Urban Treasurre Hunting - Storage Auctions

[tedpank]

Anyone ever do any of those Public Storage Auctions? Just out of curiosity I went to a few recently and was amazed at what is auctioned off and at the cost!
First one was a 8 x 8 x 8 x 8 room filled with boxes, bags and more boxes from wall to wall, floor to ceiling! Was auctioned for $10.00 (Ted Dollars).
Rules state you can only look in the open door after the cut the lock off! Can't open or move anything and you bid on what you can see! More or less potluck, but after talking to the people who do it all the time, you learn to look for certain things to give you hints on what may be in the rest! Flashlight and small binoculars (to read writing on boxes) are handy to have. But you can't go into the storage room,just stand at the door.
Have gone to 4 or 5 of these so far and they are all the same! Speaking to some of the people who do it all the time and they've told me some wild stories on what they found!
From Guns to Drugs, to Cash and collectibles! Some people look for furniture, others look for just the ones that have boxes and containers!
Going to one today at 2pm!
Out of the 20 or so auctions I have just watched so far, none have gone for more the $150.00 for the entire storage room.
Just amazed me, and for you winter folks, maybe just something to do during those cold months up north!
Guess you can call it urban treasure hunting, as you never know what the person did not come back or what may be there!

 

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[stefen]

Several stories that I can relate to storage units.

An acquaintance purchased a storage unit filled with some of the most god awful colored tuxedos. Ranged from hot pinks to bebop psychedelic greens and oranges. Took several months of yard sales, but he sold them all, mostly to hispanics...made several thousands...so he said

My fiancee's brother left his storage unit unpaid...in it was an original teak deck lounge from the Queen Mary worth about $2500... Another candidate for the infamous Darwin Award.

Another fiancee story...when Cristina's parents passed, the family couldn't' emotionally deal with splitting the property at that time so they stored all of it in a self-storage unit. They rotated the cost on a monthly basis for years until they all collectively said the hell with it and dropped the responsibility on Cristina.

Well, to make a long story longer, the two of us along with 2 helpers spent a weekend and moved it all, lock, stock and barrel, to her garage and called her clan together. Three of the 5 siblings spent several days opening boxes and looking at each item, one at a time, and then passing it around while dripping tears on dusty faces.

They opened a box that contained 12 - 2" X 3 ring binders...the old blue canvas kind we had as kids, and which belonged to a grandfather. After a brief look, they threw it on the trash pile.

After a while, I picked the box up and looked thru the binders. It contained a very extensive U. S. stamp collection of which was sorted very methodically by state, then county, then city. Around the turn of the century, stamps were issued with the name of the city or post office. Typically, there is a full page for each town or city, of every county of each state.

I asked if anyone wanted the box and everyone said no

A short time later I placed the box in my car's trunk and later took it home. After everyone was gone and we were alone, I told Cristina what I actually found. One book alone is currently in for appraisal (after I colored xeroxed each page) and the others will be appraised singularly as well.

I guess the moral is that there is always the possibility to find some worth in someone else's cast-offs.

 

[EDDE]

ive tried that only problem is out here ,the owner the day before they sell it off. they go threw all the good stuff
but i did pick up a brand new marlboro hikers backpack and a pair of md head phones(OLD 1/4 inch zenith pair)for 11 bucks. then i got home opened the bag and found 4 dollars in pennies,so make that 7 bucks......not to mention the ron popeel pocket fisherman(original old style type,what ever that means ),couple of 2-3 dollar panfish lures in a box of cast off clothes i looked threw,so i did ok i guess....

 

[tedpank]

In this area (florida) and the same in Jerey, once it gets listed for auction, the lock is sealed so nothing can be removed unless they pay what they owe!
Saw several auctions last month that had the new plastic storage boxes (walmart type that cost 15.00 each) and each cardboard box was tapped nice and neat! The old times say those are the ones you want to snag, as they had all intentions of coming back, but due to what ever life brings they don't!
I understand jeweler is a very common find in these auctions!

 

[Marty-Graw]

i buy these units all the time.... have made a lot of money that way....first thing i do is go through it and get the stuff for ebay out.... then go through and get the stuff for flea market out.... then throw the rest away lol.....( i usually give any picture albumns and such to the unit manager to be returned).....one example of how good you can do... i bought 2 units one time for $30 total.... got a truck load of stuff i wanted out.... a friend called and said a girl she knew needed a table and chairs... i sold her the set out of the unit for $45 (she met me at the storage i never even took it out) then coup[le days later she called back and asked what i wanted for everything that was left.... i sold it to her for $125..... for a grand total of $170 BEFORE i did ebay an flea market..... so keep your eyes on the Legal section of the classifieds and try it... you will love it

 

[tedpank]

Just have been a spectator at these so far, but am amazed at what these storage things go for! Saw several that were just packed with boxes go for less then 20 each!
Stopped at one today, but the two they had ready for auction were paid, just prior to the auction! (must have been good ones!)
Urban treasure hunting at its best! And you never know what going to be found!

 

[EDDE]

i like your style ted... good eye and mind....

 

[tedpank]

Do they have Public Storage Facilities where you are? They are a huge business here in the States!
And the ones I have been going to have a following of people that do it for a living, and by the look of their cars/trucks seem to be doing ok!
But at least here, they open the door and you can look in. Can;t touch or move anything, but at least you can get an idea of whats there.
What amazed me is that the prices have never really gone much above 100. for each auction. Many were in the 20 to 40 dollar range!
PotLuck, but "who knows"!

 

[tedpank]

Dual Ace! ... Ha! heard the story from one of the auction followers that someone won an auction up north and found a body in a freezer!
Turned out, he died of natural causes, but his wife didn;t want to lose his pension and social security, so she kept the body in a storage facility for a few years. When she died and the storage went unpaid, it went to auction, and low and behold someone wound up finding the body of the husband!

 

[gldhntr]

several years ago in spartanburg sc they found 5-6 55 gallon drums of marijuana in one....i just do not understand having millions of dollars worth of pot and not being able to pay the unit rental......i guess either he couldn't get up off the couch watching cartoons or he was stuck in line at the krispey-kreme............g

 

[tedpank]

Or in Jail! I often wondered how many cars are sitting in impound with cash hidden in the panels!
Wasn't there a post on the forum somewhere about a cash hunting
dog?

 

[gldhntr]

there was a fellow that bought a car at a u.s. marshals auction, only to be stopped and searched....there was many kilos of drugs in the panels from the previous owner............

 

[tedpank]

Here in the states they can't legally touch the contents, but have to list it in the paper as a public auction and then conduct an auction at the storage unit on a certain time and date!
Winner taking all!
Just spoke to a fellow tonight who bought one for 10 bucks and got 3 diamond rings and a jar full of quarters! But he also said he has gotten skunked a bunch of times!
But such is hunting.

 

[cryptodave]

They are supposed to put a lock on it when its not paid for, then not open it until auction, but alot of those scum bags that run the storage places ransack it it and get what they want out of it prior to auction.
I had a good friend in the Navy who was deployed, came back the day before the auction and paid for it, they opened the unit (with their lock on it), and low and behold the 52 inch TV was gone, gone, gone.

 

[tedpank]

That may be true with some places, but word would get out pretty fast and no one would go to those auctions!
The size of these storgae units, and how the are packed in many cases to the gills would make it pretty difficult and time consuming for a storage facility to go thru them. And then if they did, it would be obvious when they are opened to the public auction.
The guys who I spoke to who have been doing this for a while tell me it wouldn;t take long for a facility to get a reputation of doing such and would soon find themselves with tons of things they can;t get rid of! Defeating the whole purpose of being in the storage business and collecting rents!
Most of the operators I spoke to in the last month have all said they are happy to get rid of the deadbeats and get the unit rented to someone who pays!

 

[EDDE]

They are supposed to put a lock on it when its not paid for, then not open it until auction, but alot of those scum bags that run the storage places ransack it it and get what they want out of it prior to auction.
I had a good friend in the Navy who was deployed, came back the day before the auction and paid for it, they opened the unit (with their lock on it), and low and behold the 52 inch TV was gone, gone, gone.

#2 post

 

[tomjacker]

i've ben going to some down in florida after i finally found a good site with a list of all the storage auctions in state, storageunitauctionlist.com, and i found one down in venice that i went to and bought a unit for $500 and it was full of old furniture, some of it was actually antique, i made my money back on a table an chair set alone, if you wanna find auctions in your state its the best site i've found so far

 

[centfladigger]

my uncle has been doing this in Ga. for over 30 years and bought a store to sell the contents, kinda like a Goodwill. He has made tons off of this. I think its stupid for these guys to give away what they do to make money just for tv

 

[diggummup]

This is a good site for auctions of all types including storage units.

http://www.auctionzip.com/ and you don't have to sign up.

 

[Ray S S]

Hello Tedpank, there is an auction held locally on Saturday nights. He has all kinds of stuff, new and used. Lately
he has been able to get stuff from a large storage place. Some of the stuff is sold separately and rest of it is sold
in box lots. Until this last Sat. I've never seen anything that I was interested in. It is all out for public inspection
for about 3 hours before auction time. I was able to buy a box that I looked through a little for only $10.00.
I haven't gone through it fully yet but there are about 40 to 50 disks to be used in computers, several digital
camera books with the disks for the computer. 8 CD's with George Zamfir with the panflute of which 6 of
these are still in the clear wrapping from the store, one called Wolf Talk with a lot of wolf calls and other
wilderness wildlife calls (Birds and animals) a couple symphony orchastras, a thick instruction book with
computer disk for Paintshop Pro 9, which is what I have now. and several other computer and music disks.
Also a box of business cards to be printed up. I know some of the disks are for other brands of computers,
and will not work in this one. My niece is coming over this weekend to see what all is in it. She is a computer
whiz. and has helped me a lot as I don't know much about this. About all I know about the computer is
how to post on here and send emails. That is my limit. LOL.
Ray