The popular American TV show ‘Storage Wars’ was first shown in 2010 and has lifted the lid on a previously unexplored facet of the storage world, showing the industry in a different light. The auctions which take place on self-storage units have now grown in their popularity and the television series has benefited from this surge in interest.
In the show we see a cavalcade of professional traders bidding on storage units in the hope of making a fast profit. The units have often been forgotten by their owners or the owners have simply been unable to keep up with payments to the storage company. The show attracts millions of people who are glued to the screen as they watch to see whether hidden treasures will be unearthed from within. There are a plethora of characters chasing down the profit including collectors, thrift store owners and eccentric entrepreneurs, making for colourful and addictive viewing.
You might wonder how people can simply just forget about these things which they’ve put into storage, but in large countries it’s now thought that we have as much stuff in storage as we do in actual use. This shows just how much of what we have which is considered to be expendable and explains the boom behind self-storage. The auctions themselves are not held to benefit the traders but to clear out the space so that the storage company can put the unit to use with a paying customer once again – there is no point in waiting in the hope that the owner of a unit will some day pay off the debts accrued.
It’s not always the case that the customer has been unable to make the payments on their unit though, sometimes the owner may have passed away, and with no one else to settle the debt the only way to recoup costs is to sell the contents of the now ownerless unit. Storage Wars has captured one of the most famous auctions where payments have been missed, the unit belonged to music mogul Suge Knight who had missed seven months of payments – his clothing and other personal items therefore going up in the auction.
You might think that this all sounds a little unruly and shady but there are specific rules which govern this activity, rules set by the storage company or whoever is the auctioneer. All buyers are allowed to have a quick peek into each unit up for auction, they then decide whether or not they will bid for the unit at auction. It takes a natural instinct and intelligence to be a big player as spotting particular items can be a giveaway as to whether there is more to the unit than meets the eye.
While it might seem like a veritable lottery to pursue such a challenge there are some who cannot resist the allure of potential treasure and valuables hidden in these storage units. Once the highest bidder is found they are usually given a window of around 48 hours to clear out the locker, thus freeing up space for someone else to use it for its intended purpose.
If you require self-storage space at an affordable price for your possessions then look no further than Simply Storage. Contact us today for more information or to discuss your storage needs.
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