Anyone buy abandoned storage unit with any success?

[JUNKER]

TV is TV and you know it's all about rating not to mention they always find all kinds of valuable items in them LOL the only way you could get one with valuables in it would be if the person died and no one knew what was inside. Most people if they need money they would sell what was in it then leave the junk and stop paying. My self I think any body that rents one of those units for more than a month or two just don't think. The stuff gets old fast most would do better selling it cheap or throwing it away for what it cost them in the end. I met a person that rented one for a long time in the end was having trouble paying for it I told him I had a shed when he took the stuff out he threw most of it away it was junk all that money for nothing just my two cents

 

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[Bottlecapbill]

I think a lot of people are confusing illegal entry of a locker by the storage owners, with legally owning the contents of the locker that has not been paid for. No, the storage company cannot just enter your locker if you're one day over due. They have to send out proper notices, wait proper amounts of time and make a documented effort to contact the owner. Once that has failed and all legal obligations have been met, they now own the contents of the locker. If they didn't they couldn't auction it off! Granted there are probably times where they auction them off illegally, or auction off the wrong lockers by mistake but on the whole, once they own it, they own it. That means, most of the good stuff is usually taken. In a larger facility they may not have the time and staff to cherry pick so they blindly sell them off. What I do know, is every storage unit owner, who I personally know up here in Canada cherry picks them before auction, if they even auction what's left at all. From what I gather when talking to a guy I do work for......there is rarely anything of value in it anyway since they would have paid the fees to hold onto it.

Now this doesn't mean you can't find some hidden gems that were missed because the cherry picker didn't find them or know what they were but.....for the most part it's old clothes, furniture, dishware, toys...mostly small stuff. You'd need to own a thrift store to make a profit on volume of sales. If I were ever to attempt it, I'd do what someone else on here suggested. Just buy the lockers that go for next to nothing and roll the dice. 5 dollar locker with a rare silver dollar hidden in an envelope type of deal lol. Just make sure you have the means to haul it to the dump lol.

 

[augoldminer]

You have to check your state laws. in calif the owner of the locker can pay up at the time of auction to stop the sale.

The storage company does not dare cherry pick the contents.
but i know some that have.

dumping trash into a locker is also illegal but the locker renter in many cases will just leave trash behind.

I have left junk behind when i could not fit it in the moving truck.

I am in the process of moving from one storage place to one at the RV park i live in and i have to cut back to the point i have just a moving truck load when i move to northern calif.

The junk will be boxed labeled and neat with a few good baits(burned out power tools) left for the bidders to see.

 

[storageauctionaddict]

Just curious if any of the members ever buy abandoned storage unit with any success of finding coins, relics, antiques....etc. I've been debating buying a few here lately. Was at my storage unit a couple weeks ago and saw them holding an auction for some abandoned units and there was only about 4 people there purchasing the units so it doesn't seem to be very much competition in my area.

We do very well in the storage auctions, though we live in a very expensive city with a lot of wealth. The least we've paid is $1, the most, just over $600. We make money every single time. We've worked on a sorting system to make us very efficient and organizing the lockers happens as fast as possible. We keep track of our time and our profits and estimate we earn about $50 per hour when all is said and done.

It can be very exciting, and I love researching and learning about the cool stuff we find. One of the most amazing finds was a plaque off of a WWI Prussian war train. It took some research to figure out what it was, but it went on Ebay for $450. We paid $425 for that locker and have earned a couple thousand. Recently we bought a locker for $300 and after counting up our inventory we estimate we'll make $10-15,000 when we sell everything useful. It had a lot of designer clothing, antiques and photography equipment in it, and it was a huge locker at 10x30 feet.

I like it - it's profitable, pays for all our entertainment and vacations. Plus it's fun.