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The other night while fliiping through channels, I came across the show on A&E called Storage Wars. Couple of things went through my mind:
Why would you have a storage unit in the first place for any length of time? I had one for three months once when I was between apartments but the people on here likely have had these for quite a long time to have them be that far behind on payments so as to be auctioned off.
Why wouldn't you get your crap out? I mean some of the stuff on this particular episode was worth ALOT of money - plenty to pay off the storage fees and then some! I bet some of them probably involve people that have passed away and the storage unit isn't known about but still...
I cannot imagine sitting on my couch flipping through the channels only to see MY stuff on the TV! How weird that must be...
Post by NomoreDramaQ1015 on Jun 30, 2011 9:05:12 GMT -5
I think people forget what is in there over time. DId you see the episode with the hoarder's units? There were six units all owned by the same person filled to the top with bags and bags of junk.
DH keeps saying he wants to do storage bidding but I told him you don't see all the times they lose a shitload of money, that wouldn't make good TV would it? You probably have to be on the road a lot in order to ever make a profit at it.
I would say a lot of the owners are either deceased or incapacitated. I'm pretty sure my mom doesn't have any storage units, but if she died suddenly or became ill I'd have no idea whether she did, or where they were...
I do know a few people who lost their homes and have stuff in storage 2-3 years later. And my uncle is a bit of a hoarder and has a few storage units filled with his collectibles. Once every year or two he sells off a few boxes and that pays his fees for a while.
Still, it doesn't make sense to me to keep things in storage long-term... but I'm an out-of-sight, out-of-mind kind of person so if I were OK with keeping something in a storage unit for months on end, I'd rather just sell it.
We've had stuff in storage for about 2 years now, appliances that won't work in Europe and a few other pieces of furniture. Now I am wishing we had sold it, but we should be able to recoup some of the costs if the washer, dryer, and chest freezer no longer work. The army is paying for the storage, but DH and I agreed if we ever come back to Europe we will sell those types of things instead of storing them.
I agree that it's mostly downsizing and not wanting to part with things. I also wonder if some of it is hiding purchases from a spouse- I remember one unit with a massive collectible Barbie doll hoard, still in their original boxes. They seem to run into weapons a lot, too- maybe because people don't want to have a cache of dangerous weapons around small children, or they don't have a permit.
I also look at the units where they find a pile of gold jewelry and think that would be fun, but I understand that wading through piles and piles of crap and having to clear out the storage unit in X hours after you open it would be a lot of work after awhile.
The pros are probably really unhappy that newbies are showing up and bidding up prices without knowing what they're doing.
Last Edit: Jun 30, 2011 9:48:49 GMT -5 by Deleted - Back to Top
...:::"I told him you don't see all the times they lose a shitload of money, that wouldn't make good TV would it?":::...
I agree completely -- people get into this thinking they can make huge scores like the pros on the show. But you have absolutely no assurance that you aren't going to spend $1,500 for boxes of old magazines and out of fashion clothes.
I've got a really sad story on this topic. When I divorced, my Ex took just about everything material except for DS' and my clothes and a few pieces of furniture. He'd brought most of the furniture into the marriage and I didn't fight him on it- it wasn't as important to me as getting out with a fair share of the equity in the house, custody of DS and all of the investments in my name.
My Ex stayed in the cheap motel he'd been living in and had the moving company put just about everything in storage. That included his mother's sterling silver, TWO sets of fine china (Rosenthal and Royal Doulton, I think), an audio system that cost $6,000 in 1983 and a large set of very good deep-sea fishing trolling rods. I'm sure he had delusions that he was going to buy a splendid condo someplace and get it all back, but he never got a job and eventually ran through the $100K he took out of the divorce. His sister asked me a few years later about the sterling and the china and I realized he'd probably quit paying the storage fees and everything would have been gone by then. The mover was a local company and I suspect they kept the boxes in their own warehouse and knew which boxes had the good stuff.
I felt so bad telling his sister what had probably happened. I did give her the name of the moving company. Even though my Ex eventually drank himself to death, I still feel bad about the choices he made and what he lost- the relationships more than the material things.
I talked to a gal at a mom and pop storage unit the other day and either the state law regarding abandoned property doesn't work the same here, or auctioning off the contents of a storage locker just isn't cost-effective for her. She seemed to be saying that it was far more profitable to offer a delinquent renter a discounted settlement and have them clean out their lockers PDQ. She's pretty much at full capacity now and most of her units rent for $70 a month. She might take a different tactic if she had empty units or a different trash-hauling contract.
Post by Wisconsin Beth on Jun 30, 2011 10:28:21 GMT -5
I 'inherited' my grandma's silver plated tea set because when my Dad was helping her downsize, she said get rid of it and he knew I had a fondness for tea. She's actually my Mom's stepmother and I did let her biodaughter (whom I think of as an aunt) know that I have it and if she wants it, she only has to ask.
Technically, DH and I have a storage 'unit' but it's really just a slab to park the pop-top camper on. We'll be putting the camper in our backyard for good in a couple of days though. It's like $25 a month and we did it because it was too hard to haul the kids around the trailer into the garage twice a day. Now they're old enough that we're going to try storing it at home. I may try to talk DH into selling it next year. He's got a buyer's remorse...
Post by Clever Username on Jun 30, 2011 11:34:04 GMT -5
I spent one evening watching back to back episodes of this. It was a fun show. But I thought it did a good job of portraying this business as a RISK. Some of the dealers ran 2nd hand shops. Some of the dealers were jackwads who were just as happy to cause other dealers losses as to net gains themselves.
Post by 8 Bit WWBG on Jun 30, 2011 12:02:43 GMT -5
I also know someone personally who did pretty well. I forget whether she got to see into the unit or not, but she knew someone who worked there who was at least able to say "its not old magazines and maternity clothes". She ended up getting an LCD HDTV and a tempur-pedic out of that unit, among other things.
But these shows, though talking about the risk, make it look FAR easier than it is. It takes a lot of time to get the experience necessary to sort out crap from profitable items.
You know...I watched two episodes of it and didn't really get the risk side of the equation quite so much as some other folks did. I certainly know there is risk involved but I don't think that was portrayed quite as much as it could have been. Then again, on the episode I watched all of them made money except for one guy who lost like $300. So for someone that is new to the idea of "flipping" (which this essentially is), they see it as oh wow that person made THAT much? I'm going to try it and then they'll get peeved when they lose their pants.
But I also watched from the perspective of already knowing the risk involved so maybe that's why I didn't see it as much.
You know...I watched two episodes of it and didn't really get the risk side of the equation quite so much as some other folks did. I certainly know there is risk involved but I don't think that was portrayed quite as much as it could have been.
I agree with you. They never tell you exactly how many times a dealer buys units that are losses or breakevens before they hit the ones with the gold jewelry and the painting with $100 bills hidden in the frame. While they have shown them bringing in multiple helpers to spread out all the contents and sort out the treasures, the second-hand store stuff and the pure trash, they don't talk about how you get rid of the trash and what it costs to haul it away and find a place to dispose of it. Then there are the experts who evaluate the good stuff. You need to know who they are, get the stuff there, and sometimes the answer is "no, it's a fake".
Post by gobermitcheese on Jul 2, 2011 15:06:28 GMT -5
Did anyone else notice that when they show the dollar amount of items they ALWAYS use the high end of the valuation so unless they actually sold the item the amount recieved could actually be about half of what they show on TV.
Some parts of the country don't have basements in their houses. Plus people hate to throw things away. They seem to value their crap higher than what it really is.
I love watching Storage Wars. There is also a similar show called Auction Hunters. Auction Hunters is about a 2 man team that also buys from storage units. One of the auction hunters has often said that they make about 80% of their profits from 20% of their units. The Storage Wars people are probably running about the same - they just don't focus on the negative so much.
Once they(Auction Hunters) had a special that showed some of their worst buys - like units that were infested with vermin.