Storage Auction Road Map

Cleaning Brass and Other Metals

2011-11-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

In a household bursting at the seams with everything under the sun, I expected to find Brasso. Seems like there's always a can of Brasso tucked away somewhere in every house, garage or workshop. I was a bit bothered when I couldn't find any, so I pulled out every substitute I could find. And I decided to try them all. I had always thought that only Brasso could clean brass, and it seems like I'd tried other things in the past. But today is a new day, so I started with the two products
that had failed me when I was trying to clean up a pair of bronze lanterns.

I started working on a small brass dish that needed a touch of TLC.

First came the Heavy Metal Polish stashed in the garage, which had a money back guarantee printed on the front of the bottle. It says it cleans brass, but I'm betting it's really made for mag wheels, that kind of thing. So I started working on the outside of the dish, in case I didn't like the outcome. Not to worry:

The oily sheen it left behind was the only visible difference I could see.

Then I tried the Never Dull
which tried to shine the metal without cleaning it first.
(See the shiny area on the left.)

That was interesting. The cotton wading quickly picked up the black stain from the tarnish and began to spread it around. It buffed out nice, but left dark tarnish behind in the etchings. This could be okay for a final polishing, or buffing up a piece that was already pretty clean. I do like being able to see the details, and I like a deep shine. It did both of those things, but it took an awful lot of rubbing and buffing.

In the end it wasn't quite what I was hoping for.

Next came Mr. Metal, which also claimed to clean and polish brass. The Mr. Metal left a blotchy, stained appearance behind, even over the small shiny area left behind by the Never Dull. When I was done it looked like someone tried to clean it with the wrong stuff and gave up. (Which was exactly what had happened!)

Not at all the look I was after.

Finally, the Tarn-X. Now Tarn-X has been around about as long as I have, so it has a track record to fall back on. And I'm sure it's one of the very best at cleaning silver and silver plate. I had always thought it was only for silver, but I was assured I was misinformed. So I tried it. I saved it for last because I thought it would be the best of the bunch, and therefore the one I would use to finish up the job. Well, it didn't produce the results I'd expected, but at least it looked cleaner.

The Tarn-X actually cleaned the metal

and made it look duller at the same time.

In the end, the clean, shiny spot on the brass dish
is the mark left behind by the Never Dull.

So I put Brasso on my shopping list!

Several days later I sat down with my brand new bottle of Brasso, which, by the way, no longer comes in a little blue and white can. It's a yellow plastic bottle, and I found it with the copper and stainless cleaners in the detergent isle of my local grocery store. I put just a little of the cleaning solvent on a plain paper towel and wiped it over half of the brass dish. The dirty half. In only a few minutes the paper towel was blackened and the dish was looking pretty clean. I used a clean spot on the paper towel to wipe off the rest of the tarnish and clean the dish.

The whole production took less than 5 minutes

and the only mess was a dirty paper towel!

I was so happy with the speed and ease (hardly any rubbing and no buffing) that I immediately turned the dish over and cleaned half of the outside, too. Yipee!

The hands down winner.

Live Public Auctions

2011-11-09T18:28:00.000-08:00

For some reason, I think of laundry when I think of live auctions. It must be my Mom's fault somehow. She loved the Saturday auctions, and once bought a gas dryer for $5. She used that dryer for the next 20 or 25 years. What a bargain! And bargains like that are still out there, if you happen to be sitting in the right place at the right time. (In good conscious I have to take this moment to tell anyone considering bidding that auction houses rely on this belief to keep their doors open.)

Public Auctions are great places to get a few bucks out of something you might otherwise have to pay to store or dispose of. And fun places to buy something really cool that you weren't planning on buying, and

probably didn't need either.

I sure didn't need this fountain for my back yard.

But I really wanted it!

The same can be said of Estate Auctions and Distress Sales. You just never know what you'll find there. But it pays to remember that the regular dealers and merchants know exactly what they want and how much to bid for it. And at the end of the day the auctioneer and the auction house may be the only people really making any money.

I highly recommend a Saturday morning at the auction if you happen to find yourself in Vegas with nothing much to do, especially if you just love to buy stuff. (Yep, we love to buy stuff, too.)

This life-size plush pony

was almost too sweet to resist.

If you happen to be in the market for a good price on quality pre-owned furniture, including paintings and light fixtures, this is definately the place to be. Most of what we saw looked to be in excellent or even new condition. Many display models and showroom pieces, therefore top of the line and barely used. I was very covetous of a couple of bedroom sets I saw, and for the most part it was selling really cheap.

This sleigh bed featured diamond tuck black leather.

The table Larry bought.

The table lots can hold a variety of surprises and may be the most fun to buy. You are allowed to look through everything, but you really never know what you're getting until you get it home. We found some nice pieces of sterling silver jewelry and a strand of real pearls in the table lot Larry bought.

With regard to every single item in the building, however, one should always remember that the motto at any auction is

Let The Buyer Beware.

For example, this wonderful pair of 1940's beaded wedding boots was identified as being from a Plateau Indian tribe. Larry really wanted it, and I really enjoyed buying it for him. The shadow box is fantastic, built by a true craftsman. It's the most beautifully grained wood I have ever seen. And the condition of the boots themselves is unbelievable. The beadwork is in like new condition, and the colors are fantastic. (I only wish we had a place in our house to display them.)

I'm not saying we were intentionally mis-led or anything. We love the boots, and we paid a fair price. But I have shown the piece to a number of experts, and at least a couple of them were of the opinion that they are Cree boots, possibly from the Cree/Chippewa Nation in Montana. That would make them the work of Great Plains Indians. So it's important that you know what you're bidding on.

We didn't resist these 1940's beaded boots.

If you're interested in going, check out their web-site for the weekly inventory. They specialize in lots and bulk groupings, making them a great place to unload the two boxes of mis-matched stemware you found in that last storage unit, or the 13 boxes of pen-lights you've been stuck with since last fall. They take the biggest bite from the sellers, but bidders do have to put up a deposit in order to get a number, and there is a buyers' premium to be paid as well. The doors open weekly at 8 am for previewing, and the bidding starts at 10 am. They close the doors when there's nothing left to sell, and not one minute sooner. Have fun!

(To see more photos or buy these beaded boots

click the link to our eBay Store.)

How to Sell Your Stuff

2011-10-09T14:25:00.000-07:00

Before we ever went to our first auction we began exploring the whole re-sale issue. Because I had already figured out that selling our stuff would be at least twice as hard as finding and buying it. (Yep, figured that out all by myself!) We are by nature cautious, planning-ahead kind of people. Either that or super lazy, pessimistic, don't want to get out there and try and fail kind of people. Whichever. Either way, we knew we had to learn the ropes of selling before we started buying. And since we are the proud descendants of pack rats, this was not a problem.

1. Yard Sales. Being both curious and lazy, when I want to find the best way to do something, I usually ask as many people as possible how they do it. Especially the people who seem to be doing it right. (Translate that to mean they are actually making money at it.) So during our first few storage

auctions I asked more than a dozen people how they sell the stuff they buy. (Using almost that exact sentence.) All of the people that we asked that question gave us the same answer. Not a single one of them stopped to think it over first. Yard sales.

So we bit the proverbial bullet and devoted our energies into putting together a yard sale. We didn't have a clue where to start. What kinds of things are people looking for? What are they expecting to pay? How do we decide on prices? How do we place an ad? And besides all that, how in the world do we come up with the space in our garage? I have addressed most of the issues I encountered on the PROJECT page. For an inside look at what it really takes to plan, prepare, host, and survive a yard sale, read the FEATURED PROJECT titled, "Hosting a Yard Sale".

2. A Boutique or Second-Hand Store. We had thought that we would need a storefront, which means a lease. Rent and utilities are the problem right now. Doubling them doesn't seem like a good solution. And don’t forget licensing. It costs a minimum of $125.00 in business entity filings, just to exist as a business here in Nevada. That's if you never earn or spend a single dime. When a business entity is brand new and has no financial record of its own, credit checks are run against the owner(s) instead. We quickly discovered that the hits we have taken recently to our credit rating would make it impossible to get into a commercial property. I thought that was it for us. Failure from the get-go, as my Dad likes to say. So I was more than pleasantly surprised when only one of the people we met actually owned and operated a second-hand store.

3. Internet Sales. When we first got into this whole auction thing I had suspected that we would have to do a lot of business on-line; e-commerce, eBay, Internet sales, drop-shippers, a web-site. But none of the people we have talked to claim to make a lot of money on eBay or on their websites. Some list on craigslist or Amazon, mostly because it is free. Many of the bidders we have met don't even have a web-site. A few of them don't even use computers (much).

In view of the literally hundreds of people out there trying to sell their secrets for Internet wealth, I was surprised by this. The truth is that we have all see then the "dot-com" billionaires rise from meager beginnings with nothing but good ideas and youth in their arsenals, so we do know it can be done. And we are bombarded from all sides with books, programs, guides and even on-line training so we can join the ranks of the wealthy people working only a few hours a day/week/month or whatever. I personally don't think jumping on board with someone else's get rich quick idea is the way to make it happen, for all of the obvious reasons. Apparently, no one we've met seems to have had any success doing that either.

But since we were totally clueless, we paid our dues and listened to the propaganda until I could stand no more, watched as much video as it took to figure out they weren't going to tell us anything except how much money we could make if we just shelled out another $39.00, $59.00, $100.00, etc. But since Larry is always willing to put his money on the line for me, I actually cracked some of the books and tried to follow their suggestions. The various materials I scanned or reviewed all shared a central theme for how to get started, though of course each of them wanted us to purchase their products or memberships.

4. On-line Auctions. First step, open an eBay account, and a PayPal account, and sell something. Anything. Pick any item you think someone else might want, and list it. (But not something you think might be valuable. Save those things for later. You'll figure out why; trust me on this.) We hemmed and hawed and finally decided on an item and listed it. And guess what? They were right. There is no other way to learn, and no better way to get started. So we sold a few items from around the house. With some significant success. But we knew (or quickly found out!) that we needed more than just eBay sales to make this work.

5. Live Auctions. Once we'd gotten beat up pretty bad on our first storage unit, and we thought it might be safer to buy things we could actually see, we decided to try our luck at other kinds of auctions. This was not really a very good idea, as I've discussed in a separate post. [Read the post titled "Live Public Auctions" for more on this topic.] I do have to say that we enjoyed ourselves at the Public Auction. We got there too late for the preview, but the bidding was lively and there was lots of great stuff. We even bought a few things. And I saw a few things that I would have loved to buy, but I knew Larry would have killed me. Like the old foot-powered sewing machine. I lusted for it.

But I am not allowed to buy sewing machines. Or even touch them. Well, I can touch them, and I have used them with great success in the past. But if I so much as breathe on the tension control it's all over. Throw it away. It's broken. Forever after it will kink, snap threads, tangle, bind up inside, break needles and damage fabrics. I have no idea why this is. Dials and knobs are meant to be adjusted and fiddled with, aren't they?

Anyway, I can't show you any pictures of the wonderful old sewing machine I bought real cheap. But I can say that I had fun and I'm sure we'll do it again.

6. Networking. Networking, the old fashioned way, can include everything from asking the other people at the auctions for advice to going to a trade show or meeting people at related functions. Selling your gloves and bats at the baseball park on Saturday morning is a no-brainer. Contacting clubs is a great way to find a buyer for certain items, but they have to be the top quality stuff to start with and be in really good condition. These kinds of enthusiasts are often serious buyers. Let your friends know what you're trying to sell. You'd be surprised at who just happens to know someone who wants one of those.

Once we had actually begun bidding on units, and we had gotten to know a few people (or at least had given them a chance to recognize us when they saw us) my questions got more specific, and a little more personal. They changed from, "How do you sell your stuff?" to things like:

What did you do with that computer in the unit you bought last week?

(The wife handles everything computer.)

You always seem to bid on the units with bikes in them. I guess you're really into bikes?

(No. Not at all. But some of them are worth money.)

How do you sell them?

(I took the last one out to the BMX park at Red Rock. Just left it in the back of the truck and hung out for a while. Talked to a few people. Had in sold in a couple of hours.) [Yeah, I'm impressed.]

How do you clean up the couches and stuff to re-sell? Those white ones you bought this morning looked pretty bad on the armrests.

(I don't even try to clean them. I just have my guys replace the fabric.)

I noticed that those cabinets you bought had some broken glass. You must be friends with the glass guy?

(Well, yes. And no. I am friends with the glass guy, but little pieces like that we just do ourselves.)

What do you do if you end up with a whole lot of something? Like, say...guns? Or art frames? Or fishing poles?

(I'd go to a trade show. Meet some people. Hook up with a dealer. Find a collectors' club.) [Awesome piece of advice!]

7. Collectors/Clubs. Turns out there are collectors for almost every thing, so those specific things that certain collectors want should be sold in those circles. And there are clubs for nearly every sport or hobby imaginable. Finding your market is half the battle. Getting your item in front of that market requires a little creative thinking. But beware of serious collectors; those guys know exactly what they are looking at, and they are very specific about what they want. (You wouldn't put a Chevy fender on a Ford, right?) Collectors are avid experts. Literally. They know brand names, production methods and materials, desired details, acceptable flaws, availability, replacement parts, reproductions, all that stuff. If you don't, you could walk away feeling really stupid and still be in possession of that item you wanted to sell.

8. Trade Shows. Trade shows can be an awesome solution. Those guys are collectors, too. (Though usually not as intensely focused as the club guys.) Trade show folks love to talk, and they are pleased to share information that will help the casual shopper or new collector. They are by definition very social people. They love to make friends. The bad news at the trade shows is that all the vendors know each other. The good news at the trade shows is that all the vendors know each other. They will shepard you to the guy most suited to your needs, and tell you who's honest and who ain't. Treat these guys good. They'll do the same for you!

* * * * *

So the verdict is in. The hands-down favorite standby method for selling stuff is yard sales. It's cheap, and the buyers come to you. But you've got to be willing to accept the lowest amount imaginable for the things you sell that way. Yard sales are easy outlets for all the tons of just plain stuff that come along with the good stuff in every storage unit you buy.

eBay is great for specific types of things, especially things that are popular or in demand in other countries (like our vintage Levi's and film-roll cameras). Good eBay items include things that are small, lightweight, and none too fragile (like hunting knives and fishing lures). Shipping is an issue: an expensive issue. For larger items there's always Craig's list, which has the advantage of being local. And the local want-ads are good places to find buyers. The public sign boards at places like grocery stores and colleges are okay, but they involve at lot more effort and the kinds of things you can sell are limited.

For just about everything worthwhile there is a niche or a trick that works uniquely for that person or that item, and networking seems to be the best way to find the niche and the buyers within that niche. Considering the price difference between a yard sale and a trade show, the trade shows can really be worth the time and trouble.

It seems you need to know everything about everything before you start bidding on storage units. Once you see something you know you can sell, everything else in the unit is just gravy. More than anything, for the big profit items anyway, you just have to get out there and meet the person most likely to be your next buyer.

Storage Auction Schedules

2011-09-30T17:18:00.000-07:00

I find the whole scheduling thing a challenge, but my first two resources are the local newspapers and the Internet. In most cases, those two can both be found in the same place. So I go online to find the legal notices in the local papers. Free computers are available for scheduled use in most libraries, which have the advantages of being both quiet and air-conditioned. But I like to spend hot afternoons in front of my computer, and I usually do my research from my Lay-Z-Boy in the den.

The big newspapers will usually let you read the postings on-line, and I like to copy and paste them into one document. I usually start with the LVRJ (gosh, what a great affiliate link they would be!) because they've got such a user friendly web-site. Then I check the legal news publications. These publications experience a different financial environment and often make you buy a copy or a subscription. (I really hate the ones that
provide only a pdf or other image of their printed copy instead of an interactive format with some search engine abilities!) We are avoiding the vehicle auctions right now for a number of reasons, so I skip all of those. Maybe I’ll remember to come back to that topic another time.

In the last days before a posted sale, I call numerous storage locations for whatever information can be squeezed out of them. I have discovered that the people who answer the phones usually have no idea what's going on, but I'm not so easily discouraged. At least not when I'm sitting under an air-conditioner making routine phone calls. I'm sure there must be an easier way, I just haven't found it yet. Honestly, I've spent hours going through the legal postings in search of sale dates, only to learn later that the listings are woefully incomplete. I don't understand why half of the locations on a certain auctioneer's schedule will be posted in a certain newspaper, but I never do find the other half. Many of the auctioneer's post their schedules in their web-sites, but you have to already know who they are to find them. (There seems to be a step that I'm missing. I'll be sure to let you know when I find out what the trick is.) After cutting and pasting all the listings I can find into a new file, I check the legal news and cruise around in cyberspace looking for other listings.

[If you happen to know any better way to do this, be sure to leave a comment and share it with the rest of us.]

My favorite site for finding lists of local auctions is my affiliate, StorageTreasures.com. They have a really good list of everything local, and a google map to make getting there a little easier. Though I’ve never found anyone whose list is 100% complete, theirs is as close as it gets. Their site is easy to use, easy to look at, and printer friendly. Some of the local auctioneers post their entire schedules on this site, so I don’t have to go to each of their sites to get them. I make a mental note to put together a list of where I have to go to make my lists. (Oops, here we go....)

The first step was to go through my current list and the lists I had pulled off the Internet during weeks gone by, and start comparing them. With the help of StorageTreasures.com I was able to connect almost all of my current postings to an auctioneer, and find that auctioneer’s web-site as well. That sure shortened the task. Then I called each of the remaining postings and asked them who held their auctions, what other facilities were they associated with, those kinds of things.

Then I pulled out all of the paperwork we'd gotten from the auctions we’d already been to. (Remember, I warned you not to throw that stuff away!) Seems I didn’t do such a great job in that department my own self, so this was going to be a smaller job than I thought. Or bigger, whichever. From the very few printed schedules and business cards in my meager file I found a couple of web-sites with the monthly schedules posted. One or two have schedules for different states. I find this very interesting, on a few levels.

First and foremost, I love to drive through the desert, or the country, or anywhere else with little or no traffic, ice, snow, traffic signals, highway patrol, etc. And I like to stop as often as possible along the way. I think I want to try Utah first. Larry points out that Arizona is closer. We figure this is a topic we should consider with great care. Several hundred miles can make or break you when it comes to emptying/loading/moving/ storing the stuff you buy. I decided to ignore the out of state listings for now. Time to get back to my list.

I just love Word Perfect. I find much easier to use than Word, and lots of really big little differences. Like, for instance, when printing labels with Word you can choose between printing one label or printing a whole sheet of them. Word Perfect allows you to print all the different labels you want at the same time on the same sheet. But I digress....

The most useful thing I’ve done with my Word Perfect lately was going back through my current auction list and my older auction schedules (yes, I save everything) and using my yellow highlighter function I marked all the storage locations that do their auctions in-house. Since I’d already starting making notes on which ones were using certain auctioneers, making this list was really easy. (I said easy, not quick. Honestly, I don’t believe people who claim they are making large amounts of money and hardly ever working. I haven’t even typed the list up proper and this little project has taken me more than 2 hours, a dozen phone calls, and used up the last little bit of my printer ink.)

So now I have a list of all of the local storage facilities who hold their own auctions, with their addresses and stuff, so I can check for their ads specifically or call them for information if their ads don’t show up. I have to admit that most of the people who answer these calls are friendly and helpful, but they usually know even less about their auctions than I do, so it’s not my preferred way to get the job done. If anyone wants to get a look at that list, shoot me a note or a comment. For everyone else, I’ll get it posted somewhere as soon as I can.

Gotta Love Your Pearls and Buttons - Literally

2011-09-18T17:20:00.000-07:00

I might have called this post, "Things I Learned While Preparing for Our Yard Sale." Or..., "Things I Never Knew I Always Knew About Stuff." (Especially my stuff.) It surprises me sometimes the things people will tell me that I never knew I always knew.

Little gems of knowledge, like.....
If the mommy cats are out hunting, who is babysitting? Daddy cats, of course!
Or, what will a bird do if you put a strange chick in her nest? Feed it. Why, what would you do?
Or, why do some mommies take care of other people's babies? Duh. Because ALL babies

have been given a voice that NO ONE can ignore. (It's necessary to ensure their survival! God also provides new mommies with a hefty dose of Love Potion #9. Same reason.)

There's a ton of wisdom out there that makes perfect sense once you hear someone else say it out loud. And I found out I knew lots of things that I wasn't aware of until I needed to use them. These are just a few:

Those old buttons made of mother of pearl or abalone or other other shells that I have collected and horded over the years are mostly worthless. They are also perishable items. Like pearls, they need to be touched and worn - lovingly and often. They need the oils from your fingertips. So when I dug out my jars and dishes full of these old beauties, the first thing I noticed was that they appeared dull, even after I rubbed them a bit with my fingers. I briefly considered how to polish them up. Very briefly. I didn't want to ruin them. Then I remembered about the pearls. I couldn't go back in time and handle them all, so I settled for rubbing them with baby oil. I would have preferred mineral oil, but baby oil was what I had. It seemed to do a really nice job, and they should live for years longer now.

One of the oiled buttons made it very clear that I should not have been doing this at the table on the patio. When it slipped from my fingers it hit the concrete and broke with a certain little part ping and part snap kind of sound. The broken piece flew like a little rocket. I was impressed.

The largest jar containing the nicest buttons became a gift for a friend of mine who dearly loves them and accepted them like pure gold offerings. What a great use for something really cool that turns out to have little or no cash value! It made us both very happy, and will continue to do so for many years to come.

A few of the remaining buttons were individuals and therefore in my eyes unique. So far I have kept those. Others were matched sets of 3 to 8 buttons. I decided I could probably sell the entire collection for a few bucks if I spent the time and effort finding someone who dealt in vintage clothing. I'm pretty sure that grouping can be as effective as presentation.

Since I was working on a yard sale, the whole presentation thing had already been severely compromised. I opted for the opposite of grouping, sort of, dividing them into matched sets and pricing each set at either 1 or 2 dollars. The collection should pull in as much as 4 times more money by breaking it up and selling parcels off cheap. Yard sale cheap.

Guess what? On my list of things you need to know before you host a yard sale is to remember that there are people out there who like to steal things. Even at yard sales. The fine porcelain dish holding all of those little bundles of vintage buttons was stolen from right under our noses. Along with two separate fist-sized bundles of matched rhinestone buttons that were on the table in the same general area. I can't believe how much this bothers me. It was such a minor loss, financially speaking. Far less than the 10% shrinkage considered standard by most retailers. It makes me very glad that I gave the bulk of the collection away. I would feel guilty about it forever if I hadn't and the entire collection was stolen when it could have been such a perfect gift.

Anyway, I'll be working on finding a better way to display and sell these kinds of small collectibles. And better ways to control the flurries of activity that happen at yard sales, leaving us vulnerable to cons and shoplifters. I have to, because I don't have very many left. I'd like to get a little something for them so the entire collection is not a total loss. I'll be asking other people how they have managed this problem, and trying out a few ideas of my own.

[If anyone has any suggestions or ideas about handling this problem, be sure to leave a comment. I'm sure we'd all love to try them out.]

Going to an Auction: What You'll Need

2011-09-11T14:06:00.000-07:00

How do you get started? We thought that was a no-brainer. Go to a few auctions. Don't plan to buy, but carry money. Okay, we did that. Tips for getting started begin with this piece of advice: Avoid this activity in the dead of summer. But if you're like us, and no longer in control of the way your universe is currently spinning, you may find that the hottest part of the day is a good time to research up-coming auctions.

Our first trip out to bid on storage auctions we learned a few things. Such as, if you insist on going out buying in the summer, then you'll want to take along an ice chest full of drinks. Mostly water. Lots of ice. And remember basic things, like ice melts. If you freeze a couple of those bottles of water the night before, you're far more likely to still have an ice-cold drink at the end of the day. (That's something everyone who lives or plays on
the desert probably already knows, but I always regret it if I end up with nothing but bottles of warm water.) If you catch the right schedule on the right day, you could still be out there mid-afternoon when the temperature hits 147 degrees.

And, despite the heat warning, you'll really want to go out and buy yourself about a million candlepower flashlight, the kind you can plug into your dashboard and recharge between sale locations. We got the really inexpensive ones, so we won't mind too much if they are lost or broken. No matter how bright the day, the backs of the units can be dark enough to stop you from seeing what's really in there. If your flashlight doesn't plug in to your dashboard, then be sure to have a package of new batteries.

Bring your own locks. Best to go out ahead of time and buy a couple of locks, and carry them with you! We didn't do this, even though during our first trip out (when we weren't going to buy anything anyway) we saw the other bidders all carrying them. Once you win the bid on a unit you are supposed to put your lock on it and then leave it until the paperwork is done. (You know, the part where you actually pay for it.)

If you have to go into the office to buy a lock, or to your truck to find a lock, then you end up walking 17 miles through a concrete maze and missing out on a chance at the units that come up after yours. If you don't, then you're leaving your newly purchased unit unlocked for however long it takes to auction off the rest of the units and then go in and get all the paperwork done. And you'll still need to lock it before you leave for the next location. If there's any chance at all that you'll have to buy a lock on site, it really is better to just go in and buy it before the auction begins.

Speaking of paying for it, take cash. There are only one or two that will accept checks or plastic. Expect to post a cash deposit of $50 to $100 for the unit. (And for goodness sake get the unit emptied on time and leave it clean!) Expect to burn no less than half a tank of fuel. For me, that's a truck sized half a tank of higher octane gasoline. But I burn more gallons per mile, so it works out about the same.

How much money to carry. There are literally so many variables on this question that only you can decide the answer. The best I can do is put a few observations out there. I have seen units sell for $5.00 and for $10.00, and not sell at all. I saw one unit where a couple of the people made offers on what they would want for emptying it. (The auctioneer declined.) The first unit I ever watched go to auction went for just over $1,400.00. I was appropriately discouraged by that introduction to storage auctions. Wow.

We were initially advised to always carry a couple thousand dollars. Because, we were told, at the end of the day after you already bought something, a bunch of the bidders might drop out and go home and some really fantastic unit might go cheap. If that ever happened, we'd sure want to be carrying the cash to buy it. I believe that was excellent advice. But the amount won't be right for everyone. You can scrape up a small amount of money and bid only on units you really want and think you can afford. Obviously, some people will be able to budget a higher spending limit. And I am aware that certain buyers have been making a living doing this for a number of years and those serious buyers tend to carry a lot more cash than that. (You can tell because you are watching them spend it.)

If you get part way through the morning and have either bought something or observed that the bids are up higher than you had anticipated, there are always banks to be found somewhere along the way between storage facilities. Stop for more cash, even if you don't intend to use it. I have observed that Larry often behaves very conservatively because he doesn't want to spend the available money and then not be able to bid on whatever comes up after that. So we drop out of the bidding too soon and regret it later. Or we find ourselves bidding on the less expensive units, which hasn't worked out so well for us either.

Dress comfortably. Wearing layers is advisable no matter what the weather. It's always good to be able to shed an extra layer of clothing as it gets hotter outside. It's also good to be able to add layers, whether for warmth or for protection from the sun and wind. Wear good shoes that fit well and preferably grip well. Storage auctions are not the place for breaking in new shoes, or for heavy work boots. I'm sure to be found wearing running shoes, laced up tight, with short thick socks. No heels, high or low. I like good arch support, so flats are out. I've seen lots of people wearing sandals, but I don't recommend it. For a number of reasons.

For me, a clean shirt is an absolute must. If I get 5 or 10 minutes between sales to look through what I just bought, then I will be filthy for the rest of the day. (It's truly amazing how fast that happens!) Sunglasses if you have them. A hat with a wide brim if you happen to wear hats. Hair ties if you have long hair. A cell phone. A couple of bananas (especially if you suffer from muscle cramps) or other fruit. Oranges are always high on my list. In colder months an extra pair of dry socks is a really good idea. So is a pair of gloves. Pocket warmers are a blessing if it's really cold out, and they're pretty cheap at places like Walmart and most sporting goods stores. I like sweatshirts with hoods and kangaroo pouches rather than bulky coats or jackets. I'm also fond of leather vests. (Lots of pockets, no sleeves, no collar.) They go great together, too, if it's cold or windy enough.

Unless you're planning on returning with a different vehicle to move your stuff, you'll want to consider a couple of good, strong boxes, a few trash bags, tie-downs or straps, and a small tarp, things like that. Screw drivers, both Phillips and Flatheads. A small ratchet and sockets. Some things have to be taken apart to move more easily. Other things need to be put back together before they can be lifted without breaking. Larry likes duct tape for emergencies. I prefer a coil of rope or cord. Furniture pads or moving blankets are a good idea. A small dolly if you have one.

I think windshield shades are the cat's meow. I suggest them for anyone who owns or drives a vehicle that is ever parked outside. I double suggest them for any time that you will park somewhere for about an hour, drive a little, park again, drive a little, etc. The temperature difference each time you climb back in will make you a true believer and a faithful user, too.

Take along the schedule you pasted together from the legal postings, a small note pad, and a pen. Making notes about things like who the auctioneer was and what some of the units sold for will help you remember them later, when you suddenly figure out that your notes could have been oh-so-helpful if you'd only thought to make them. The auctioneers will always ask you to sign in at the first location you attend. They usually have their schedules and e-mail addresses and things available for you. Take them. Write notes on them. Try not to lose them or toss them tomorrow when you have to clean out your truck.

Good luck!

Finding Local Auctions and Sales

2011-08-24T16:18:00.001-07:00

Once we decided to start going to auctions, and realized that first we had to find out where and when, I settled into the business of putting together lists of sales. I don't know how other people do it, maybe they start by tagging along with a friend, but what we got was a tip that U-haul runs all of theirs on the same day every month. (It turned out to be the wrong day, but at least it gave me a place to start looking.) So I immediately jumped on the Internet and started searching for random notices, and that's how I discovered that we had been told the wrong days.

We keep a storage unit at Public Storage a block from our house, so next I started looking for facilities that I was already familiar with. Don't ask me why. But when that didn't pan out I started making phone calls. The female voice on the phone at the first Public Storage I called told me that they advertise all their auctions in the Nevada Legal News. So I make a regular practice of going to that site and paying my

dollar for a copy of the paper. I have yet to find a single listing there for a Public Storage auction, though I can tell you that I do find a lot of my legal notices there. I usually only check once a week or so, but it seems like that should be often enough to not miss any, or at least not consistently.

Every now and again I get lucky and someone will be able to come up with some useful nugget of information, such as who the auctioneer will be. Many auctioneers post their up-coming schedules on their web-sites. And once you get to your first location of the morning, the auctioneers always make sure to tell you where they're going next. Sometimes they call out the driving directions to make sure everyone knows the way. Later we plan to experiment with the idea of going back and forth between two or three different auction schedules, but to start with it works best for us to just tag along. Usually.

Okay, so right off we had the experience of not listening to the auctioneer, and getting to the next location on our list only to find that we were the only ones there. So we waited. In our truck. In the heat. Guess what? Sometimes the auctioneers have locations from different franchises mingled into their schedules. Oops. I guess it pays to listen.

So far, the only constant truth seems to be that if you miss a unit or location at any point during the day, that is the one that will always be remembered as the really good one that you didn't get, or that somebody else did get, which ever. Either way, those of us who killed our poor GPS (which probably died of heat stroke) are sure to want to take a map book along.

Well, not me. Usually. That's because usually I've got Larry in the driver's seat, and he knows how to get just about anywhere. But when times do arise that I have to drive myself somewhere, it's best if I take along a mapquest printed from my PC. If I decide to be any good at bidding, we'll need a new GPS. Maybe we'll find one in our next storage unit. (I mean, one can hope, right?) So if you happen to find a TomTom in your next storage unit, catch me at an auction and make me a killer deal, okay?