Is Storage Wars really a thing?

[Yong Fang]

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EHDJUKo2m7U

This is an episode of Hoarders on Youtube. The First Lady has sixteen storage lockers of crap, which brings up my question.

I have not seen this show in a long time but it’s about people who bid on storage lockers, which have been abandoned for non payment by the people who left their stuff there. Maybe it’s called “Storage Wars”. On the show there are different characters who actively dislike each other and outbid each other more out of spite than anything. Supposedly, and I don’t know but people travel far and wide to go to these auctions.

However, the caveat is that the storage locker is a mystery to the bidder. So the people are basically bidding blind for access to the locker. The locker might have a lot of valuables, or it could be literal trash and dust. It’s basically gambling.

Is this really a thing? Are there blind auctions at these storage places? Why would anyone participate in this? To me again, it is a gamble, and people like gambling. Does this really pay the storage company more by having these auctions than to just open the locker, pick out the valuables themselves and then clean them out? I personally think these auctions are moronic.

Is this really a thing as is this show still on?

[Greenbeans]

Originally Posted by Yong Fang

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EHDJUKo2m7U

This is an episode of Hoarders on Youtube. The First Lady has sixteen storage lockers of crap, which brings up my question.

I have not seen this show in a long time but it’s about people who bid on storage lockers, which have been abandoned for non payment by the people who left their stuff there. Maybe it’s called “Storage Wars”. On the show there are different characters who actively dislike each other and outbid each other more out of spite than anything. Supposedly, and I don’t know but people travel far and wide to go to these auctions.

However, the caveat is that the storage locker is a mystery to the bidder. So the people are basically bidding blind for access to the locker. The locker might have a lot of valuables, or it could be literal trash and dust. It’s basically gambling.

Is this really a thing? Are there blind auctions at these storage places? Why would anyone participate in this? To me again, it is a gamble, and people like gambling. Does this really pay the storage company more by having these auctions than to just open the locker, pick out the valuables themselves and then clean them out? I personally think these auctions are moronic.

Is this really a thing as is this show still on?

It's a thing. I go occasionally for my business. You end up with a lot more misses than hits. Also, you have to take everything in the locker by the end of the day or you can't come back to bid. For all the stuff you can't sell, you have to make regular trips to the dump.

The storage locker business and the buying/selling stuff in the lockers are 2 completely different businesses. They don't overlap. Most storage locker owner's don't know what is valuable. Then, even if they figure it out, they have to move it, store it somewhere, pay movers to take the rest of the stuff to the dump. Hold onto the valuable stuff until it sells (and it can take awhile). The 2 businesses just don't overlap.

Where I go, there aren't blind auctions. You can look from the outside to get some idea what is on the inside. You have to know what you are looking for and what you are doing because you only get a few minutes to look inside and you are trying to look over other bidders.

I NEVER bid against people because I don't like them. It's totally business. For instance, I sell a lot of books. If I look inside the locker and see quality books I can sell, I'll bid up to where I know I can make a good profit. I'd never overbid because I didn't want someone else to win out of spite.

You also have to be really physically fit because it is a LOT of lifting.

[GentlemanJim]

Originally Posted by Yong Fang

Is this really a thing? Are there blind auctions at these storage places? Why would anyone participate in this? To me again, it is a gamble, and people like gambling. Does this really pay the storage company more by having these auctions than to just open the locker, pick out the valuables themselves and then clean them out? I personally think these auctions are moronic.

There are jurisdictions where it is illegal for a landlord to take possession of a delinquent tenant's belongings.

Throwing the belongings in a dumpster, or having a third party haul them away are usually acceptable outcomes. But (just as an example) the landlord picking through the belongings and taking the high value items for his personal use, is often strictly forbidden.

[GentlemanJim]

The thing that often gets me about the "storage industry" is how it actually pays off for the people storing things there. (long term storage)

The smallest unit I could find was $30/month.....so, it's going to cost you $360 per year to store "whatever".
Meaning, the value of whatever you have stored in there, is going to decrease by $360 per year, over the duration.
Never made a lot of sense to me.

[stevea]

Seems odd to me that a person who has many valuables would go delinquent on payment for storage. One plausible explanation is a death with the heir or heirs having no knowledge of the locker. Seems the executor would get a bill though.

[GentlemanJim]

I think in many cases, people bring items to these storage facilities because they have no where else to put it. (divorce, eviction, imprisonment, stuff like that) with no real long term strategy, in mind.

After some time paying the storage fees, reality starts to kick in, they go to the facility and remove any of the truly high value contents, and essentially abandon everything else that they leave behind.

I've "taken in" friends who lost their job, for instance, but had no interest in forfeiting my garage to store their furniture. So, they put what did not conveniently travel along with them, into storage

Thereafter, if they should happen to fall a couple months in arrears on the storage bill, going back to retrieve any belongings, necessarily includes an unpleasant encounter with the landlord. So they just give up and forget it