I have a crazy story for you guys. It all started on a Monday right after a McDonald’s visit where they messed up my entire order. When I asked them to make it right the girl gave me an attitude like it was my fault that my sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit was made improperly. I had no idea that this was just the prelude to how my day was about to turn out.
The storage
auction started around
11AM and there were only a couple bidders out in a place that was normally had
at least 10-12 bidders on a regular basis. I was sure that my day was about to
turn around and there would be something in one of those units that was going
to change everything. We get through the first auction that I didn’t even bid
on because it was full of junk and the only thing of value that was worth
mentioning was one of those little electric scooters that looks like it had
seen better days. The back tire was flat and it looked like it was missing
pieces. I didn’t even know those little 2 inch tires could go flat. The unit
ended up selling for a little over 100 dollars. I was not fazed and turned my
attention to the next auction that was starting up. It seemed as if bidders
were gathering around like they had just found gold. I poked my head into the
tiny locker and saw that this locker was full of music studio equipment, brand
new in the boxes and looked unopened. I saw a microphone, stand, studio monitor
speakers, Mac laptop, and a box that looked like some kind of recording device.
I couldn’t believe it. Being a music producer for 12 years of my life and
knowing the costs of good studio equipment, I was sure that I could get at
least 1,000 for the Mac laptop, 100 for the microphone and 250 for the
speakers, and maybe like 20 bucks or something off of the Mic stand.
So the bidding starts off fairly low at 10
dollars. I figured everyone would know how much potential this unit had to
offer and at least start this unit off at 100 or more. The second bidder comes
in at 50 dollars and in my head I’m freaking out saying “there is no way these
people don’t know how much this stuff is worth”. The bidding continues and the
next bidder comes in at 100 dollars. I say now it’s my time to bid. I come in
at 150 and it gets kind of silent for a second before the same guy that bid 100
dollars says “500”. I was shocked that the same guy that just bid 100 dollars
comes back on a 150 dollar bid with 500? I knew then that this gentlemen knew
what those items were worth and was willing to pay to make them his. I knew
there was still plenty of profit to be made even if I bought the unit for a
1000 so I came right back with 600. The man gets silent for a second while the
auctioneer is saying “We have 600 going once”. The man is still silent until
the auctioneer comes back and says “600 going twice”. My heart was pounding,
hoping that man doesn’t bid again, until I hear his voice say “900”. My heart
dropped into my stomach because I knew we were getting into the top of my
budget and he looked like he could keep bidding if he wanted to. I confidently
came back with a 1000 dollar bid as if I didn’t have anything to lose. The
gentlemen stopped for a second and I could see him doing the math in his head
to try to figure out if it was worth it to bid again. He shook his head as if
he really wanted the unit but knew that if he went any higher that there might
not be much room for profit after resale of the items. The auctioneer says
“1000 going once, going twice, SOLD”. I couldn’t believe it. I won the unit! I
didn’t even wait to see the rest of the units for that day. I was ready to dig
into my merchandise and see the beautiful brand new studio equipment I had just
purchased.
I got to open the first box which is the Mac
laptop that looked unopened. I look at the box closer and see that the sticker
that usually closes the box was cut. When I saw that the box was cut, I
instantly had a loss of adrenaline and my heart dropped into my stomach. I go
to open the box and as I do I notice the weight of the box isn’t quite right and
what do you know, I open the box to discover the valuable contents that I
expected are not there and am shocked to see that in the box that I thought was
a Brand New Mac Book still in the box is nothing but a hard backed novel that
looked like it was at least 70 years old and in horrible condition. My instant
reaction was “Oh my god, that was my last 1,000 dollars” and “What am I going
to do?” I had a bad feeling that the next couple boxes I was about to open were
going to be the same thing and what do you know. Books! More old books. I was
thinking “who in the heck puts old books in brand new boxes of studio
equipment?” Needless to say I was enraged. I couldn’t believe I just spent my
last 1,000 dollars on books. I noticed that the books kind of looked like old
bibles and figured they were worth anything at all.
I went home that day with sore attitude thinking
about what I was going to do now for money since I spent my last thousand on
crap. I must of sat around for 3 or 4 days in self pity until I finally got up
off my butt and started driving around and remembered that I wanted to at least
get those books looked at by a professional before I threw them out. There
weren’t many places in town but I stopped at a local book shop that sold used
books and other misc. items that a library would usually sell. I talked to a
really nice old lady at the front desk that examined the books for me. She
looked at the books for about 10 seconds before it looked like she was about to
pass out. “Is there something wrong with them?” I asked. “Do you know what
these are” she asked. “They look like old bibles” I told her. “They are more
than old bibles, these are the Kupfer-Bibles” she said. “What’s that” I
replied. “These are worth more than any book we have in this store”. She said.
I was astonished and rushed home to get on Google
to find out exactly how much these books were worth. I typed in Kupfer-Bible
and would you believe the books that I was so enraged to be getting instead of
the music equipment which I knew would make me money were actually worth
$29,000 dollars and were one of the most rare and expensive books that money
can buy. I couldn’t believe it. I called the website owner to confirm that this
was the real thing and believe it or not those books sold for $28,500 dollars
at auction. Out of the unit I only expected to get about 500 bucks from, I
ended up making a profit of $27,500 dollars in one day of work at a storage
auction that was right down the street from my house. Just goes to show you
that not everything you expect is going to happen, sometimes there is something
bigger in store for you just waiting around for you in some unopened box. It
was a blessing in disguise and I will never forget that day.
Bidding on Storage Units
Bidding on Storage Units is a tricky task. There are so many ways that you can go about doing this but I will only name a few.
Starting out High
It’s tough to say which one will work the best in any given situation. If you start out high it’s possible that others will think the unit is more valuable then they originally thought and bid on top of what you bid. The bidding can get out of control sometimes using this method but there is always the chance that you could scare the other bidders away by coming out on the high end. If you are going to use the start out high method, I would suggest making sure that you seem confident and not like a fish in shark water. Do the research before you start bidding high, especially if you are new to the storage auction business.
Starting out low
Starting out low gives you the chance that the auction will take a slow gradual upswing. Some auctioneers will try to get you to bid at what they think the auction should start at but I wouldn’t necessarily go with their flow. They are in it for the money and the higher the unit sells for the more money they make. Start out at you own pace. If they say, “Who is going to start this one out at a 100”, don’t fall for it. Bid what you want to start at. There is no law that says you have to start with a certain bid. To be safe, try starting out the bidding with 1 dollar or something small. A lot of times other bidders will take the bid up faster but if it is going too fast for you just hold off on the bidding. Don’t get yourself stuck in a trap with a locker that you paid too much for and can’t get your money back from. The last thing you want is losing money on a unit because you are out of your element and don’t know what you are doing. Also bidding low will give you the chance to get a locker for a reasonable price and be able to make money off of the unit.
Storage Battles
