Do you enjoy the challenge of finding a bargain and reselling it for more than you paid for it? To witness the success of this technique, you only have to travel as far as your home computer where you can find thousands of people reselling items they’ve purchased at garage sales on Ebay. Garage sales can provide the novice reseller a rich supply of sellable items but there’s another lesser known outlet for items to resell that few people consider. Welcome to the world of storage bin auctions.
Storage bin auctions take place nationwide although they aren’t heavily advertised to the public. A storage bin auction takes place when a person who has been renting space to store various items fails to pay their rent in a timely fashion. When the renter fails to complete his end of the agreement, the owner has the right to sell the items occupying the storage space to recoup the space as well as the lost revenue. This is done via public auction.
The items stored in these bins run the gamut from complete junk to valuable antiques, coins, and even cash. Unfortunately, you don’t get the opportunity to thoroughly go through each bin before bidding. On the day of the auction, the auctioneer will open up each box contained in the bin and show the group of bidders the contents. This will be your opportunity to estimate the value of what’s contained inside. From this point, bidding starts until the highest bidder is awarded the bin.
Once the high bidder wins the box, he can claim it as soon as the auction is over. Then comes the exciting part. The bidder now has the opportunity to go through the contents of the bin and determine what treasures he has purchased. It’s not uncommon to find boxes of books, CD’s, videos, household items, and a variety of knick knacks along with an occasional item of some value. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and find significant amounts of cash, coins, jewelry, or other valuables.
After the auction is over, it’s your job to store the items until you can find a buyer for them. It works best to sort through the items on site and eliminate the obvious junk. The remaining items can be cataloged and stored until transferred to a new owner.
How do you go about finding a buyer for the items you purchase at storage bin auctions? While the obvious option is online auctions such as Ebay, some items may be too large to easily ship and are best sold in your local area. If you have access to a large flea market, it may be profitable to rent a booth for a weekend to sell the less expensive items for a quick profit. Larger, more valuable items may best be sold through a classified ad in your local newspaper or via Craig’s list. Some items can even be taken to your local consignment store or pawn shop for quick turnover.
To find storage bin auctions, check in your local yellow pages under storage facilities. Give these locations a call and ask the owner or manager when the next storage bin auction will take place. If they don’t have one scheduled, ask to be placed on their mailing list and check back with them at a later date. Another way to find local storage bin auctions is to go to storageauctions.org.
