Sunday, June 17, 2012

Storage Wars with the Locals... Yup!

We enjoy A&E's Storage Wars so when I noticed a listing for a storage locker
auction nearby yesterday morning, we ventured over to see what we could see!
Several readers and Facebook friends have asked me how I find these auctions we
attend. Newspaper? No. Fliers? No. It's AuctionZip.com! Each week, I pop onto
auctionzip.com to check out the auctions according to distance from our zip code
or, if I'm looking for specific items, I search by keyword. Either way, the coolest
thing about auctionzip.com is that you can preview items through the photo
galleries attached to each listing. This helps me target the sales worthy of
our time and keeps us out of sales that might otherwise be a total bust!
Having said that, there's no way to know whether or not a storage auction will
be worth our time since the contents are unknown to all until the doors roll up!
In this case, there wasn't another worthwhile auction, and this one was less
than five minutes from the house... So we landed here! There were 12 lockers
scheduled for auction; however, since they didn't have a lock cutter, only ten
units came up for sale. Just like in the show, you bid only on what you can see
and believe you might find based upon the condition of those items and the way
the balance of the locker is packed. Squishy garbage bags full of clothes or body
parts... You won't know unless you're the highest bidder! Sounds like fun, huh?
And, for the most part it was! Of all the lockers, this one had the most in it
and was picked up for $190 by two guys in their early twenties who told
me they do this for a living. We chatted a little about the dining set since
it looks identical to the one I have, except for that it hasn't been painted!
It was interesting to see what things people abandoned and to think
about why. I'm not sure we'll check out any more storage auctions
though. They seem better suited to those with shops and people
with the patience and stomach will to dig through what mostly
looked like other people's garbage. I wear surgical gloves when
I cook, which pretty much means this is NOT for me. Even if...
The spiders and fleas are free!

2 comments:

  1. That sounds like a lot of fun! I love a good auction. I also had that dining set and gave it to my daughter when she married 9 years ago. It was purchased in 1985. I opted for a true solid wood table. Yours is beautiful painted white.

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  2. I hope everything is okay......I'm missing your updates!

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