Like a pack of ravenous seagulls at the beach, self storage owners and operators across the country are noticing larger flocks of people swarming to auctions with a taste for converting boxed treasures into cold hard cash.
Thanks to two new cable TV shows – Spike TV’s Auction Hunters and A&E’s Storage Wars – ranks of novice fortune hunters are showing up in greater numbers at self storage auctions throughout the country after finding advertisements or public notices in the newspapers. Some websites are even popping up where people can search for local auctions. California Storage Auctions and News provides dates, times, locations and phone numbers of about 800 self storage companies holding lien sales across the state each month.
And a popular new book, Making Money A-Z With Self Storage Unit Auctions by Glendon Cameron is also feeding the bidding flames. The book, released last October, features heaps of $100 dollar bills on the cover. And that’s, of course, the lure. Converting discovered Picasso paintings, an Abraham Lincoln letter and shoes worn by Marilyn Monroe into cash by selling them on sites like EBay and Craigslist is what bidders have been seeing on TV and hoping to replicate. But along with jewels comes junk, and some bidders are shown on TV getting burned having paid high dollars for a storage unit filled with old blankets, used clothing and broken appliances. That doesn’t stop people from coming in larger and larger numbers. Bidding on storage units has become like the lure of lottery tickets.
Bidder James Richter who recently attended an All Storage auction in Watauga, Texas, had a chance to peek inside a storage unit whose door was rolled up for assessing glances before bidding began. And with higher attendees come higher bids. But even with more competitive bidding, droves of people are flocking to the cash-only sales.
“Everybody is looking for that million-dollar baseball card,” Richter said.
Where an auction might have attracted a dozen bidders in the past, now those numbers have grown exponentially. At a recent U-Store-It –Auction in Texas, 60 to 75 bidders showed up. What could be behind that worn-looking sofa?, some wondered recently as the storage door opened up and people craned their necks and searched with flashlights during their short peek inside a dark storage unit.
A recent storage unit auction in Ohio attracted more than a hundred bidders, with local news outlets referring to the increased interest in storage auctions as a “phenomenon” due to the success of the TV shows.
During the pre-bidding process, auctioneers break locks and raise up the steel door of a unit to reveal the bounty inside. Bidders cannot enter the unit and must access only what they can see standing a few feet from the outside with anxious eyes and cash on hand.
Statistics show nearly one in 10 households in the U.S. rent self storage units. According to the Self Storage Association based in Washington, self storage is a $22 billion industry with about 50,000 facilities across the nation.
“We are not in the business of selling people’s stuff; we are in the business of storing people’s stuff,” said Michael Riva, board chairman of the national association. “But the TV shows have made this something sexy.”
At a recent Ohio auction, Art Smith said he makes a living buying and selling items from storage auctions and resents all the novices that are beginning to crowd in and try their luck.
“This is a way of life for some of us,” Smith said. “And we have been doing it long before those TV shows came along.”
Sources Used:
Casstevens, David. “Bidders Look For Hidden Riches in D-FW Self-Storage Units.” Star-Telegram. Jan. 22, 2011.
Wagner, Mike. “What Treasures Lie in Storage?” The Columbus Dispatch. Jan. 23, 2011.