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There can't be too many storage units with expensive stuff in them. Generalization, only wealthy people own valuable stuff and they don't lose their storage lockers to non-payment.
If they even ever rent storage lockers, which is a big if.
Your average evicted tenant doesn't have 5 cartons of Georgian silverware. That's the person most likely to rent a storage unit and then lose it to non-payment.
I knew a lady who was a hoarder who had about 10 units at different places -- and each one had rodent eaten stuff -- carpets, furniture, picture frames, books... never see that on tv
Another thing to keep in mind with bidding is how secure from rodents are the units? You can have a unit full of mouse dropping, live mice, nests, and dead mice, or even rats. In some areas of the country they need to worry about poisonous spiders and snakes.
Seems like a good find but unlike you I don't think I would feel comfortable wearing someone else' thongs. Its just a personal preference I guess... also the fact that I am a dude.
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.
This is def true, after buying my unit I had 3 or 4 people approach me and give me their number saying if I found this or that to give them a call and they'd buy it.
Also agree about having to have channels. I bought just to get some deals for myself and flip an easy item like a tv on craigslist however most is household stuff so unless you like having garage sales or sitting around at flea markets its a tough way to make a buck.
I imagine people who do this for a living have buyers lined up for certain products, resale shops htey go to and know hte owners and get better deals than general public on selling, have established ebay accounts, probably discounts through there as well. Yeah it seems like a alot of work.
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.
Yeah I made easily a dozen trips with my friends SUV. I brought stuff to my garage but basically through out anything as far as clothes or bedding was worried about bedbugs, roaches, mice, etc.
1. TV show is rigged, an ex-employee even sued the show due to them putting valuables in the locker ahead of the bidding.
That was Dave Hester, funny he only sued once he was kicked off the show, iddn't have any issues with a fake show prior to that. That guy is an idiot and a jerk.
2. Amateurs are causing the bids to go too high in most cases
Agreed, I saw a locker with 4 matttresses and like one box go for over a grand. Do people actually think these mattresses are stuffed with cash or something?
3. If you got $300 for a used flat screen on craigslist you got lucky......Walmart sells them brand new for that.
Agreed, prices of all types of electronics have reallygone down over the years. You can get like a 60 inch off brand tv at compusa at times for under $500. This was a little bit of an older tv, but it was large, and had a lot of cool features like ambient mood lighting behind it, all types of hookups that photographers and stuff want as far as usb and connecting ot a computer. The guy who bought it was a photographer.
There can't be too many storage units with expensive stuff in them. Generalization, only wealthy people own valuable stuff and they don't lose their storage lockers to non-payment.
If they even ever rent storage lockers, which is a big if.
Your average evicted tenant doesn't have 5 cartons of Georgian silverware. That's the person most likely to rent a storage unit and then lose it to non-payment.
The tv shows are def wrigged but its incorrect to say you can't find good stuf. People lose lockers for all types of reasons, death in the family and family doesn't know someoen had a locker, people go to jail, people are stationed overseas for military and can't get lockers paid, people have financial trouble and can't pay for unit or get stuff out.
I know it seems hard to believe like hey if I had 5k worth of stuf in a unit I was going to lose why not get a friend to loan me the couplehundred bucks to get the unit back sell something and pay him back but not everyon has friends and family and resources like that.
If there wasn't money to be made people couldn't rely on this for a fulltime income which people do
Seems like a good find but unlike you I don't think I would feel comfortable wearing someone else' thongs. Its just a personal preference I guess... also the fact that I am a dude.
Oh gawd that cracked me up. I'm assuming OP meant kitchen tongs, but thanks for the chuckle.
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I'm assuming OP meant kitchen tongs, but thanks for the chuckle. 
