Storage Auction Tips and Tricks

If you are at a storage auction it can be very easy to let things get out of control.  The last thing you want to do is to lose your head in a bidding war or pay too much for a unit because you got emotional and didn’t want the other guy to win.  For this reason I created an article about how to play it safe, not get emotional, and never go past your limit. 

Play it Safe

The number one thing I see people doing when they are estimating units is to try to figure out the actual cost of an item and not what it would sell for.  Items in a storage unit are just like new cars.  Right when you take them off the lot they depreciate. You want to bid on the price of the item now.  If you want to be completely safe I would even suggest bidding %15 below what you think the item is worth now.  You never know what you are going to get for items until you purchase them and try to sell them.  You don’t want to get to your selling point and realize that you definitely over-estimated the price of an item and now you are losing money.  Estimating %15 less will give you a safety cushion that will allow you to still profit if you don’t get exactly what you thought you were going to.   Plus, if you get more than what you thought then you get %15 more profit in your pocket.  Slow and steady wins the race.  Be the turtle.

Don’t get emotional

I see this too many times where buyers end up paying too much for a unit because they can’t keep their emotions out of it.  You see it on TV a lot where one guy decides he is going to take the price of the next auction up because he is mad that he lost the previous one.  The last thing you want to do is try to drive the price of auctions up.  You are going to make enemies fast and possibly pay more for every unit that you bid on.  There is also the chance that you are going to get stuck with a unit.  People are not stupid they know when someone is purposely trying to drive up the price of a unit.  Be careful because it is just as likely that you can get stuck with the unit if they decide to drop out of the bidding while you are driving the price up.  Don’t get stuck with a unit.  Bid carefully on a unit and if anything try to make friends.  It’s a lot more likely that a fellow buyer will let you get a better price on a unit if they like you.  This will not always work but you will be surprised on how many people will stop bidding on a unit if they know you want it and they like you.

Never go past your limit

I’m not sure if it’s an addiction or just plain stupidity but buyers love to get into a bidding war where the price of the auction keeps going up and up. Even though the buyer said that they are only going to bid 300, they end up going higher and higher just because they don’t want to lose.  If you set your limit, stick to it.  You don’t have to win every unit that you bid on.  Just because it looks like an awesome unit doesn’t mean that it’s a necessity to purchase it.  The limit is set for a reason.  So you can make profit.  If you bid too high on a unit the chances are not very good that you are going to make money.  If you find it hard to stick to your guns and you’re always going above what you set then you should re-asses your bidding.  Are you bidding high enough? Are the items worth more than you think?  Do your research on what items are worth. Go to stores where you will sell items and get a general estimate of how much they buy items for. 

Play it safe, don’t get emotional, and don’t go past you limit and you will make more profit from storage auctions and be a happier individual in general. 

Storage Battles

http://storagebattles.com

For more tips and tricks on Storage Auctions Please visit my Ezine Article http://ezinearticles.com/?General-Tips-on-Storage-Auctions&id=7902763