Storage Locker, Auction Finds?

[dogteam]

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

*cringe*
I don't want to know. :P

 

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[weighit]

I read every post here on this new forum, really enjoyed the stories. I have gone to storage auctions for years long before the tv shows and watched the prices of rooms go from cheap/reasonable to outlandish. I've only won a few rooms and overall made money. I still go and bid to what I feel is where I want to stop and follow my own rules well. My question that did not get answered is what do most of you do on rooms with mattresses stacked in them. When a whole house room is there the mattress is normally part of the deal. Do you just drop them off to the dump?

 

[Carl995]

I read every post here on this new forum, really enjoyed the stories. I have gone to storage auctions for years long before the tv shows and watched the prices of rooms go from cheap/reasonable to outlandish. I've only won a few rooms and overall made money. I still go and bid to what I feel is where I want to stop and follow my own rules well. My question that did not get answered is what do most of you do on rooms with mattresses stacked in them. When a whole house room is there the mattress is normally part of the deal. Do you just drop them off to the dump?

Goodwill takes them & old sofas, they have people that rebuild them.
If they are nice, I put them in the auction.

 

[Carl995]

I read every post here on this new forum, really enjoyed the stories. I have gone to storage auctions for years long before the tv shows and watched the prices of rooms go from cheap/reasonable to outlandish. I've only won a few rooms and overall made money. I still go and bid to what I feel is where I want to stop and follow my own rules well. My question that did not get answered is what do most of you do on rooms with mattresses stacked in them. When a whole house room is there the mattress is normally part of the deal. Do you just drop them off to the dump?

Goodwill takes them & old sofas, they have people that strip & rebuild them.
If they are nice, I put them in the auction.

 

[Carl995]

One day inside they opened a 15X15. I saw a large old Gibson amp & speaker among lots of old boxes & furniture.
I bought it for $1060. Went back to move it, it also had a steel guitar & lots of cool old stuff.
After going thru the boxes I realized it was a family gospel group, The Singing Allred Family.

I called & talked with one of the sisters (they were so excited to hear from me).
I told them I would send back the personal recording, masters, photos etc. (over a truck load) & they were so happy!!

I recapped the tube amp & we used it for quite a while!!

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[Carl995]

Outside lockers they opened a 15X30, the first 10 feet was empty-from there it
had those large wardrobe boxes to the ceiling all the way back. It was announced it was unclaimed freight.
I bought it for $1350.
Then they opened another that was a third full of the same boxes. A person pointed out to me they have the writing & name on them, that it's probably the 1st 3rd i'm missing!
I heard that some storage places will move a portion of the unit to another, auction it & keep the money!
I didn't buy the 2nd unit for fear it might have been gone thru.

So I return with the truck & trailer & started loading the large boxes. I get to the 3rd layer & uncovered
a army Machine gun on a tripod & about a 14 foot Coleman boat!!

Extremely excited I load what I could & go back to the auction house.
I'm across the street of the auction at my passenger side door looking at this gun ( has those heater? guards with holes)
I could barely lift this thing, very heavy off the tripod!

The auction house owner comes running out to me "what you got, what you got"
He sees it & yells OMG!!!!!!
As I was going thru the boxes I ran across these big full (500 round) army ammo tins that opens like a sardine can!!

I also found an old wind up tank, so I took about an 8" pipe with ends, had a couple wires hang out & I placed it in back with the boxes
I haven't opened yet (& I hid the wound up tank back there too).
The auction owner & his brother came up to me looking at the piles of ammo I told them "there's something ticking somewhere in the back boxes "
(3' boxes stacked 2 high).

So they got thru along the wall (& as they jammed themselves back there I blocked them off with more boxes so they couldn't get out).

THEN THEY FOUND THE PIPE!!!! THEY JUMPED & CLIMBED ON TOP THOSE BOXES SO FAST YOU WOULDN'T BELIEVE IT!!!!
I was Laughing so hard, I scared the hell out of them!!

No pictures of this one!

 

[weighit]

I got fooled on a buy that was about 8X10 packed with boxes that were all medical. Cotton balls, lancets, gauze and a bunch of other things dealing in the medical profession were stacked to the ceiling. I figured a doctors office closed down and this was the stuff left over. Other than a doctors stand on chrome scale where you slide the little weight over to balance when you stand on it the room was all boxes. I got it for $200. Appears the person used these boxes from a doctors office to store his junk, and I do mean junk. I don't think I made $75 back on that room, tossed most of it, gave what i could not sell to Good Will and had a much better idea on not getting fooled on what the box is marked on the outside. We all learn from our mistakes.

 

[Carl995]

I got fooled on a buy that was about 8X10 packed with boxes that were all medical. Cotton balls, lancets, gauze and a bunch of other things dealing in the medical profession were stacked to the ceiling. I figured a doctors office closed down and this was the stuff left over. Other than a doctors stand on chrome scale where you slide the little weight over to balance when you stand on it the room was all boxes. I got it for $200. Appears the person used these boxes from a doctors office to store his junk, and I do mean junk. I don't think I made $75 back on that room, tossed most of it, gave what i could not sell to Good Will and had a much better idea on not getting fooled on what the box is marked on the outside. We all learn from our mistakes.

I bought a 3X3, most boxes marked "crystal" for $100. It turned out the lady's name was Crystal!!
The boxes were full of cloths.

 

[Carl995]

Upstairs 5X10 Christmas locker I bought for $75.
Normally I wont buy Christmas lockers but I wanted to buy something?

Turned out a lot of the boxes had their Baccarat crystal in them

 

[Carl995]

Speaking of Christmas, they opened a 5X10, It had only 1 item in it.
About a 4 foot high Egyptian statue in it against the back wall.
I bought it for $75 for my wife, we have that type decor in one of our rooms.

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[Bassmaster96]

Carrol or anyone else, have you ever found a bunch of fishing lures in a unit?

 

[Carl995]

Carrol or anyone else, have you ever found a bunch of fishing lures in a unit?

I have but I've got a lot more at the swap meet here. I have bought a Box full for $35 a few times. One time I was a couple minutes late, a guy bought a big box of the old wood lures new in packages from a old man from Mexico for $85. The buyer was ecstatic, I was sad!

 

[kingskid1611]

I still love this particular thread, Interesting finds in the ole lockers...lol

 

[Bassmaster96]

I have but I've got a lot more at the swap meet here. I have bought a Box full for $35 a few times. One time I was a couple minutes late, a guy bought a big box of the old wood lures new in packages from a old man from Mexico for $85. The buyer was ecstatic, I was sad!

Yeah that sounds like a good find for sure!

 

[unclemac]

great thread...only got to page 6 before i had to crash. Carrol you spin a great yarn, fun to read.

 

[Carl995]

Once they opened a indoor 10X10 unit. it had displays & hundreds of coin books strown everywhere.
Been totally gone thru. On the left was a clear bag of smoking pipes & a tray of weird looking lighters. I bid, I bid & finally got it for $225.

 

[Carl995]

One morning they opened a 15x 30 big locker, auctioneer said Carrol looks like your buying a quad (nobody with a lot of money showed up). Sure enough there was a quad amongst a lot of other stuff. He said there was power tools under the tarps. Now he has told me crap like that before only to turn out to be junk. Well I bought it for $770. Go back to start moving it & realized it was owned by a business that closed.

 

[kingskid1611]

When I collect my trash and know that there is garage or yard sale boxes in there, I have a tendency to look in them. I too have come across some good jewelry and other stuff. I still like these stories. Wish I had a couple of more owners of storage lockers that would help me out like this. I did have one that had an old tire changing machine in a locker and just wanted me to haul it for scrap, it was so freaking heavy we couldn't move it.

 

[dmoggio]

This is an awesome thread!! Love the stories! I have always wanted to go to storage locker auctions but just haven't been able to get there. I did buy a few lots at a regular auction though. I'm not the type that'll buy high so I set the amount I'll spend in my mind and go from there. One time I was eyeing a nice cabinet for my workshop in the garage, set my price at about $20 max and waited. The auctioneer worked around the room and the 2 items before mine didn't sell and he lumped them all together on the cabinet I was hoping for. Now we're talking the cabinet, a newish potty chair (nothing to write home about BUT we still have it and use it as a plant holder in the living room, makes a good conversation starter), 3-4 boxes of books and clothes and a couple larger boxes that were sealed and couldn't be looked in very well. I rolled my eyes thinking the price was going over my limit but I was the only bidder and got it for $15. Getting it home we tossed the clothes, sold a few of the books but the biggest 2 items were in the bigger boxes. I found an old copier in one and threw it on eBay for $5, like Carroll's wife we got a message telling us to ask for more as this copier is highly sought by tattooists. We started the bidding at $20 and sold it for $50 to a guy in Ca. In the same set of boxes we found 2 wooden crates with alcohol advertising, sold those on eBay to a guy in London that wanted them for a music video. All in all we spent about $25 between the auction and mailing but made over $150 when all was said and done. Needless to say I love the auction experience and if you don't get carried away can do very well.

 

[Ryans Rust]

Won my first online auction yesterday. I was paranoid. Love seeing the items in person. You can tell so much more about the contents and quality that way. We see from the pics a vintage dresser with some chipping, another basic dresser and a few $10 toys. Maybe other old items inside. Prices were going high on all units as all of last months got merged with this month so everyone was hungry. Normally I'd try to just pay $125 in person for this unit. We won it for $170. There was another dresser (particle board), a basic secretary desk, cool vintage side table, Lyons Acoustic Guitar, about 15 die cast banks/toys, John Wayne Standee, a new Kenwood CD Player (going in our '64 Nova) and a Bronze John Wayne Statue. All and all I'm very happy. Hope they're all like this!

The auction page since I cannot seem to save pics from the site-

5x10 - Current price: $170