When you win an auction you get a receipt showing that you own the locker and everything in it. There is no itemized list or anything of what you found in it.

I suppose if drug dealers were coming after their stuff they likely wouldn't really care about a paper trail.

This does remind me of something that happened once. I was on an all day auction for Public Storage. With these you drive from location to location bidding on the units available at each location. Somewhere around noon we get to a locker that has four full duffel bags sitting in the middle of it and nothing else. The bidding starts. These two guys who had not bid on anything all day bid. A couple of guys drive them up a little, but they end up buying the unit for $300. They paid for it, took the bags and left and were never seen again. I would love to know what was in those bags.

She's ok. Nothing to write home about..

I know everyone thinks Brandi is hot but I would do all manner of sinful acts with the auctioneers wife.. The cleave that woman shows is inspiring

I am sad to see Discovery and National Geographic go "Nikki Minaj" on us all...

There is not a lot to watch on TV nowadays, with all the "reality" crap and all the retard shows and movies...Discovery and Nat Geo were a kind of refuge from all the bullshit...something non insulting for the brain...

but in the last few years the idiots shows have appeared...Ufo hunters, paranormal investigation, ancient aliens, that kustomizer idiot, the retard gun shows, the retards in the swamp shows, hillbilly hand fishing, american gypsies, american weed, american chopper, american this american that...

dont get me started on TLC...holy shit...

I realize that they are all educational channels and that even retards deserve and education but there should be something like "discovery advanced" or "nat geo plus" where people with an IQ above a chimp could take refuge from the retard shows and adverts for said shows...

the zombie apocalypse seems to be well under way :1orglaugh

A&E = Arts and Entertainment

Remember when they actually had non reality TV programs?

:error

Pretty obvious it is faked or give them the benefit of the doubt "enhanced".

Back when no one watched them? This stuff sells.

next you are going to tell me smurfs aren't real.. .pshh!

Damn! You mean the 10 suitcases I bought at the Montreal Airport lost luggage auction are full of dirty clothes?

What's your bidding range for a locker? Obviously it's going to be different based on what you're able to see, but ballpark?

they find amazing unique stuff in every locker...obviously thats not the norm

I would say about 85% of the lockers I ever bought were for less than $200 and probably half of them were for $100 or less. I have seen some go for a few grand, but only when there is obviously really good stuff. For example there was one unit I remember that had a bunch of shop equipment. There was a couple of big drill presses, lathes, table saws, tons of hand tools etc. It went for about $2,500 and I saw a unit with a bunch of antique furniture sell for about $3,000. Those were pretty rare most units tended to go for $50-$150.

One of the best I ever bought I paid $5 for. It had 40 car windshields and about 100 pieces of door glass. Nobody bid on it so I big $5 and won it. I ended up selling it to an auto glass shop the next day for $1500 which was probably way less than it was worth, but it was $1500 in my pocket for about an hour worth of work so I didn't complain.

Interesting...seems like most of the lockers on that show go for like $800 and up

Nice score! Back in the day, I used to hit government surplus auctions and made some good scores. Went to a couple storage auctions, but never won any.

Yeah, on that show they artificially drive up the prices for show. There are times and places where the prices can be a lot higher. I always avoided auctions that were held on the weekends because the were packed with people who had no idea what they were doing and they would drive the prices up like crazy.

I found some of my best success was working with small, out of the way independent places. Often very few people would show up to the auctions so you could get good deals. Once place I bought a few units from over the course of a couple of auctions then I showed up for one auction and I was the only person there so she just gave me the three units. We ended up having an understanding that if nobody else bid I could have them. I think I got about 10 free units and bought another 8-10 for around $20 each. One of those free units was one of the best units I ever had. The unit was rented by someone who put all of their grandma's belongings as well as a bunch of their stuff in it then never paid the rent past the first month. It was a huge unit, packed full of good stuff.

I've been to 30+ Dan Dotson storage auctions in So Cal with about 10 of them being during Storage Wars filming. Dan Dotson has been a very reputable auctioneer for many years and does not stage storage units. Having seen 1000's of storage units, the ones I've seen during filmed auctions are no different. When filming is going on, the auctions tend to get very overbid. This is why you'll notice that much of the time someone will lose money on their unit on the show(Barry loses on about 80% of his) They only show auctioned units won by member's of the cast, yet there are many units won by members of the public that you never see.

With the exception of Jarrod and Brandy, I saw all of the other cast members at various auctions years ago before Storage Wars ever began. The popularity of the show has basically been a curse to those attending So Cal auctions as participation is now ten fold and winning bids have tripled from what they used to be, thus I hardly go to any nowadays. Anyone can show up to one of the auctions during the Storage Wars filming. Here is Dan Dotson's schedule, but only a few of those will actually be during filming. http://www.americanauctioneers.com/events.php

Here is the part of the show that is staged. As the show became more popular, often during filming members of the public would try and get on TV by doing lots of antics behind the Storage Wars bidders or things like bidding just to mock the cast. I've been to quite a few of them where members of the public would bid just to mock Dave by yelling "yuuuuuuup" obnoxiously to get their 15 seconds of fame. It became a nuisance, so now after the auctions are over, they re film just the bidding part with just the Storage Wars cast doing the bidding along with a few members of the public standing around.

So is it 100% real, no, but its not a bunch of actors staging an event as some of you have claimed. The TruTV auction show is definitely all fake like everything else on that channel.

I got out of the business before the show came on the air, but a friend of mine still occasionally buys units and says at the big auctions the crowds have increased dramatically so I would guess the prices are going up.

People think they are going to buy a unit and find something really valuable in it because that is how the show is. They don't realize most units you buy for $100 and maybe sell everything in side for $200-$250 so you make a small profit after you pay for gas and consider your time.

"reality tv"

I had a friend try doing this kind of stuff after watching the show... He was always bummed because his storage unites always had nothing but junk. The best thing he ever found was tires and rims worth about a grand. Which basically set him back to even.

The worst is when a storage unit company screws you over and purposely sells you their junk. Some of them will take anything that is left behind when people move out of a unit and put it all in one locker then sell that locker at auction. This is stuff that is so shitty the owners couldn't be bothered to take it with them. Most companies tell you this is what you are bidding on before you bid, but one didn't. I bought the unit for $65 and literally spent another $150 in gas and dump fees getting rid of everything and I think there was about $10 worth of clothes I sold at a yard sale in it. I would have been better off, and saved myself a half of day of busting my ass, if I had just found a random person and handed them $200.

Best Post of this thread so far!