It was bad; the smell was so strong my eyebrows fell off! Okay sue me. My quest for profit supersedes even the foul stench of stank! My first thought was, that this unit belonged to a man.

It was huge, it was dark and stanky! Really really, really, really, stanky! I got it in College Park or as some other folks refer to it as “ Colli Paark” . Normally there ain’t shit over there, on this day there really was.

Who knew?

Fortunately for me, it was the beginning of fall. Otherwise, this unit would have been hard as hell to clean out. When the door first opened, I got that little feeling in the pit of my stomach. It was the feeling of huge potential, more so than the smell running out the unit and bitch smacking all of us in the face.

Sometimes even now, I get butterflies, just at the thought of a killer unit. It was strange, shit scattered all over the place. Like I said before, it was a little stanky! Some people actually started backing up away from the door.

Granted, the unit looked like hell from the outside. But when you’re a professional buyer, you have to look at the unit totally. Mentally mapping out the unit, evaluating the good, and judging the bad is required to be a professional buyer and of course smelling the stanky odor rolling out of the dark recesses of junk.

In this state of disarray, I saw a lot of valuable items. From my time in the military and training to be a lab tech, we use a lot of manual scientific equipment. Being the nerd that I am, I often researched other scientific equipment which gave me the base knowledge to know what I was looking at, in this storage unit.

You could see all types of scientific equipment from the door; I knew what some of those items were. I saw a radiograph, the spectrograph and an xray machine. Who in the hell has all of that stuff? Clearly, some off the wall dude.

The curiosity factor is what made me buy the unit. It looked like a complete catastrophe, yet I just had that feeling. Some of my friends were looking at me like I was crazy when I started bidding on the unit.

I did not really see it was going for much, thus, I could make a lot of money off this unit. If you see my YouTube video “Stanky Units Make Money” then you know what I’m talking about.

However, new people will fuck up some good shit! I opened up the bid of $50.00, the unit appeared to be a 10 by 20 (it really was 10 by 30) and I was willing to go to $250. Little do not know this new person would pop my bubble. When he placed an opening bid of freakin $200!

Just to get over with, I just went ahead and bid my $250 mister new person said” too rich for my blood” and walked away. I let a sigh and put a lock on my brand new stanky unit.

This was one of those units that you just could wait to clean out. I knew it walls going to take a lot of work. So I placed this unit at the end of the load list. The storage property people were so happy to get rid of this unit, that they gave me a month to clean it out.

Believe me I took full advantage of that month! And my day of reckoning was coming soon. We had cleaned out 15 storage auction units that week. My guys were tired and I was cranky.

If I did not clean this unit out, I was going to have to pay a month of storage for the unit. I really did not want to do that. It is best, to get the units cleaned out as fast as possible. So I strengthened my resolve, cleaned out the truck, and headed to College Park with the crew..

Just be sure, we did not have to spend as much time going back and forth we took two trucks. I am sooooo glad we did! The unit was not as bad as I thought it was. But there was a lot more stuff than what I originally suspected.

Units can be deceptive in what you think is in there, versus what you haul out. In this case it was a good thing, we were moving quality stuff out of a unit, I felt perhaps I had paid to much for it, this mental note quickly changed after ten minutes of loading.

After we got past the first 10 feet, the unit really became very very very interesting. The first half was filled with Scientific Equipment. Old radio vacuum tubes, these would like hotcakes on Ebay.

This is where the part about learning new stuff comes into play. What may look like a box of old dusty bulbs, but turned out to be very rare radio tubes. We cleared $850 just on the old radio equipment on Ebay.

The deeper we dug, the better the unit became, this guy was a true collector. We found antique toy collections, antique railroad trains, trucks, a little model towns. A great bidder in Germany bid $2500.00 for one of those little towns, when it wasn’t so little; it shipped in a huge box for $650.00! This was with using a discount of a friend at FEDEX!

He was more than happy when he got it!

The previous owner of this storage unit was an engineer at Lockheed. For all I know he truly could have been a rocket scientist! He was another Georgia Tech alumni, I have gotten quite a few of those guys units. Often when they pass on, it’s the kids that end up losing the unit.
If you saw the movie “Ironman II” there was this one part in the movie, work Tony was looking in the old movie of his dad. This dude had that type of persona, slim with a crew cut and there were a lot of those awful 1950s 1960s suits in the unit. Maybe I should have kept them, there back in style now.

For the most part he seems straight, if I had to guess and I am. The reason that this unit came up to auction, was the kids inherited his house and moved all his personal stuff into a storage unit.

There were few a letters but they’re pretty benign, nothing to write home about pun intended. Just a few bits and pieces about his life, just adding up all of the equipment notes and books that work in the unit, it’s clear he was a very smart man.

Abundantly obvious was his passion for tinkering, all of this stuff was just as hobby. He retired from Lockheed years ago and some of the notes were fairly recent. Perhaps he was building a rocket in the basement. He was a very interesting dude indeed.

Old scientific equipment goes very well in collector circles. There are people who love old stuff. Our scientist had tons of that type of stuff. Old calculators, old textbooks, and things that make you think of a 1950s scientist.

The books were so old that many did not even have ISBN numbers. These types of books are always fun to enter into the Amazon sales system. Many of those books we were the first person to list online. Over the course of the year they did $1500 in sales.

Another benefit of being a storage auction person is you develop a huge network of resources. People that you can just call up and say hey I have this item; do you want to buy it? On many occasions, I had items sold before they were even loaded on the truck.

That is the case with the scientific equipment, a guy had come in my store inquiring about old equipment that scientists used. I had nothing for him that day but he left his business card. This was months earlier, I call him up and told them what I had. He said I’ll take it, I gave him a price of $1200 for everything. He said if it is what you say it is no problem.

He came to the store, saw the inventory and slowly peeled off twelve $100 bills. I helped him load everything and he was gone within 20 minutes.

Sometimes it is just that easy. This was a great unit in many regards. It was interesting and full. I like strange units, seem things I’ve never seen before and getting that put my little chubby fingers all over the stuff.

This is one of the great things about buying units at auction, you get to go through stuff, check out the history. Well, at least going through other people’s lives is fun to me. One of the niftiest things in this unit was a large globe.

As I held the globe in my hands, slowly turning it, I realized some of those countries did not exist anymore. It’s pretty deep when you think about. Being a student of history, it is amazing how often we repeat the same mistakes.

I think the best personal item out of the unit, was a collection of fountain pens. I’m a big fountain pen buff. There’s just something about the written word, the tools and paper of the written word that speaks to me.

I kept those pens for many years, is pretty cool that you can have an item and use it, derive pleasure from it, and sell it and make a nice chunk of change. I sold those pens individually online; altogether they brought in $600. Not bad for something collecting dust sitting on my desk.

The furniture in the unit was just OK. Nothing really spectacular, the nicest thing in the unit was an old writing desk. Which sat in a corner of the warehouse for few years, one day when I was bored I decided to strip the table.

It originally was this pukey looking oak color, I decided to do it in a very deep mahogany stain. This was my first attempt at staining furniture, the project turned out very well. I put it on Craigslist for $650. After a few days I got a call if you take $500 off and get it right now. OK! She came with a truck and some blankets and was gone and 5 minutes.

When you get your inventory from storage units, the possibilities of making money are endless. That little project, start my furniture rehab career. After that I started looking for used furniture to redo in storage units. I got so many cheap it wasn’t funny.

Other than a writing desk and some side tables I ended up tossing the rest of the furniture it was not even worth giving away. What I’d do it all over again? Oh yes baby yes! Made a lot of money on that spanking unit.

Later on, I discovered the source of the smell. Two chemicals one being a household cleaner and the other some industrial solvent mixed together which threw off that wicked smell. Once we get rid of the box containing those two dueling agents, we were good to go.

On this hot summer day our list of auctions was huge! In the paper there were a total of 140 storage auction units listed for sale. Knowing what I know about storage auction tendencies, at least half of that number should have been available for auction.

When we got to the first property all the storage units that were listed to be up for auction were still available. I just knew in my heart of hearts, this was going to be a very long day. The latest I was at auction was 11PM at night!

There was not much to see at the first property. They had total of 12 units to be auctioned off, there was nothing I was really in interested in buying. The only fun that I really had was playing with the new people.

I ran one guy up, on this dusty, stanky little unit, he showed me, yes he did! He paid $300 for the $50.00 unit. Sometimes playing with the new people is more fun than buying the unit!

I tricked another chick into buying a worthless unit (yep I was an asshole!) One of the things about new people is they ask a lot of stupid questions! And tend to get on your last nerve. This usually gets rid of them!

We left the first property, getting on the road heading to the second location. I spied one of the new people pulling in right behind me. He was so close I could see he needed to trim his nose hair!

Often, I become a little perturbed, when I have strangers following me, without asking me. Every now and then, it happens, well on this day I decided to have fun with my brand new friends.

There was a gas station coming up just before we got to Peachtree Industrial, I pulled in next to a pump, got out of my car and ran into the station. I had a full take of gas and just need to lure the new folks out of their vehicle.

They pulled in about three gas pumps over, the tall lanky one got out of the car first, and the chick that was with him, kinda rolled out of the car like she was constipated. I was in the back of the store watching them.

Closer, closer they came; I went out of the side door and waited for them to go inside of the store. I crept back to my car like a Ninja; I was in my car and almost on the street before they realized I was not in the store!

Tall and Lanky threw down his Twinkies and bolted out of the store, running to his car, the chick waddled behind him as fast as she could, I was laughing so hard I almost hit a mini van!

I was in the 540i so by the time they got to the street I was gone like cash in Vegas!

When they showed up at the other property they had missed half of the auction, constipated chick was giving me the side eye….oh mutherfucking well!

I bought the first unit at the second property; it was the inventory from a bike shop that stuff always sells well!

Really I stole that one for $75.00 back then people were not into box units in the same manner as they are now. This was when ebay was a killer for me OMG!

I got tons of box units for little or nothing, now that was beautiful thang!

I passed on the other four units after it, just as Tall and lanky and crew showed up, the door was open to a very curious unit.

Which was a loaded 10 x 20 filled from the roota to the toota. It did not look that promising from the door there was a big old musty couch right at the front and some old heavy mattresses filling the rest of the door.

When I bought this unit it did not look very good, however something was talking to me, I was completely sucked into buying it. I had a good feeling about what was in it, I cannot tell you why.

Apparently so did someone else we started bidding hot and heavy.

I opened up the bids at $25, this blue haired little old lady, started bidding on the freaking unit! What in the hell was his little old woman going to do with all that stuff….

At this point my mind was made up, I was getting this unit, and little blue hair was not getting the senior discount! Man, woman or dog, if you are bidding I am bringing the heat!

Bidding escalated quickly, it went from $25 to $75 to $100 to $150 to $200 to $300 in a minute. This little old woman was tough! She was very competitive; at this juncture I was getting ready to stop bidding.( yep the little old lady was punking me out)

I like making money on units, not proving I have the money to bid, there is a world of difference between the two schools of thought.

Some folks think because you bid a lot and high that you are making money, nothing could be further from the truth.

I know of some people the money they have in their pocket is all they have in the world!

As I was getting ready to walk away from the storage unit, there was a gentle incline. When I got to the top of the hill, I saw there was some really interesting stuff in the back of the unit. Why I did not jump up to check is in first place I have no clue.

The little old lady put the hex on me! With new information running through my mind, I got my second wind, and then I hit the unit really hard.

She was already at $425, I just went into $500 in the little blue haired lady looked at me, wrinkled up her nose and stuck her tongue out at me!

Then the little hussy walked off!

In short order I had myself a unit, some of the others looked at me like I had lost my mind. “You normally do not buy junk” I just looked at him and said “I am running low on junk, need to get some today” other bidders starting chiming in.

“Hey come by place I got better junk than that in my trash heap, you can have it!” A few others said the same. You can have a lot of fun at auctions; there are a lot of colorful people in the storage auction world.

I have bought a lot of weird and profitable units but this dude takes the cake! He was Jack Bauer and a conspiracy theorist all wrapped in one. He was a Marine with a passion for guns! It is clear something happened to this dude that is the only way sum it up why this unit went to auction.

Based on the information I got out of the unit, he was the “pry the gun from my cold dead hands” type. There is no way voluntary he would have lost all of this stuff. It is a sad fact of life of the best units at auction come from very unfortunate circumstances.

Once we got past the old musty sofa and heavy as hell mattresses, things started looking up! A beautiful Sheraton chest was right behind the sofa, wrapped in moving blankets.

Next to it was a Danish (mid century furniture) bedroom set, what I can say? This guy had very eclectic tastes when it came to furniture! Nothing matched and it all was in great condition! I made well over $2000 just on the furniture!

He had beautiful mahogany desk and matching credenza, stacked on top of each other. Our survivalist Marine was an engineer by training and social scientist by vocation.

He went to Georgia Tech on the GI Bill and became a mechanical engineer. I do believe some of his thought processes were due to his time spent in Vietnam. One thing about these combat veterans, they have a lot of loyalty.

As twisted as some of his thinking was, it was abundantly clear he was of the sentimental bent in life, displayed in action by what appears to be every letter written to him kept in several boxes in the unit.

Some humorous, some sad and some beautiful, dude had solid friends! When I look at how we use to be as a society it make me wonder if the price do progress is too high.

To me the greatest thing about the unit was the letters and the combat gear. He kept all of his Marine Uniforms and by the look of his pictures he could still wear all of that stuff. I love old things and history, this unit was stacked with black and white photos, period piece furniture and humor.

In his files where several essays about how he felt America was going to hell in a hand basket and how he planned on surviving the upcoming civil war. He also felt feminism had killed the American way of life.

“Women are strange beasts, they say we are equal, yet become highly aggravated when preferential treatment normally shown to women is withheld because they are no longer deemed the weaker sex”

You know what I agree with ole boy! He wrote that in the 70’s I think he was way before his time. If he is still alive dude has got to be in his 70,s by now.

I pulled twenty one guns out of his unit, all name brand, all very well taken care of and in cases! I got $900 for the two Remington Shotguns alone, they were NICE!

The guy that bought them said he would have paid $700 for just one of the shot guns, if he bought it new, say dude was happy! He got what he wanted and saved a lot of money!

This guy was preparing for Armageddon, he had guns for every type of situation. He had small arms for close combat situations. ( 8 side arms) What was amazing were the sawed off shot guns, old side by sides that be cut a much of the barrel off! Side by side shotguns are very very expensive! (Sawed off shot guns are illegal)

Perhaps he cut the shotguns in half because they were old; this is the only way I could see him damaging such beautiful weapons. There was a very nice LC Smith double barrel 12 gauge in the unit which I got $3500 if it was in better condition I could have gotten more!

The name makes all the difference in the firearm world! He also had survival manuals, MRE’s water purification pills and medical supplies in the unit. This stuff reminded me of going through my uncle’s old Navy stuff, it was a treasure hunt!

Old photo, medals, uniforms, fountain pens, straight razors it seems that generation of men had their grooming rituals down, it is not so much like that today, where cats are walking around with their boxers exposed. To me that is such a bitch move.

If the year was 1950 this is the guy that would have been a bomb shelter company owner, not only would he have been the president he would have been a customer!

What I liked about this guy was his diligence; he was a dedicated soul to whatever he was engaged in. (he was also a hell of a writer) Determined, precise and dedicated! It must have taken him years to go all of the manuals (they sold like hot cakes on Amazon) many were out of print.

Made $18000 on the unit, I got over $12,000.00 for the guns, it took me a year to sell them all, which averages to a grand a month for a unit that cost me $500.00 this is how it can go in the wonderful world of storage auctions.

To learn who you can be a storage auction pro buy my book

Unscripted Show Delves Into The Competitive World Of Storage-Unit Auctions

Series Following Two Expert Auction Hunters Premieres

Tuesday, November 9 at 10:00 PM, ET/PT

NEW YORK, Aug. 25 /PRNewswire/ — Spike TV explores the cutthroat world of storage-unit auctions in the new unscripted original series, “Auction Hunters,” premiering Tuesday, November 9 at 10:00 PM, ET/PT.  Every day in America, there are over ten thousand abandoned storage units that are put up for public auction.  Each unit has the potential to be a goldmine or a bust for those who make their living hunting unclaimed property.

Amidst a struggling economy, the business of auction hunting has emerged as a thriving trade for many Americans.  “Auction Hunters” follows two of the best prospectors in the business, Clinton “Ton” Jones and Allen Haff, in their quest to win auctions, acquire abandoned treasure and sell it for a profit.  The series offers viewers a rare look into the high stakes, financial risks and potential rewards where the right purchase can bring in serious cash.

Allowed only a brief glimpse inside the units before each fast-paced auction begins, skill and strategy are paramount as our hunters have only seconds to estimate the value of the unit and determine how high they’re willing to bid to beat out the competition.  Once an auction is won, the story and true monetary worth of the unit emerges as Haff, a second generation antiques dealer and Jones, a gun, knife, sword and military paraphernalia expert, begin “the dig,” a process by which they literally dig into the contents of the unit and assess every single item within.  Sometimes, they find nothing but at other times, they score big, bringing home a trove of items for which prospective buyers around the country will pay top dollar.

“Auction Hunters” also follows our prospectors during “the sell” as they consult experts, establish value and ultimately scour the antique and collectible markets in search of buyers.  The show will focus mainly on items with great historical and cultural significance such as America’s first black powder revolver and a depression era slot machine.

“Auction Hunters” is an eight half-hour episode series produced by Gurney Productions, owned by Scott and Deirdre Gurney.  Credits include Animal Planet’s “I’m Alive” and Discovery Channel’s “I Was Bitten.”  Sharon Levy is Spike TV’s executive vice president, original series and animation, Tim Duffy is vice president of original programming for Spike TV and Joe Weinstock is director, original programming.

Spike TV is available in 98.6 million homes and is a division of MTV Networks.  A unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), MTV Networks is one of the world’s leading creators of programming and content across all media platforms. Spike TV’s Internet address is www.spike.com and for up-to-the-minute and archival press information and photographs, visit Spike TV’s press site at http://www.spike.com/press.

Orginal link- http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/spike-tv-uncovers-a-hidden-treasure-with-new-original-series-auction-hunters-101491149.html

I was curious to see what was behind the door at a storage unit auction and curious about the prices that the storage units were bid up to. I also found out I’m not the only one who has experienced the ‘thrill’ of an auction.

I was determined to find one nearby so I didn’t waste gas if it was a bomb. I found a couple near my zip code when I went to the Auction Zip Locator; they have auctions for real estate, businesses, homes and storage units.

So what is a storage auction exactly?
“It’s a Treasure Hunt!! Self-store facilities are all over the country. People store their possessions when they’re moving or when they simply need more space. Businesses use self-store facilities as an alternative to renting warehouse space. Despite management’s efforts to collect rent, some folks simply don’t pay their bill and management must sell the contents of the unit to the highest bidder.”

On this day I got to see 3 of the large storage units put up for sale. The ad said it started at 11am and I got there about 10 minutes early, already about 25 people were there waiting – Families, friends and single men and women – a nice variety of young and old. Once the auction was to start, we had a good 3 dozen people ready to take a peek at what was left behind in the storage units.

While waiting I noticed a few tools of the trade:
1. Wear old clothes – If you win, you will be taking home dusty, greasy and sticky items.
2. Carry a big light – The lights most people had were handheld spotlights to see into the back of the units
3. Have a truck – Most who were bidding drove up with their trucks or had pull behind flatbeds to take the stuff home immediately

While waiting I wandered around and eaves dropped on the stories and tips being told by the experienced buyers.

One young lady in a baseball cap told a friend of hers about buying a unit for $500 that had a bunch of boxes in it and very large, filled black trash bags what she found was kind of interesting and I will come back to that later.

An older gentleman told a couple new to the storage auction experience, a few tips- the smaller units usually go for a couple hundred and the larger ones can go into the thousands. He also said that you can tell a possible good find based on the type of boxes used (thick, sturdy ones) and the way things are stacked in the unit if they person has valuable items.

Dax, the auctioneer, walked us to the first storage unit and laid down the ground rules:
1. Must pay Cash after the auction (plus tax)
2. Must clean out the unit in 24 hours
3. Can not go into the unit, only look in and can’t touch anything

After the rules were given out, they unlocked the unit and tossed open the door. Spotlights were clicked on and weaving and bobbing began as everyone peered into the unit to see as much as they could.

After a couple of minutes, auctioneer Dax, opened up the bidding at a low, but reasonable price.

Storage unit 1
This unit had a bed, box spring and mattress, a poker table, heavy plastic table and chairs and a washer and dryer in the back. The bidding started at $100 and we were off. Occasionally Dax had to stop and let people know they didn’t want to bid against themselves or help need to explain where in price the bidding was, but it all went smoothly. The unit sold for $325.

Storage unit 2
When the door flew open on this unit, people oohed and ahhed, a couple guys walked away bummed telling their friends, “This is out of my price range.” The unit had a 5 foot tall tool box, tools for woodworking, a gun safe was in the back, a couple of rifle cases sat beside it and stacked to the ceiling were boxes and boxes of thick, sturdy liquor boxes all neatly organized. This unit started off at $500 but jumped quickly to a couple thousand before the final two bidders fought over it, the storage unit was sold for $3600.

Storage unit 3
After the previous unit, people were excited to see the potential of the this unit. It wasn’t as spectacular, but was probably about average. This unit had a lot of furniture, large pieces and small, mostly wood. A few lamps scattered here and there and a very dusty mountain bike at the entrance. The bidding again started at $100 and ended in the 300 range.

The half hour went quickly and the experience was an enjoyable one , Dax Gillium of the ShurSuccess Auction Services had a congenial style that put us all at ease, both newbies and experienced bidders. It was a free and fun way to pass the time that I wouldn’t mind doing again.

I certainly don’t have a few thousand lying around to buy up self storage units as either a hobby or a resell business, but it was neat to see what was behind the doors. Which brings me back to the young lady in the baseball cap and what her $500 bought her.

After she bought the unit full of boxes and garbage bags, she and a friend looked through the boxes and found they all contained Avon supplies, Avon collectibles and samples. And what was in the garbage bags? Trash, every garbage bag had crumpled up newspapers, peanuts and Styrofoam. From what I overheard, it sounded like a bust as she recouped only a couple hundred on what she bought the storage unit for. Sometimes you come out a winner with something good and sometimes you lose.

Original article link- http://frugalforlife.blogspot.com/2009/04/experiencing-self-storage-unit-auction.html

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. — Elvis fans from across Chicagoland are bringing their checkbooks to Boyer-Rosene Storage in Arlington Heights this afternoon as the contents of seven vaults of memorabilia belonging to ex-Governor Rod Blagojevich are going on the auction block.

The storage company hasn’t received payments for the units in more than five years, and owner Joe Saverino says Blagojevich owes him in the “tens of thousands of dollars.”

Blagojevich has said he’s broke.

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Proceeds from the auction will benefit Children’s Memorial Hospital, which Blagojevich was accused of trying to shake down for campaign contributions.

The memorabilia included in the auction:
One life-size Elvis statue
An Elvis concert picture from when he played in the Civic Center Feb. 16, 1957
A guitar clock with Elvis on it
A poster of Elvis reading a book promoting American libraries
A framed picture of Napoleon
Newspaper articles of Blagojevich’s inauguration day
Boxes and boxes that are marked, “media”
Other items include dozens of boxes labeled, “tapes”, a Wrigley Field poster, and a box marked “Congressional Archives”.

The crates have been in storage at the warehouse since 2002, when Blagojevich was a state representative.

Side note- if you have shit in storage for almost a decade you really don’t need it!

Buy the Best book on Storage Auctions- Making Money A-Z with Self Storage Unit Auctions

Original article link here- http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/wgntv-blagojevich-possessions-auction-aug19,0,6083728.story

by Max Wong on 5 October 2009

This week I did an intervention on Sarah, one of my dearest friends. It wasn’t the first time. Over the last few years I have unsuccessfully attempted to get her to seek help for a problem that has cost her conservatively $48,000 and put financial and emotional stress on her family.

This week, after over five years of trying to manage her problem, she finally hit rock bottom. She once again had to borrow money from her family — this time to pay for her daughter’s healthcare. Sarah had $800 of the $900 doctor bill in the bank, but she’d already earmarked that money for the horrible monkey on her back. Sarah has a substance abuse problem — but not with drugs. Sarah has a problem with self storage.

Sarah used to have financial stability. But five years ago she made a major life change when she decided, at age 40, to adopt a child and become a single parent. Sarah sold her beautiful 3000 square foot home so she could afford to quit her high-powered job and be a stay at home mom until her daughter could start pre-school. She moved into a 1200 square foot apartment in a good school district. This was all part of a good, long term plan.

Unfortunately, she then made what became possibly the worst financial decision of her entire life: She put the 1800 square feet worth of possessions that didn’t fit into the apartment into self storage.

Using a technique that drug dealers use to reel in future customers, the storage company offered Sarah, the first time user, free product to ensure her loyalty. Convinced that she would be able to sell, donate or otherwise dispose of her extra stuff during the “First 30 Days Free Rent” period that her storage company offers to all new customers, Sarah moved her designer guest room furniture, her Christmas decorations, her art collection, etc into four of the cheapest storage units available.

“I’m just going to use this as a staging area to get organized,” she told me at that point in time. “That way, I’ll have four weeks to figure stuff out and won’t have to make any financial decisions about what to get rid of under duress.”

She never moved out.

Although she has plenty of very valuable things in storage, as we surveyed the contents of one of Sarah’s units earlier this week, she finally did the math. Even if she pulled everything out of the unit and set it on fire in the parking lot, it would still be a better financial decision than keeping it in storage for another month. 5 years x $200 a month per unit x 4 units = $48000. And that total doesn’t even account for the money spent on gasoline to get her to and from her storage or all the late fees she’s paid on other bills because she chose to pay her storage bill on time so her stuff wouldn’t be seized for non-payment. The phone company can turn off your service, but the storage company can auction off your dream diary, fake IDs, and herpes medication to the highest bidder.

Although Sarah’s situation may be the worst that I know of personally, she’s hardly alone. According to the Self Storage Association, 50% of storage unit renters are storing what won’t fit into their homes. 1 out of every 11 Americans rents storage.

Watching Sarah’s horrible journey has made me realize that, although self storage (like easy credit), can be beneficial to a percentage of the population, it’s a pact with Satan for many folks who don’t have an iron fist over their finances or excellent time management skills. Quite simply, it’s bad on several fronts.

Self storage is a bad investment
I called four different storage companies with units in my area of Los Angeles. The cheapest price for the smallest storage space, a 5 x 5 unit, in my neighborhood is $67 per month. The first month costs just a mere $1, but that’s not counting the one time only $22 “Administration Fee” that they’ll also tack onto the first 30 days.

Although all those numbers sound doable financially, if I rented this space, I’d be out a whopping $760 in the first 12 months, all to rent a space that’s the size of my laundry room. In other words, stuff that isn’t functional enough to put in my house and use every day would become more and more expensive with each passing year.

(On a side note, I had to hang up on three out of the four storage sales reps because I was getting such a hard sell, that they continued to demand my personal information even after I’d told them that their rental prices were beyond my budget.)

Self storage can lead to overconsumption
Self storage is like diet food for material goods. It fools the mind by fooling the eye. If your clutter isn’t visible in your house, do you really have a spending problem?

The first self storage facilities were built in Texas in the late 1960’s. It took 25 years to build the first one BILLION square feet of storage. But it took just eight years (1998-2005) to add the second billion. According to the National Association of Home Builders, the average 1960’s home was 1200 square feet. In 2004 the average home had ballooned to almost twice that size to 2330 square feet.

Bigger houses are harder to fill up, which may explain why Americans buy twice the number of consumer goods than the citizens of any other first world nation. (Okay, so we’re a geographically huge country, but if we’ve got such big homes, why do we need an additional billion square feet of storage space?) The environmental cost of creating, transporting and finally housing two billion square feet of unused possessions is mindboggling.

Original article link- http://www.wisebread.com/5-ways-self-storage-units-are-more-sad-museums-than-savvy-solutions

The best storage auction book on the net!-Making Money A-Z with Self Storage Unit Auctions

That Chi Town Chic

Age 36
Style- Fly as Hell
Profession –Sugar Daddy Bait

I woke up with that feeling “something good is popping off today” got up brushed my teeth and ran a rag over the dome. Being a morning person, I was way extra on this day. Perhaps because all of the auctions were in town and I would not be driving all over the creation.

I hate traffic with a passion, it was the beginning of fall and it was cool enough to ride with the sunroof open, which I love!

Feeling a little grumble in the middle space I stopped at a Waffle House close to the first auction. There were a few other bidders with the same grumble. I acknowledge them and sat at my table.

I was one of the first (if not the first) on the auction trail to spend the money on a Verizon Air card, gave me fairly decent internet access in most places around town. I had just sold an antique bedroom set on eBay and the bidder paid instantly things were looking up!

Nothing like starting the day with a fresh money, so I splurged on the All Star with the pecans. Checked a few more emails and shut it down. I had over $ 3900.00 in PayPal and $4000.00 on me and all of the storage spots accepted credit cards…most in town do not.

I was loaded for bear that day.

Quickly looked at my watch and rolled out, time was slipping away and if you were late you could not bid. I threw my money on the table and grabbed my stuff and rose up, as I was putting my seat beat on I saw the other bidders rushing to their cars.

We all arrived at the same time with 5 minutes to spare, there were only nine people at this auction, and it was looking good for the kid. There were 22 units advertised and they still had 15, my palms started sweating, the air was just right!

I was the last to sign in and we were behind the gate, The first unit was not that far away, there is a certain anticipation when you are at the door, are you going to see trash or treasure?

It is part of the fun!

The door rolled up and it looked like a cabinetry shop, table saws, drills, crown molding, wood and it was packed looked to be a 10 x 20 maybe larger. I walked away; my customer base did not like stuff like that. The bidding started at $750 and quickly ended at $1650.00

The next three units were somewhat uneventful, went for less than a $100.00 each. I just knew that something awesome was there, to this day I cannot tell you why I felt like this, it happens to me a lot, keeping the faith I walked with the crowd.

The fourth unit was part of one of a two-fer. I looked at my ad and there were no units in the name of the same person. The manager solved my conundrum, one was in the daughters name and the other unit was in her mother’s name, but both belonged together.

With that the door was opened and it was my type of unit!

Loaded with home accent pieced, clothing and furniture, I hit it at $500.00 I knew it was a 10 x 25 and we were off, $600, $700, $800, $1000 and I rammed it to $1330.00 going once, going twice sold!

I knew it was a damn good unit (how good would come later) I placed my disk lock on it and caught up with the crowd. They did not do the other unit right after my first one. We looked at 3 more before getting to the second one (I bought all three, clothing units I got really cheap) .

We got to part two of my deal and it was a 10 x 15 stacked, I started the bidding off at $250.00 and of course they were not going to be easy on me, the second part end of cost me $1000.00 they knew I had to have it, so they all went in.

Normally that unit would have cost $500.00 max. I placed my lock on it and decided that no one was getting anything cheap the rest of the day. The next units were nothing I wanted, yet I bid on them hard just to return some favors.

So I am five units up at the first spot! Logistics start to come into play at this point, we had 8 more locations to view merchandise for today. I ended up buying 12 units that day, but we are going to talk about that Chi Town Chic!

I did not go to auctions the next day, we start loading at 6AM we got 8 out of the 12 units loaded before 4PM good stuff was coming out of the boxes left and right, I was feeling the love from the storage auction Gods! I was also glad I rented another truck or we would have been only half way done!

(Sometimes when you have a lot of units to clean out two or three trucks and extra hands is the way to go)

Around 6PM we were at the first spot where I got the two-fer. I knew this was going to be a lot of stuff and light would be fading fast so we got to it. We got the big one first, it looked better the second time around!

The first 10 feet were boxes of clothing and accent items, great stuff, and women’s stuff a wardrobe box broke open and spilled out at least 30 leather jackets ( women with a lot of leather jackets usually have a lot of really nice shoes!) she did not disappoint this stuff was niiiiiiiiiicccccccccceeeeeeee!

It kept getting better and better! That Chi Town chic was absolutely fine and gorgeous based on her pictures of herself in the unit! (Pretty girls for some reason often have a lot of photos of their selves in their units) She was definitely a top shelf chic, leather boots filled up two wardrobe boxes ( she wore a size 8.5-9 which right smack in the middle of my customer base)

Oh did she have killer style! Ms lady was an size 8-10 and baby girl was stacked. I noticed all the men she was with were …er…mature. This pattern would repeat itself box by box. She was well traveled, photos from all over the world. …yes with grandpa or chester the molester.

After getting excited over the nice clothes, the furniture gave me a second rush; she had the best of the best. A beautiful dining room set, seated 10, complete with a tall china cabinet! Most table sets that you will get out of storage units will seat 6, if you are lucky.

Nice vintage crystal pieces filled several boxes (more than likely her moms) I do not think they lived together since there were no mature lady clothing ( shoot maybe mom was hot too)

Before we were halfway thru with the first unit $10,000+ popped in my head (I was wrong we did $15K off her stuff) Out of all her nice stuff the back-story was the most interesting.

That Chi Town Chick was sugar daddy bait. The reason I am certain of this is there were no W-2s in the unit; however there were plenty of old bank states all with regular deposits in the $2000-$8000.00 a month range going back several years.

Also a stack of self employment tax forms and no one work ID, but when you are beautiful you do not have to work?

Right?

She also had plenty of mutual funds statements one had a balance of $300,000! Why she lost her units is beyond me, she seemed to have plenty of loot!

Now to the dirt!

The letters! She had all types of men who were willing to pay for her time. Each one, old, grey and apparently in poor health (judging by the pictures) just a squeezing on her young and tender flesh.

She had three main sugar daddies, if there is such a thing. An old Jewish guy, a retired GM ex and some poor slob that worked a whole lot of overtime to feel on those boobies! ( hell to the naaaaaw man!)

She had been at this awhile (who writes letters these days?) They all love her, it was a joy just to get a little bit of her loving ( I wanna puke! Thinking about it) These lonely desperate souls!

Why do we as men lose out minds and money over a pretty face?

I think the Jewish guy was the most interesting, he sent her love/mentoring letters. I think the world of you and oh by the way this is how you read a P&L, yeah, he was that type of dude.

He was also the most prolific, sugar daddy number two was a boring fuck, he NEEDED money to get laid. His letters put me to sleep, uninspired and no passion, did he fuck by the numbers 1, 2, 3-1,2,3-1,2,3 I should have kept those letter and sold them as sleep aids.

Sugar daddy number three was a hard working union man that got tons of overtime, it took him a lot to get to those panties, oddly enough he seem to be her favorite ( he was local, the other two were not) they did a lot of stuff together.

Maybe he was laying the pipe right and paying the piper, stranger shit has happened. Remember Fredrick Douglas Damn this chick had the life!

This blog came to be because I had all of this knowledge rolling around in my head seeking a release! I needed to tell folks about life on the auction trail! Many interesting people and yes the rooms can talk!

When you are in the business you never tell what you really get out of those rooms, if people really knew the deal they would come out in droves! If you have the urge to get in the game check out the end of the post, there is a surprise for ya!

Wait! I am no longer an auction hound; if I were still in the game there is no way in hell that I would be telling you these secrets!

I spent the last seven years of my life being a junk man per my best brother Fred G Sanford by a good friend and a workaholic by my own admission. In short I am an entrepreneur that loves the challenge of starting and running a business.

I stumbled into this business completely by accident, I had a garage sale and it was over, I got hooked on selling used stuff and thus my introduction into the world of storage unit auctions.

I breathed and even dreamed about storage units ( yes it was that bad) in the course of doing this business I came across some new tricks that were beyond the regular and they enabled me to grow my income.

Once you become hooked on auctions it can become a very time consuming very quickly! Like any addiction there is a downside, my personal life went out of the window ( just found it in the last year) if I had it to do all over again know what I know now. I would not change a thing! There good was like a tidal wave on the north shore!

You can say the sun and moon came in perfect alignment for my latest venture, which is a lot of fun and it gives me time to do what love which is talk a lot of trash and I get to write about it! On the real, I always wanted to be a writer.

I have had this dream for a long time, however sometimes life gets in the way of dreams if you let it. So for the last eight years I have been either self employed or a business owner, yes, there is a difference!

Now that I am free I can share all of my techniques that I used to make it in the resale business. As I write this and look over the notes and old auction receipts, I recall just how much fun I had being in the storage auction business. There are so many stories; human nature is definitely stranger than fiction. Hop on you are in for a ride!

Regards,

Glendon Cameron

You can get my book on Amazon!!!!

A metal cutter slices through the sturdy padlock affixed to storage unit CC390 in the cold, dark basement of Harlem’s Tuck-It-Away self-storage facility.

An oversized Mickey Mouse plush toy is the only hint as to the contents of the newly revealed muddle of bags and boxes.

Auctioneer Dave Karmin starts the bidding at $10 as potential buyers train flashlights on the mysterious heap. It will all be sold because the person renting the locker stopped paying the monthly fee.

The rules are simple but strict, especially the restriction on rummaging through the contents before bidding begins. An auction winner must finish clearing out the contents of a locker within four business days.

“People show up thinking they might furnish their apartment, but they usually lose interest when they realize they have to take the lot,” Karmin said.

Lately, business has been brisk.

“The number of auctions we’re doing has gone up in recent months,” said Karmin, who organizes sales every couple of months at each of Tuck-It-Away’s 14 facilities citywide.

“We always try to work with the people who rent our units, but some say, ‘Have it,’ because they can’t afford it anymore. Others move on and we can’t get hold of them for payment.”

The boxes and bags in unit CC390 sold for $25 to one of just two bidders, both women, in a crowd of a dozen potential buyers. They chatted guardedly about making a full-time job of the treasure-hunting game at storage unit sales throughout the region.

“There’s a sale somewhere every week. I get e-mails from auctioneers or see ads in the newspaper. … It’s a cash business,” said one Bronx man who, like many buyers, didn’t want his name used. He wound up with the winning bid on the contents of several of 27 units for sale at about $100 each.

“You see the same guys all the time, but we keep a low profile because one guy got a gun pulled on him by the guy whose unit he bought,” the man said.

While there’s not a lot of glamour sorting through what often turns out to be old mattresses, bags of dirty clothes or piles of old magazines, buyers know what will sell.

“I have to dump a lot of garbage, but I’m looking for flat-screen TVs, DVDs, CDs, books, some vintage stuff. Electronics — if they work — and tools,” said a buyer from Queens. “This is how you support your family. I’ve gone to some really bad places and found good stuff.”

Others claim to have struck gold, literally.

“I’ve found gold jewelry and foreign and American coins, but I’ve also found a dead person’s ashes,” said a buyer who’s been working the scene for almost two decades.

“Lately it’s started getting tough because there’s more competition, so prices are getting higher,” he said. “I sell mostly at flea markets and second-hand stores, but eBay’s turned the world into a bunch of sellers.”

gsalamone@nydailynews.com

Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/06/22/2009-06-22_abandoned_storage_locker_contents_up_for_sale_what_can_you_get.html#ixzz0wz90Hp19

Storage Auction eBook-Making Money A-Z with Self Storage Unit Auctions

Original link- http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2009/06/22/2009-06-22_abandoned_storage_locker_contents_up_for_sale_what_can_you_get.html

Once you get some legs in this business, it can become complicated. Here in the A, there are a lot of enterprising (read pain in the ass) folks that came to the auctions, with a pocket full of cash and a penchant for bidding against me.

Over time you learn the Art of The Deal, essentially you know your competition and your competition knows you. Knows what you are going to bid on, knows how much you will bid, and if you had a habit of payback. Payback means you will bid on any unit your nemesis will bid on just to piss him off and make him spend more money.

In auction verbiage – Run them up, take him for a ride, tone up, and flatten those pockets

Being very obstinate and sensitive (hey guys get sensitive too), I was known for payback. Really it was just a tool to keep the wolves at bay. I called it building perspective in a space that it did not exist initially. It worked well for me, until a new person showed up and the process began anew.

After you beat up on each for a period of time, someone will extended the olive leaf or suggest you split units. The other option was to take turns, I get this one, and you get that one. In legal terms it is called “collusion” and it happens all of the time in the world. You would think this keeps the price down and everyone makes more money right?

Not even close to the truth!

Splitting units leads to higher prices because you have to buy more units! When you run your own business and do not partner, what you kill is what you keep. With a partnership, what you kill, you give up half and work harder! I noticed these trends the year I did the partnership thing. I highly suggest that you do not do this!

I broke all ties and did you get this one and I get that unit deal. This did keep the price down and worked out well on all sides. Other wise the chance of getting screwed is quite high and no, you will not be kissed first….

To learn more about making money with storage auctions buy ebook