Seeing that there are some reality tv shows that involve buying storage auctions I am wondering who here has done it and how has it been doing for you?
I've been to estate auctions and stuff like that, not sure if that's the same as what you're talking about. From what I understand usually someone will sell an entire lot of articles (say, the contents of a storage container that belonged to a now-deceased family member), and the person who buys them is usually doing so on the premise that they can sell the contents of the lot for more than they paid for them (that is, they assume that there are articles worth more than the seller estimates they are, or can be sold for more with more effort than the seller is willing to put into things). So it's kind of a crapshoot, if you're planning on being the buyer, and if you're the seller, you're probably going to end up taking a loss on the items compared to selling them all individually on your own. If you're planning on going to one, you'll probably see a lot of old, used furniture.
sort of but not quite what Sangron is talking about is when someone stops paying rent on a storage unit and after a set time period they don't come and pay whats owed and collect the stuff they usually auction off the contents sight unseen, and the unit left locked until the contents sold. In some case they might be opened and sold piecemeal. i suppose it depends on the laws of the state and or nation.
I've done it a few times at my local storage place, gotten some great Ghostbusters items and got totally shafted, it's a major draw on what you could get. I know my mom won one and found an old antique jewelery box with some very old pieces of jewelery in it that was worth a fair bit of coin, so you never know what you might get.
I got the one with the Ghostbusters stuff for about $75 bucks and my mom got her's for $48 bucks, so we both got amazing deals considering what all we found in both.
Indeed they were, I got about 2-3 boxes of Ghostbusters merchandise, including an unused Ghostbusters 2 theater banner, which from what I have seen on ebay, usually sell for a couple hundred of dollars, I also got quite a few of the Real Ghostbusters figures mint on card, so I'd say that I came out ahead on mine.
Overhaulimus, how did you hear about them? The newspaper? Do you have to call the storage place to know? Is there a deposit? Did they let you view it before bidding?
I did once about 10 years ago. Bought a large lot of My Little Pony's for about $100... cleaned them up and sold them on ebay.... got $300 for them.
I use to work at the storage place a few years back, that's how I learned about them, now they just put signs out on the road when they are approaching an auction.
