STORAGE AUCTIONS! $1,600 Unit!

MartinBuckley

14 years ago

Congrats and thanks for sharing your story and links.

All the best,

Martin

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Wilcox

14 years ago

It is a very unique experience and what they show on TV is quite accurate when it comes to rivalries. People really get into it, and many of them show hatred towards their competitors.

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FormerWageSlave

14 years ago

Reminded me of an episode from This American Life.

Contents Unknown:

Contents Unknown | This American Life

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grrr...

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sqnwk

14 years ago

I would assume it would be a lot more work then expected. Going through all the stuff and selling it

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P1

14 years ago

Originally Posted by sqnwk

I would assume it would be a lot more work then expected. Going through all the stuff and selling it

From the looks of Storage Wars seems they just eBay everything.

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iAmNameLess

14 years ago

Originally Posted by P1

From the looks of Storage Wars seems they just eBay everything.

They have all the swap meets and crap.. and their own stores I believe. I suppose they may ebay some of it, not sure. I think dave does his own auctions.

I really have been thinking about giving it a try just because it looks fun on TV LOL.

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P1

14 years ago

Originally Posted by iAmNameLess

They have all the swap meets and crap.. and their own stores I believe. I suppose they may ebay some of it, not sure. I think dave does his own auctions.

I really have been thinking about giving it a try just because it looks fun on TV LOL.

Is that iAmNameLess bidding?
YUUUUP!

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NickSway

14 years ago

This is something I've thought about trying. I might have to give it a go. Congrats on your success!

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swd123

14 years ago

how much time did it take you from start to finish? just trying to work out the amount you really made when taking time into consideration

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wesb 14 years ago

I thought about doing this last year. But I backed out. I like to know what I am getting and what market I am going to target. Seems like fun though.
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Legit SEO 14 years ago

Originally Posted by swd123

how much time did it take you from start to finish? just trying to work out the amount you really made when taking time into consideration

It took me almost a year to sell off everything! I had school and a lot of other things going on too, I'm sure I could've sold everything within a month if I really wanted to.

But yea, there is definitely a lot of work involved. And it can be risky if you bid on high dollar units and the stuff is broken or you buy a locker full of junk.
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redlegrich

14 years ago

One of the storage wars guys is located in Orange County CA. One neat feature there is a swap meet every weekend at the Orange County Fairgrounds. It is well attended year round and it is a great place to unload stuff they buy. Unfortunately outside of SoCal there are a lot less of these events due to weather issues and other factors. I bought all sorts of stuff at the swap meet in my 20+ years in OC. I can see how it would be a great venue for unloading the auction stuff.

I'll bet it would be a good place to do a some offline marketing via flyers and so forth!

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ahlexis

14 years ago

The thing I miss about Orange County is the computer shows at the fairgrounds. There are a couple that traveled from site to site, Pomona @ L.A. County Fairgrounds, then someplace in the valley, then back to the fairgrounds in Orange County and then at a hall in Buena Park.

You wouldn't expect knives to sell all that well, but back when I would go there was this one couple that was taking in cash hand over fist at almost every show that was selling samurai swords (long and short) and decorative as well as hunting and fishing knives. For some reason the computer shoppers at that show would buy them like crazy! And because they were the only ones at a computer show selling knives, they had very little competition.

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digitalreinforcement

14 years ago

great story and great way to do things respect man

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lmz319 14 years ago

After watching some of the shows I thought this looked like a really interesting opportunity. However, I don't think I'd want to manage all the worthless junk that was leftover!
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c.t.coburn

14 years ago

my (80+ year old) uncle and I made quite a bit (500-1,000 ea. per mo.) buying what the "winners" on storage auctions didn't want, since the units have to be emptied almost immediately we also got paid by quite a few "winners" to do the clean up work.

if you don't mind the work this is an easy way to build up "sweat equity"

we also arrived late for garage sales and offered to buy "everything that's left" often quoted a price "if you'll just haul it off."

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ryansjacket

14 years ago

I think they bs a lot on the storage shows. Claiming they sold these items for top dollar. The guy had 2 old pocket bikes and said that 800 right there. But I know you couldnt even sell those things for a 100 as a pair. Dave Hester is the man though !

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Hobo82

14 years ago

Hey Legit,

Thanks for sharing your auction experience with us. We too watch the shows at home and love it. Always wondered how it actually is, and yes it is not as easy as they show on TV. Thanks.

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Aaron Doud

14 years ago

Most of the auction shows "inflate" the bids and the values.

To be profitable in that kind of business you have to at least double your money. Though people who hunt can just make sure their bid will or should break even with what they see and hope they find hidden jems.

OP: Did you really pay $1,600 for that unit? While I am glad you made a profit you over paid based on that picture. You have to base it on what you can see and I see a few hundred bucks max. And that is if I had a resale store to move it.

EDIT: Read your story. I now see the tool box so that raised the value and someone might have realized a dirt bike was under the blanket and been taking a chance. My self I would have stopped bidding around $500 even with the tools.

How much time did you put into selling the stuff and the time at the auction and moving it/etc? Wondering how much you made per hour with your $1,500 profit.

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Danielm

14 years ago

My wife and I hit up a few auctions years ago before the TV shows started and caused the prices to go even higher and drive even more people to them. Results were all over the place, lower end areas had cheaper bids but the units looked like total hell. The regulars there were still telling the stories from a few years back when they found some jewelry in a unit and made 1500 bucks, otherwise not much.

On more than one occasion we saw one guy walk in and outbid every person on every single auction, everyone knew him, he ran a few stores and did a lot of flea market stuff. Like anything else there can be money it in but it takes a lot of work, experience and a good bit of luck too.

One thing a lot of people don't realize is the time frame where you need to clean out the units and how it costs money to get rid of a lot of the junk there too.

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c.t.coburn

14 years ago

Originally Posted by Danielm

One thing a lot of people don't realize is the time frame where you need to clean out the units and how it costs money to get rid of a lot of the junk there too.

thanks! that was the point of my prior post, I made $$$ with storage auctions because I was willing to WORK and clean out units, very often in return for $$$ AND part of the contents.

good luck to everyone.

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marc.v

14 years ago

Hey thanks for sharing. Interesting read.
Totally unrelated, but here's a picture of me with some of the guys from Storage Wars. It was taken in Brandi and her husbands shop in Orange, CA.

d17f8f799358a6d0ced05d44ec60beef.png

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thekidebomb 14 years ago

It seems like a ton of work, because first of all you notice that all of them have many connections to get appraisals, and inside tips on where and what to bid on. On top of that, most of them have stores with overhead, and whenever they say this is worth X amount of dollars it always seems a bit high. On top of that before these shows came out I bet it was a lot easier and cheaper to find better lockers, they even have a show now on the travel channel that shows people buying unclaimed luggage lol.
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512 Designs

14 years ago

Originally Posted by marc.v

Hey thanks for sharing. Interesting read.
Totally unrelated, but here's a picture of me with some of the guys from Storage Wars. It was taken in Brandi and her husbands shop in Orange, CA.

d17f8f799358a6d0ced05d44ec60beef.png

Cool photo.

I read somewhere that Brandi used to be a stripper before she got married and opened up the store.

Is this true?

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marc.v 14 years ago

Originally Posted by 512 Designs

Cool photo.

I read somewhere that Brandi used to be a stripper before she got married and opened up the store.

Is this true?

Hah. Ya know.. somehow I didn't think to ask her that.
I will say that she is very attractive in person and could drain some wallets on-stage real easy.
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vndnbrgj

14 years ago

I don't remeber what the show is called... But it's similar with the two guys..
One is Ton Jones.. The big bald guy with the tatoo on his head, and usually wears sunglasses.

They did a behind the scenes with these guys and asked if every unit was like the ones on the show. They say they would love it, but it's not the reality of it.
The show only shows the ones that they do well on.
They loose money on units as well.
The object is to know what you are buying before you buy it, and win more often than you loose.

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jasonthewebmaster

Banned 14 years ago

Originally Posted by vndnbrgj

I don't remeber what the show is called... But it's similar with the two guys..
One is Ton Jones.. The big bald guy with the tatoo on his head, and usually wears sunglasses.

They did a behind the scenes with these guys and asked if every unit was like the ones on the show. They say they would love it, but it's not the reality of it.
The show only shows the ones that they do well on.
They loose money on units as well.
The object is to know what you are buying before you buy it, and win more often than you loose.

Auction Hunters

those guys are the best, make the rest look like amateurs. plus they do their research and find out who owned the units before the auction, plus they never bid more than half of the value they can actually see at the door.

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Katie C

14 years ago

how can you research who owned the units?

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LarryC

14 years ago

I just saw a TV ad for a show about unclaimed baggage auctions. Are they getting popular too? That would appeal to me more, because there would be less junk to have to sift through.