When the door rises, silence reigns. Thirty people take mental snapshots of anything that crosses their experienced eyes, doing their best to add up prospective numbers and figure out just how much profit rests inside this storage unit. A retro tube television set, wooden dressers, home audio speakers, cabinets, a karaoke machine, a car seat and a heater are a sampling of what is visible.
“Holy moly,” breaks the silence.
“Fifty.” The first bid is in, and the silence that follows causes a sarcastic backtracking. “OK, $25.” Laughter follows. Many of the bidders know one another and what to expect.
“Sixty.”
“Seventy-five.”
“Eighty.” The numbers begin coming at a slower pace.
“One hundred.” Silence. Silence. Going once.
“One hundred and two and 50.” Heads turn to see who made the final bid.
Going once, going twice. Sold for $102.50.
For some, bidding on open storage units is an art, a passion, a hobby. Quick arithmetic and potential profit determines everything from the amount they’ll bid to when they stop.
“We all do it for different reasons,” said Mark Binkley of Starkville. Binkley is the owner of Ziggy’s Buy and Sell consignment store in Starkville and has participated in storage auctions for about three years.
“Some people are fascinated by the television show and think they will find that diamond ring that will make them a lot of money,” he said. “Some people, and I am one, go in there and see a coffee table that might be $30 and books that might be $10 and this and that, and you’re adding numbers in your head trying to figure out, ‘OK, can I make a small profit off of this?'”
On the morning of Dec. 23, six storage units went up for sale at Friendly City Mini-Warehouses, owned by The Dispatch. The average sale was for just more than $100. Those who showed up at 8:30 a.m. hoped to acquire the gem among dirt and walk away with more money than they started with.
‘Like gambling’
“If you think about it, it really is like gambling,” Binkley said. “Every type of gaming there is, the odds are against you, and you have to know that walking in.”
It’s bit of a gamble for the storage company, too. If the renter does not pay the monthly fee, the company can place the contents of the unit up for auction. But a unit going up for sale is a long and time-consuming process. And in the end, if the sale price is less than what’s owed on the unit, the storage company could end up losing money.
By law, the renter must be issued a notice of the amount due and a deadline to pay. If the renter still doesn’t pay, the company must advertise the sale in a local newspaper before holding an auction. And the owner of the items has until the day of the sale to pay the storage fees and retain the unit.
“Let’s say you had your possessions in that unit up for auction. The law says it’s in your possession up until the auctioneer says, ‘Sold.’ Then it’s the buyer’s possessions,” Binkley said.
Those who bid rarely know the contents before the door rises, and they cannot enter to look around. They must take in as much as possible from the outside and bid accordingly.
“No one can go in there and look at anything or touch anything because it’s trespassing,” Binkley said. “Once someone buys it, he can go in there.”
Once the auction ends, buyers must pay the storage company at the scene. The storage company recoups what the renter owes, plus the expense of advertising. Per state law, any excess goes to the renter.
One common bidder, Ken, who declined to give his last name, said he has to keep a low profile because “people don’t like when you buy their stuff.”
Ken, who lives in Monroe County, has gotten “harassing phone calls of people wanting their stuff back.”
Typically, storage companies do not reveal the buyers’ names, Binkley said.
“Normally, the companies won’t say who bought it. They’ll just say, ‘Sorry, it’s been sold,’ and that’s end of story,” Binkley said.
Culture change
The unveiling of the A&E Network TV show “Storage Wars” and shows like it drastically changed the culture of the auctions, Binkley said. “Storage Wars” is a reality series that began in 2010 and features storage auctions.
When Binkley started participating three years ago, 10 people might have shown up for an auction. The average unit sold for around $75.
That average unit today?
“You might see 30 people show up, and it might sell for $300,” Binkley said. “It’s not the people who do it regularly, but it’s the people who see it on television and say, ‘Wow that’s a really good way to make money,’ and they come out one or two times and lose money and never do it again.”
Brandon Wright, owner of Clayton Village Mini Storage in Starkville, has run auctions at the units for the past year and usually holds auctions three or four times a year.
“This last time we started with about 40 units, which is the most I’ve ever seen, and we had the largest crowd I’ve ever seen,” Wright said.
“It has driven up the crowds from what I understand,” he added of the A&E TV series. “And the people who have been doing this for a while are not happy about it. It has driven the prices up.”
Wesley Franks has participated in local storage auctions for 22 years. His front yard, which faces Alabama Street in Columbus, is an ongoing yard sale, stocked with items acquired at the storage sales — couches and other furniture, autographed baseballs, children’s toys.
Franks attended an auction Friday but was not able to add to his collection.
“They pushed me out by driving the price too high,” he said.
When he started bidding on storage units, things were different, Franks said. Now, there are more out-of-towners. People come from Atlanta, Birmingham, Ala., and Memphis, Tenn.
It’s the TV publicity, he said, driving the changes.
On the TV show, the buyers make “a ton of money,” Binkley said. “What they don’t show is that one in 50 units you might do that.”
On the other 49, you lose.
You can help your community
Quality, in-depth journalism is essential to a healthy community. The Dispatch brings you the most complete reporting and insightful commentary in the Golden Triangle, but we need your help to continue our efforts. In the past week, our reporters have posted 41 articles to cdispatch.com. Please consider subscribing to our website for only $2.30 per week to help support local journalism and our community.