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Went to an auction Saturday.
Not a car auction, but one at a local self storage facility. I don't know if any of you have seen the two new shows on TV, one is called Storage Wars, and I forget the other name. They both deal with the same subject, people who go to auctions at these storage places and buy the entire contents of units where the renter has defaulted on his storage fees, so the storage place auctions off the contents to get the unit cleaned out and to get some money for the stuff inside.
First off all, let me say I NEVER like profiting at another persons misfortune. I realize someone has lost their possessions here, but if I don't buy it someone else will, and at least I go through their stuff and leave things like pictures and personal items with the owners of the facility, who try to get these back to the renter. This is the 3rd time I have done this. The first time was when I bought the Camaro ex drag car for $ 400 and scored probably $ 4000 worth of drivetrain and name brand racing parts on the 350 Chevy in it. The next time I paid $ 50 and got an electric cement mixer (sold it for $ 60) and 3 chain saws (still have them and need to see if they run so I can sell them)
This week I bid $ 300 and got a unit that contained a lot of household goods, but the reason I bid was I saw one box on the shelf that said "Summit Racing" on it, so I thought there might be some goodies in there. (There wasn't, I guess he kept those parts :() I did score a lot of good stuff that I think I can sell on Ebay and CraigsList. The downside is that you only have a day or two to clean it out completely, so yesterday I hauled 3 loads in my car, and today I rented a U Haul truck and got the rest.
Here is how it works. The place runs ads in the paper (by law) and specifys the time and date of the auction. You show up, sign in, and at the appointed hour everybody who shows up goes from one unit to another and bids on the stuff. The crowd is a mix of dealers and regular folks. They open each unit, one at a time, and you have 5 minutes to look in the door to see if anything catches your eye. You can not enter, or touch any of the stuff, you just look in with your flashlight and then decide if you want to bid.
They close the door and start the bidding right there. If you win, they take your number and at the end you go in and pay them, plus a deposit of something like $ 20-$40 that you get back if you leave the unit clean. They sometimes have cars and boats, and this one did, but they were so bad no one bid. There was one gigantic motor home that went, but it was also a no bid due to being so terrible.
The lady of the house in the unit I bought was evidently a collector of stuff, because lots of stuff was still in boxes, brand new. I am sorting through that right now, and already filled up a dumpster with stuff that was just household garbage. But I did get a nice patio set, some bar stools, fishing equipment, and too much stuff to list. I already had my first customer. My Son Don and his GF Taylor came by the shop and bought a gas weedwacker, some fishing stuff, a cooler, and more. He paid me $ 50 that I didn't want, but he insisted. I'll figure some way to get it back to him.:)
If you have never done this, try it. It is interesting to do, and you never know when you might score something really profitable in one of the units. In places like California there are so many people who move out of State and simply abandon their units that you can find these sales all over the place. Florida is having that happen too.
Anyway, here are some of the items I scored. I don't know a darned thing about any of them, but wil research them before I put them on Ebay or Craigslist.
Don
