Storage Locker, Auction Finds?

[LaDigger]

==============================================

Seems you just did Carrol,,,

Get any good swag? I have always wondered the actual ratio of "good to bad" when doing this kind of hunting.
What have your experiences been?
I would guarantee though if you aren't in a "wealthy" area the pickins would be slim eh?

Hit

My experiences being in a non-wealthy area of Louisiana are don't expect to find valuable artwork,antiques, etc. What you can expect to find are everyday household goods,electronics,more clothes than you could ever wear in your lifetime and someones whole life taped up in a cardboard box plus a lot of trash! Yes every once in a while I find something neat and that keeps my passion and dreams alive but the extra money I make every month is what keeps me going.

 

Amazon Forum Fav 👍

Upgraded Night Vision Monocular Digital Infrared Monocular Telescope for 100% Darkness with 8X Zoom - Grab it through Amazon!

[LaDigger]

seeing auctioneer helpers and the owner out bid you on some lockers is a little of a ball buster, but i know what i need to make money. i lost a few items i was unhappy about. newbies get a schooling when they realize there is a deposit and they have to take the items home and look at them. then the lowballers start, did i mention you have to move the items or forfeit a locker deposit........i give it two days to sell them i take it to the dump. i used to keep trash bags and a broom and dust pan with me. i have never lost a locker deposit. i enjoy the auctions but there will never be a 10 locker day for me ever again. one of the reasons for a lock being cut before a auction is your state laws require guns or illegal items to be turned into the police. also some folks will store stuff like gasoline and its a safety issue. i like to buy a box from a pieced locker, if the box has the smell of money, i buy all i can. but each locker is different, like the guy who left the lock off his locker and it was used as a trash locker. i giggle when i see folks bid on those. the newbies are worth the show, you cant make this stuff up. if you really are gonna buy a locker, look at the neighborhood first, you will get a idea of what you should pay.

Good post. The neighborhood is one if not the most important thing about buying lockers!

We have one facility owner who has facilities across the state who pieces their lockers out. At first I didn't like the idea but it has grown on me. It saves me from buying furniture or appliances that I don't want and gives me an idea of the value of the leftover stuff in the boxes or totes that they will sell as one lot. If the furniture is expensive and well taken care of it is usually a good sign the rest of their stuff is quality. Also some of the larger buyers in our area don't attend these auctions because they want the whole unit and feel this drives prices up. Like I said before a lot of buyers are there just for furniture and appliances so I have less competition for the boxes and totes.

 

[Ryans Rust]

In the beginning we took our small pile of gold to the local pawn shop. Offered me half of what I thought we should get. I countered and ended up with like $5 more than his original offer. Later learned to cut out the middleman and send it to the refinery myself. Since then we have just stashed it and sell off the occasional ring here and there. Now it's time for me to purge and refine/ebay it all and buy more liquid gold/silver in bars and coins. Should have about 3 oz in gold. The neighborhoods we buy from are not the wealthiest. So this is half of what we have accumulated from about 200 units. Found a fair share of gold that is not marked correctly. Feel bad for those who buy used jewelry and don't test it. I know other buyers who have found huge amounts of Ag/Au. Not us, yet!

Yes for those with really good eyes, those are teeth (gold crowns) in the tube in the back.

 

[bill from lachine]

Ryans Rust,

Pretty good haul on the silver and gold.

Regards + HH

Bill

 

[Carl995]

seeing auctioneer helpers and the owner out bid you on some lockers is a little of a ball buster.

There's one location here that I noticed the property owners son rides the golf cart & bids as the manager opens the doors.
I learned to buy every unit the son bids on. One time a 5X15 covered with on old dirty blanket.it cost $230.
Went back the next day & took the blanket off & the ground was full of Tanzania statues!!
133 statues total ranging from 10" to 3 feet tall, plus a safe, xbox, & a car stereo with lcd monitor!! It took 2 trips to move the statues for fear of breaking them.

View attachment 1207746

 

[Carl995]

==============================================

Seems you just did Carrol,,,

Get any good swag? I have always wondered the actual ratio of "good to bad" when doing this kind of hunting.
What have your experiences been?
I would guarantee though if you aren't in a "wealthy" area the pickins would be slim eh?

Hit

I wouldn't know what my ratio was. A real hit n miss.
The wealthy areas I would avoid!!!!
I would rather find the old stuff.
If they opened a "rich mans locker" your going to see fancy furniture, maybe some paintings etc.
& the price of that unit will go thru the roof, I've seen as high as $16,000 X 4 units, same owner!!!
A friend of mine buys those & maybe 1 in 30 units he does real good. Keep in mind even fancy furniture is a hard sell because of the cost of the unit, your going to want more money for it.
I like old neighborhoods & industrial areas.

I bought mostly old old lockers & business lockers.

Business lockers here you gladly have to leave any business papers in the unit, that saves moving a LOT of papers!!
One time they opened a 10X15 indoor locker I bought for $225, A bunch of Chafing dishes/ buffet servers for when they had company parties. Even the auctioneer said" what do you want that unit for?"
I moved 2 truck loads of those & other supplies.
Now there was over way over 100 full file boxes stacked to the ceiling.
I skimmed thru a few of them & to my surprise they used jewelry & watch boxes to keep the
papers up if the box wasn't a full paper box. They were full of jewelry!!!!

I went thru all the file boxes TWICE to make sure I didn't miss anything!!!
I had a lot of jewelry & watches when I was done!!!
The chafing dishes sold for around $30 each at auction, 2 truck loads of those came to a nice check.

 

[diggummup]

I use to check the papers as well, If I had the time I would research the people & what they do for a living.
Helps me determine if I want it or not without even looking at the unit!!

I haven't been to a storage auction yet, but I have actually done the research on the renters names before. Several had been arrested before, a couple were still in jail, one was newly divorced, and the best sounding ones were being rented by a local gun store. I wish I would have went just to see what those 2 "gun store" units looked like but I was on a job so I couldn't. The place was/is still in business so I don't know what that was about. If I did this for a living I would have a paid account on one of the background check websites like "peoplefinders" in order to get more information on specific people. So, I have given it some serious thought before.
Here is the link I used to find the public notices for auctions in my state- Florida Public Notices: Search for Public and Legal Notices in FL newspapers


Great thread keep them coming!

 

[LaDigger]

I haven't been to a storage auction yet, but I have actually done the research on the renters names before. Several had been arrested before, a couple were still in jail, one was newly divorced, and the best sounding ones were being rented by a local gun store. I wish I would have went just to see what those 2 "gun store" units looked like but I was on a job so I couldn't. The place was/is still in business so I don't know what that was about. If I did this for a living I would have a paid account on one of the background check websites like "peoplefinders" in order to get more information on specific people. So, I have given it some serious thought before.
Here is the link I used to find the public notices for auctions in my state- Florida Public Notices: Search for Public and Legal Notices in FL newspapers


Great thread keep them coming!

Good Post. I also use our state public records notice search. I am amazed at the sites that are charging for information that is available to the public.

I like your idea of background checks! I use people search but I am just searching for the age of the person. This is another thing I key on. The times are different now and with social media it is easier to find most people. Facebook is one of the best tools storage locker buyers have at their disposal! You can tell a lot about someone by their posts and their friends.

 

[Tallone]

Interesting stories, Carrol. I have been to probably hundreds of auctions but never to a storage unit auction. Storage unit auctions seem too much like gambling to me AND I don't want the hassle of dealing with large volumes of trash. I have watched a bunch of the storage auction TV shows. They were entertaining but it seemed to me like it was mostly staged. About the only thing I heard on one of those shows that made any sense to me was a comment from the guys, Haff & Jones (Auction Hunters). One of them said, "We make 80% of our profit on 20% of the lockers we buy." In other words, they have to deal with a large amount of junk to find a few good items.

 

[Carl995]

Next?

 

[Carl995]

One day they had 3 different auction runs going at the same time, so I went on the crappiest run less than a dozen people.
They opened a huge locker, it was the contents of a few laundry mats. Everybody looked at it
shaking their heads saying "that's way too much to move",
So I got it for $400.!

It had 4 about 10 foot high Maytag double dryers, 7 claw crane machines, 2 big long ice machines,
gumball machines, Ice shaving machine, a row of Maytag coin op washers, a safe & much more.
We show up the next day to move it with the big box trucks. It was real tough moving those tall dryers without cutting our arms (back sharp edges).
Took it all to the auction, everything worked except I had to repair the crane machines. & the machines were full of money!
My friend drilled the safe open & it had a huge stack of $10's & 20's. I was excited till I realized they were bad bills they took in at the laundry.

I've always liked the business lockers!

 

[Ryans Rust]

A cave dweller grass shoe....Wow. How awesome is that. Think that would be hard to part with.

 

[kingskid1611]

That would be too cool to find. Did you ever find out the value of it?

It was around noon, they opened a 5X10 locker.
It had a Kachina doll on top of a dresser & display cases at the back with boxes on top.
I bought it for $500. & knew I was going to lose money on this one, but I thought if there was a
squash blossom necklace or something to that nature, I would make out.
Started moving the boxes & it turned out to be a lot of pre-columbian/effigy artifacts including
a cave dweller grass shoe (shown).

View attachment 1209801

 

[Carl995]

That would be too cool to find. Did you ever find out the value of it?

It didn't sell for much, most bidders probably didn't think it was real!

 

[Citiboy289]

Not sure about cross posting to another forum , So I will just tell the story here :
A person in Texas went to an auction . The storage owner told the parties that the locker had always been paid by check since 1975 but the payments had ceased sometime back and he had held to storage bin off auction since he wanted to give the owner or his family a chance to reclaim it;
It went to auction and according the the post the lock was rusted shut and the rollers had to be pryed to get the door open' The contents were covered in dust but the writer offered $100 for the unit and won.
Upon searching the locked he discovered wrapped in a towel a 1917 S&W 44 revolver and another S&W of the 30's era . The locker also contained a stash of family letters discussing the contents and just who owned the pieces and the history.
Sorry I cant post the link but if its ok I will it contains pictures of the find ect

 

[maipenrai]

This is fast becoming my favorite thread, lots of interesting stories. Never been to a storage locker auction, but lots of other auctions.

 

[Carl995]

Not sure about cross posting to another forum , So I will just tell the story here :
A person in Texas went to an auction . The storage owner told the parties that the locker had always been paid by check since 1975 but the payments had ceased sometime back and he had held to storage bim off auction since he wanted to give the owner or his family a chance to reclaim it;
It went to auction and according the the post the lock was rusted shut and the rollers had to be pryed to get the door open' The contants were covered in dust but the writer offered $100 for the unit and won.
Upon searching the locked he discovered wrapped in a towel a 1917 S&W 44 revolver and another S&W of the 30's era . The locker also contained a stash of family letters discussing the contents and just who owned the pieces and the history.
Sorry I cant post the link but if its ok I will it contains pictures of the find ect

I would like to see the pictures!!

 

[Bassmaster96]

I'd also like to see pics.

 

[drbecker]

I have been doing lockers for about 15 years. The unreality shows really hurt them. Used to get lockers for under $100 all the time that actually did not look bad. Now similar lockers are a couple hundred. I still see a few lockers go for $1 or not sell but they are usually really bad looking. My best locker cost me $50 and I found $4300 in cash in it. Worst locker loss wise I paid $1400 for a 10 X 30 that looked like some guys lockers with tools and motorcycle parts showing. Well there was mostly nothing in the locker the cycle parts were no good there was no complete bike in it like we all expected. I lost about $1500 on the locker. Before the shows that locker would have sold for a couple hundred to $500. Last year I bought a locker for $500 that turned out to be an out of business wood working shop. I got some super nice tools out of it plus lots of household stuff to include a nice guitar and a Ephonium that sold on ebay for $470. That was a great locker. It was big 10X20 and messy looking with a lot of junk piled in front. I found over $200 in cash and change as well in it. That is the kind of locker that keeps you coming back for more. The worst item I have found is a 3 pound package of hamburger that had been in the locker 6 months. That is far worse then finding cremains which is common. Best individual item was either the Sterling tea set that weighed 70 ounces or the set of Warren Commission report books from the government printing office in the original boxes one of which was unopened and addressed to some one at the state department. Got over $2000 for that on ebay. You never know what you will find that is what keeps me coming back. One of the locals here got a locker a couple years ago for $1000 that turned out to be a coin shops inventory. He said his truck was so full of silver it was sagging. That was when silver was about $40 an ounce and he got about a ton of it!

 

[Carl995]

There was a 1950 Mercedes, no engine. went for $50. I didn't buy it.