A new phenomenon happened in December of 2010 — the show Storage Wars debuted. For the first time, the general public saw inside the real life business of purchasing delinquent storage lockers. Of course, these types of auctions have been going on for many years. I myself have been “in the game” long before the reality tv show caused such a stir. If you were previously unaware of storage locker auctions, though, the question you probably have asked is, “Is this really possible? Are there really treasures inside these lockers as show on tv?” The answer is YES!
In my heyday of purchasing these delinquent units I scored quite a few great lockers and made a huge amount of money on them! One of my best finds came in the early Fall of 2009. It was a great day to be out at the auctions, sun shining, temperature just right… the husband and I were in a cleaning mode in our garage and needed some shelving so this particular locker caught our eye as it was lined with nice metal shelving all the way around it’s 12′ x 15′ interior. Boxes were stacked neatly on the shelves and there was plenty of space to walk around, so this wasn’t one of those tightly packed lockers you often see. We counted up the shelves and determined they were worth about $400 to us and that was our limit on this locker. The bidding was at our max, and we were almost ready to start walking away when the auctioneer announced we were the winners at $400. We closed it up, threw our own lock on the door and went through the rest of the auctions at the facility. We came back later that day to clean out our unit (you usually have til the end of the day or next day depending on the facility). We had barely started when my husband, Steve, showed me a brand new sealed in the plastic Craftsman 160 piece tool set, retail value approx $150. We then found a heavy duty restaurant rolling shelf rack still in the box, retail value approx. $300. Our unit was paid for already! I found a stack of signed and numbered art prints from very well known and sought after artists such as Bev Doolittle and Howard Terpning. I sold one of the Terpnings on eBay for $500 and the rest of the art at a local auction house for a profit of almost $800. And we haven’t even gotten to the good stuff yet!
It turns out the woman who’s belongings were stored had worked for NASA from the late 1970′s through the late 1990′s. She was there for the start of the Space Shuttle program and must have had some sense that the items involved would be worth keeping as she had parking passes, observation field passes for landings and take offs and photographs of all the astronauts throughout the history of the program… many of them signed. I sold these for hundreds of dollars on eBay and came to the Holy Grail of all astronaut autographs in the last box I went through, Neil Armstrong. Long story short, that 1 photograph sold for over $2500.
So you are probably thinking, yeah that was before the popular tv series brought everyone out to buy these lockers and you just can’t get those treasures anymore… think again! A good friend of mine, Christopher Lesley, owner of the Funky Junk Brothers just last week purchased a locker for $150 and inside was a shoebox holding four solid sterling silver bread plates, 2 solid .999 silver coins weighting 1 oz each, 3 sterling silver napkin rings, 3 pieces of sterling silver jewelry, a 10 Karat Gold ring and over 1000 silver coins! As of the writing of this article he has already profited nearly $2,000 from a single shoe box.
The treasures are out there! But don’t take my word for it – here are the top five storage locker finds from 2011. And, of course you have to wonder how many online sellers kept their profit stories to themselves and didn’t even make the list.
Now that was the fun part. Join me later for part 2 of this series where I will tell you how Storage Wars gets it wrong!
About the Author
Danni Ackerman is the founder of The Danni App where she’s putting the fun back in eCommerce. She is also the author of Storage Lockers for Fun and Profit and organizer of the Las Vegas Online Sellers Meetup Group . Known as Udderly Good Stuff online, she’s been on eBay since 1998 and has grown up in the world of antiques and collectibles and reselling “stuff.” She regularly appears on radio, podcasts and is a speaker at eBay events and more. She is the mother of 4 including two youngsters she calls her shipping supervisors, and makes a lifestyle out of juggling business and family. Find her on Facebook as Danni Ackerman and twitter as Udderlygoodstuf .