The lock is cut and the rollup door is lifted as more than a dozen potential buyers gaze inside with anticipation.
The thrill of storage auctions isn’t just for TV shows such as A&E’s “Storage Wars”: Richmond has its own group of regulars who make a living buying storage units and selling the contents.
“This is a good size crowd,” said Tom Kern, co-owner of AAAA Chamberlayne Storage, as he surveyed the group at an auction Tuesday.
One man, dressed in blue, has a gold ring on every finger. Another sports an orange UVA cap and a gray mustache. All in all, more than a dozen people sign up to bid on the storage units being put up for auction.
Chamberlayne Storage is just one of the dozens of storage facilities in the Richmond area where units are put up for auction when a renter stops making payments.
The storage auction lifestyle has spawned at least two cable television shows that play up the drama among bidders and the risks and rewards of bidding on mystery contents.
Bidders are not allowed to examine the inside of the unit — they can only peer in. Some carry flashlights to get a better look.
“We do one [auction] about every two months,” Kern said. “Typically we get 50 percent of what is owned on the lease at an auction on average.”
The most popular size unit rents for $99 a month, and Kern said they give renters 60 days notice before sending the contents to auction.
Kern said they try to settle with the renter before putting the goods on the block.
“Oftentimes, [settling with the renter] is at a loss for us, but it is more than we would yield at an auction,” Kern said.
Before this week’s auction, Kern settled with two renters.
But on auction day, the big winners usually aren’t the storage facility owners — they’re the bidders.
Kern said most treat auction hunting as a real business.
“They make the circuit. They know the schedule. They know exactly that we are the last Tuesday of the month,” Kern said.
At Tuesday’s auction, Chamberlayne Storage had four units up for bid.
The first was a huge letdown. Nothing was inside except a small plastic racecar that had been left behind.
The second unit was full. There was a washer or dryer, a VCR, some lawn chairs and a bucket of floor finish immediately visible, with more stuff hiding in the back.
After some back and forth action, the unit went for $250.
The next unit was another dud: a small pile of clothes that someone picked up for $5.
The final locker drew the highest bid, $450. A TV, a bicycle, a stereo, a birdcage and another VCR stood out among the stacks of moving boxes.
John Cochran was one of the auction hunters who went home empty-handed.
“The prices were way too high,” Cochran said. “You lose too much profit.”
Cochran said he has been buying lockers for about a year and called it his job. Cochran installed sheet metal roofing and decided to get into the auction business after hearing some of his co-workers talk about it.
Cochran said he goes to about four auctions a week, and he has a system.
“I look for mostly updated stuff that isn’t broken. The VCR was not a good sign. If I had seen DVDs in there, I would be all over it,” Cochran said.
Cochran sells the furniture on Craigslist, knick-knacks at a local flea market and most of the more valuable items on eBay.
Unlike some buyers, Cochran said he doesn’t bank on items he can’t see. But that is usually where some of the best money is.
Cochran said he recently paid $60 for a locker that held $600 worth of jewelry. It also contained some paintings by high-end artists that he said he might have to sell in New York.
He said the most valuable item he found in a locker was a 14-karat gold Geneva quartz watch worth $4,000 new.
Cochran said it is getting more expensive to buy units, because the TV shows are inspiring people.
The newbies are quick to bid up the price for units, he said.
Shelon Douglas said she has seen many inexperienced bidders get burned.
“They want to bid up the price, it’s okay,” she said. “Let them buy stuff and see how hard it is. We have seen a lot of people come and go.”
The lock is cut and the rollup door is lifted as more than a dozen potential buyers gaze inside with anticipation.
The thrill of storage auctions isn’t just for TV shows such as A&E’s “Storage Wars”: Richmond has its own group of regulars who make a living buying storage units and selling the contents.
“This is a good size crowd,” said Tom Kern, co-owner of AAAA Chamberlayne Storage, as he surveyed the group at an auction Tuesday.
One man, dressed in blue, has a gold ring on every finger. Another sports an orange UVA cap and a gray mustache. All in all, more than a dozen people sign up to bid on the storage units being put up for auction.
Chamberlayne Storage is just one of the dozens of storage facilities in the Richmond area where units are put up for auction when a renter stops making payments.
The storage auction lifestyle has spawned at least two cable television shows that play up the drama among bidders and the risks and rewards of bidding on mystery contents.
Bidders are not allowed to examine the inside of the unit — they can only peer in. Some carry flashlights to get a better look.
“We do one [auction] about every two months,” Kern said. “Typically we get 50 percent of what is owned on the lease at an auction on average.”
The most popular size unit rents for $99 a month, and Kern said they give renters 60 days notice before sending the contents to auction.
Kern said they try to settle with the renter before putting the goods on the block.
“Oftentimes, [settling with the renter] is at a loss for us, but it is more than we would yield at an auction,” Kern said.
Before this week’s auction, Kern settled with two renters.
But on auction day, the big winners usually aren’t the storage facility owners — they’re the bidders.
Kern said most treat auction hunting as a real business.
“They make the circuit. They know the schedule. They know exactly that we are the last Tuesday of the month,” Kern said.
At Tuesday’s auction, Chamberlayne Storage had four units up for bid.
The first was a huge letdown. Nothing was inside except a small plastic racecar that had been left behind.
The second unit was full. There was a washer or dryer, a VCR, some lawn chairs and a bucket of floor finish immediately visible, with more stuff hiding in the back.
After some back and forth action, the unit went for $250.
The next unit was another dud: a small pile of clothes that someone picked up for $5.
The final locker drew the highest bid, $450. A TV, a bicycle, a stereo, a birdcage and another VCR stood out among the stacks of moving boxes.
John Cochran was one of the auction hunters who went home empty-handed.
“The prices were way too high,” Cochran said. “You lose too much profit.”
Cochran said he has been buying lockers for about a year and called it his job. Cochran installed sheet metal roofing and decided to get into the auction business after hearing some of his co-workers talk about it.
Cochran said he goes to about four auctions a week, and he has a system.
“I look for mostly updated stuff that isn’t broken. The VCR was not a good sign. If I had seen DVDs in there, I would be all over it,” Cochran said.
Cochran sells the furniture on Craigslist, knick-knacks at a local flea market and most of the more valuable items on eBay.
Unlike some buyers, Cochran said he doesn’t bank on items he can’t see. But that is usually where some of the best money is.
Cochran said he recently paid $60 for a locker that held $600 worth of jewelry. It also contained some paintings by high-end artists that he said he might have to sell in New York.
He said the most valuable item he found in a locker was a 14-karat gold Geneva quartz watch worth $4,000 new.
Cochran said it is getting more expensive to buy units, because the TV shows are inspiring people.
The newbies are quick to bid up the price for units, he said.
Shelon Douglas said she has seen many inexperienced bidders get burned.
“They want to bid up the price, it’s okay,” she said. “Let them buy stuff and see how hard it is. We have seen a lot of people come and go.”
Nice writeup. It definitely paints a picture of a real storage auction, not the Storage Wars depiction of super-high bids and wins. We’ve just created a new storage auction search here:
http://www.sparefoot.com/auctions
It helps consumers (especially the new ones who don’t know the schedules) find auctions in their area.
how do i get a list of storage auctions in new england