First Auction Unit!

I went alone to my first storage unit auction on Tuesday. It was somewhat intimidating, even with only 10-15 people there. The procedure you see on "Storage Wars" is pretty accurate (though for filming purposes they probably only air the good stuff found out of many, many units). Based on my research you will find lots of garbage, along with common household goods, and once in awhile a jackpot unit that pays off exponentially. 

The crowd walked inside upstairs to the first unit up for auction; a 5x5' with several hanged clothes and neatly stacked boxes visible. I made the mistake of not bringing a flashlight to briefly glance at the unit, though that was no problem as other people had them. The bidding opened at $25, which was a little more than expected. I've heard of similar type units starting at $1 and finishing at way less than $100. I think I was the 3rd or 4th bidder. I didn't hear any verbal bids from the other bidders, just hand raises. "$125, going once, going twice." I then raised my hand at the last second (I decided I really wanted this one). No other bids. I won my first unit! The crowd didn't look too excited. It was more like "that newbie just bid over $100 on that garbage."

It was actually $135 after everything ($125 + tax + 25 refundable cleaning deposit). Nevertheless, it was the type of unit I was looking for. I didn't plan on renting a cargo van, so my car would have to do. As long as the contents could fit in my car, with 2 or 3 round trips, with filled boxes, it's pretty much my ideal unit. I locked it up and had under 60 hours to completely clean it out. 

I was pretty excited and started going through some of the boxes (they were stacked a lot neater than above). Nothing really stood out, but not that much garbage either. A lot of personal effects as well as household items. 

I did find an NES (Nintendo) console along with seven games; if not good for resale value, it's worth the personal entertainment value alone. 

A breakdown of other stuff I've found so far: 

- lots of pictures in photo frames

- pots and pans, dining utensils, etc.

- IBM computer and many parts (keyboards, hard drives, cables, etc. some still sealed)

- Sony DVD player, PS2 controller and 16 games, DVD's, lots of CD's (original software. may be sellable)

- cookbooks, computer books

- lots of shoe shiner
- Brother sewing machine
- Craftsman toolbox w/ tools
- matchbooks, postcards, etc.

- clothes (at least one pair of pants with tags, leather jacket, lots more)

- jewelry box tucked away inside clothes! nothing special here, a few copper pennies and foreign coins, watches that I will probably sell/scrap for parts. hopefully some are made of silver/gold.

- sealed makeup and skincare products -- didn't think much of them at first, but they are going for decent prices online. I will probably break even on these alone.

Multiples of these! Found some Avon as well.

The worst thing about this unit was a bag of used clothes that smelled terrible! A room full of this scent could be a viable form of torture. Thankfully I haven't encountered many bad smells in my lifetime, but it's safe to say this is in the top 3 (one of those being the worst smelling person). Used underwear mixed in with other clothes containing beyond bad body odor. OK, enough about that. The good news is that that was the worst part. I didn't find any live/dead rats in the unit, insects, etc. As a matter of fact there was some sealed food that has yet to expire. 

So there you have it. I haven't looked through everything yet (there's like 15 filled boxes -- a good thing!), but I will update this if I find anything else worthy of sharing. Lots of common household items which I'd probably use and keep rather than selling and shipping. Optimistically there's a few hundred bucks worth of resellable items. Lots of stuff I currently don't need, but will be useful in the future (saving a few bucks!). I plan to break even before buying another unit. That way I can patiently wait to sell the remainder of the contents at decent prices.

Thanks to the show, finding something valuable such as bars of gold is almost expected, but the reality is it would be extremely unlikely. I would be happy finding a bunch of unused makeup, or even a unit full of Hunger Games merchandise. Hopefully this is the start of a successful journey.