigged, an ex-employee even sued the show due to them putting valuables in the locker ahead of the bidding.
2. Amateurs are causing the bids to go too high in most cases
3. If you got $300 for a used flat screen on craigslist you got lucky......Walmart sells them brand new for that.
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