The reality behind reality TV's storage wars (Bleeding heart liberal point of view)

CBS Sunday Morning ^ | 9/25/2011 | Conor Knighton

[ExTxMarine]

A&E's "Storage Wars," a show about people who bid on the contents of abandoned storage lockers, had its second season premiere this summer to 5.1 million viewers. It's the HIGHEST RATED show in the network's history.

Tru TV's nearly identical "Storage Hunters" has become a breakout hit - ALMOST as big of a hit as Spike's nearly identical "Auction Hunters."

That's right. There are three DIFFERENT shows on TV about STORAGE LOCKERS.

Reality TV is frequently trashy, but never before has it featured so much actual trash.

[ExTxMarine]

I could not believe the crap people would store!Perishable food was the norm. Filthy dirty dish’s, clothes, and just garbage. Not at all like I see on these shows.

Yep! I used to work for my Aunt cleaning out her units and WHEW! You would almost puke from the smell and stench from some units! Just NASTY!

[sodpoodle]

The ‘reality’ is these shows are a slice of life - are a form of documentary and cheap to produce. They do have ‘regular folks’ appeal and are often quite educational.

After watching a few episodes of Pawn Stars, American Pickers, Storage Wars, Auction Kings, Repo etc., I did become bored with the repetition.

As many have noted “If you are paying to store your belongings in a locker; you probably don’t need it”. As for valuable collector items - keep them at the house. If you have elderly relatives with storage problems - help them out.

[philman_36]

Well golly, Conor, our borders are so porous that there is a whole series on TV about it and it's in its third season!
And you choose to direct your attention to shows on storage units?!

[woodbutcher1963]

It has been bad for the people in the business of buying these auction units because there is now a lot more competition and prices have gone up.

So it is good for the auctioneer and the owner of the storage facility but bad for the buyer.

For every one unit that makes the show, there are problaby 4-5 that are just full of junk.

[discostu]

Remember for most folks the executor is just one of the relatives, there’s no real estate to worry about. I was co-executor for my grandmother, once you forward somebody’s mail for that you find out just how much complete crap people get in the mail. I still get stupid crap in the mail for her and she’s been dead almost 7 years. And a lot of the bills you just chuck, it’s actually bad to start paying the bills of the deceased because that sets a precedent that you are accepting their debt, so we generally just glanced at stuff to make sure it wasn’t inbound money, we knew about all her property. It would be easy to miss something like a storage locker mixed, just another bill you’re not going to pay.

[susannah59]

I met a couple who buys these abandoned units from time to time and resells the contents which are worth selling. They had been doing this long before these shows came on.

They told me that they rarely find anything really valuable in the units they get, though they usually get their money's worth and then some.

They find a lot of trash and a lot of used clothing, most of which they donate if it's in decent condition. Furniture and household items they resell. Occasionally they will find an antique or something especially nice but not often.

[discostu]

I wonder how many kind of combine death and abandonment. If my grandfather, whose paperwork was a complete mess, had a storage locker we never found out, so we never would have informed the locker company, so they would have considered it abandoned.

Yeah the whole lib angle is, as always, silly. Nobody’s getting cheated here. Anybody that abandoned good stuff in a storage locker has only themselves to blame.

[Daffynition]

What I don’t understand is that the buyers bring their supposed *treasure* to some other dealer for authentication and appraisal. From what little I know of specialized dealers, they don’t just *give* free appraisals; maybe they do when you walk in with cameras and a reputation for millions of viewers and do the appraisal gratis for the free PR.

I can’t get that kind of service for free.

[ExTxMarine]

I don’t have a problem with it unless they go too far by including house and apartment rental properties where evictions have taken place.

That is part of the funny issue here! Just four years ago they had MULTIPLE house-flipping TV shows, which included repossessed homes and county auction houses but the Sunday TV shows weren't asking people to think about the people who grew up in those houses or the families who lost their home due to huge inheritance taxes, etc...

As a matter of fact, many news stories were proclaiming the smart, quick-money available in house-flipping!

Like you stated, this business has been around for many, many years (just like house-flipping), but it is just another part of the life in which we live!

[Osage Orange]

Beaver Cleaver?

[Hoosier Catholic Momma]

Holy cow! How did that happen? Sorry, all!

[discostu]

Yeah I’m sure the hit/ miss ratio on those things is epic. I bet for every half way OK locker (forget the real winners) there’s half a dozen “why didn’t they just throw this out” lockers.

[count-your-change]

The people abandoning these units aren't doing so just because they can't afford the rent. I've been to a few auctions like that and most of the stuff simply isn't worth the rent so the people walk away.
One locker I bought belonged to a guy who broke up with his girl friend. She was supposed to pay the rent but didn't. Oops!

Another one I bought belonged to guy sitting in jail. Guess no one wanted to pay for his stuff.

Business go bankrupt, couples divorce, people get tossed in jail, walk away from stolen goods, die, leave the country.

But how many people will leave thousands of dollars of jewelry or guns just because they can's afford a hundred bucks a month?

[discostu]

Between the TV cameras (and more importantly the TV producers making phone calls) and the fact that these guys have been doing it for years and have their own contacts it’s doable for free. Or at least it will be after you’ve been doing it for 10 or 20 years.

[ExTxMarine]

The people abandoning these units aren't doing so just because they can't afford the rent.[SNIP]
But how many people will leave thousands of dollars of jewelry or guns just because they can's afford a hundred bucks a month?

That is my point. Most of the time these units are simply full of complete CRAP (sometimes literally - I have actually found a bucket of human excrement in the corner of an abandoned storage unit - YUCK!)!! So the one or two that actually payout are very few and far between. Typically these buyers break-even, once it is all said and done or they make very minimal profit.

My thinking (from experience) is that they simply don't care what is inside the unit (because it is usually old, low-value stuff) and they walk away.

[Daffynition]

Thanks. You're assuredly right on this.

At least ole Barry has a sense of humor, and doesn't take things too seriously.

[SoothingDave]

What’s to stop the owners of the storage units from filling up a unit with crap and then trying to dupe these folks into bidding on it?

[21twelve]

“..it’s all about Barry.”

Yep! He’s a character! Meeting him in a bar would be cool. Having him offer to show me around his house (and his garage - he has some cool wheels!) would be better. There was one show where the big guy showed off some of his house - Picasso’s, etc. - all found in lockers!

But Barry’s would be way cooler.

[ExTxMarine]

Quite a few of them go delinquent in divorces where nobody really cares about the stuff, or are simple walk aways, "I just don't need this junk anymore and I'm not handling it again".

That was my Aunt's experience as well.

I also know that the prices that are quoted for many of the items on storage wars are just pie-in-the sky wishful thinking.

This show reminds me of "The Price is Right." I don't know where they shop, but typically their prices are MUCH higher than what is at my store. Of course, I am in Texas, not liberal, tax-aholic Kalifornia!

[discostu]

The buyers get to look into the locker before bidding starts. If it looks like all crap they don’t bid. If a place had this a lot they’d stop coming. You gotta remember too this is kind of a community, depending on the size of the community there’s a handful of people that own most of the lockers, a couple dozen buyers, 1 or 2 auctioneers; everybody knows everybody and anybody that starts screwing people over will get found out eventually and wind up outside the “group”.