What a booty expert might look like

WTF Indeed: Sure they did....So someone with a chest full of gold coins couldn't find the money to pay the monthly fee. Or perhaps it's a terrible show and they are trying to drum up viewers.

The show is actually pretty decent. And people store all kinds of stupid shiat in those lockers.

WTF Indeed: Sure they did....So someone with a chest full of gold coins couldn't find the money to pay the monthly fee. Or perhaps it's a terrible show and they are trying to drum up viewers.

This

But to be fair, sometimes the owners of the storage units put their stuff in there as they go into nursing homes then either drop dead or stop paying the bills before the family (assuming there is any) figures out there is a storage unit.

A few years ago I helped a man I used to work with put all his possessions into a storage unit just before he went into a nursing home.

A friend of mine owns a storage yard. Coins found at auction. Right. How about an empty box.

My storage place expeirences had a common thread:

Elderly woman loses husband and has to move out of her long term family house. New retirement/elder care center required that she put her life's treasures in a storage unit. She would sacrifice her $30-50 a month, doing anything she could to maintain that locker for 5, 10, maybe 15 years.

Eventually she would pass, and her asshat kids (or worse, grandkids) would show up to claim possession of locker's contents.

90+% of what she had in there, things that she had spent thousands of dollars on to maintain in the final years of her life, would be tossed into the nearby dumpster. Dolls from the 50s that she had always intended to pass down but just didn't get around to -- tossed. That treasured dress that she wore the night her husband returned from Germany -- tossed. Recipe books, some going back to turn of the century -- tossed. That old rocking chair, the one filled of memories from where she sat while she nursed each of her 5 children -- tossed.

There might be a few things the family would view as having intrinsic, family value, but mostly they would be looking for the collectibles and such.

It was sad to see, and this kind of thing happened all the time.

/csb?

Quantum Apostrophe: Gunderson: [www.thesmokingjacket.com image 640x480]

And all I found was this old rusty gun. Let me fire it to make sure it won't blow up in my hand

What a neckless douche. Who the hell is that? I think we've found the douche singularity here, middle-aged, bald, ear lobe grommet and head tattoos? Sweet moses, even *I* want to leave this planet now.

I'll actually defend him because I've been marathoning Auction Hunters the last few days; in the grand scheme of all these reality shows those guys are actually pretty damned likable.

My parents apparently went to the Pawn Stars place when they were in Vegas bc it was on the way... line to get in, half the store was merch (tee shirts, mugs, etc), and the prices were all horribly inflated.

Darkwing: This is why I watch...
[a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net image 320x241]

/YUUUUPPPP!

Even the auctioneer's wife is kinda tappable. I had no idea that being in the auction and pawn business allowed you to marry so far up.

chuggernaught: This seems closer to the truth

Units not visible from the street. Unit defaulted on. Owner's lock cut. Unit "inventoried". A new lock put on. On auction day, lock is cut. Auction crap. Rinse and repeat.

Most defaulted units are due to jail. full of just the sort of stuff that you would think.

Five Tails of Fury: Kaybeck: chuggernaught: I gotta believe a lot of the stuff we see them find is actually planted. There are lockers full of garbage, then 1 item worth thousands. Example: Dave buys a locker that looks like 1 or two bedroom sets, then finds a jade statue. A farking jade statue! It just looked so completely out of place, I imagine the owner of the locker watching the show and thinking "Where the hell did that come from?"

These guys have been caught a few times renting out a few storage units then pretending to auction them off. Wouldn't surprise me if these "amazing finds' are actually on loan from Pawn Stars.

Citation, please?

My brother is a typical LA struggling actor, and one of his most recent gigs was being
cast in one of these storage locker auction shows.

It was about as real and unscripted as an episode of Monday Night RAW, so while I
can't corroborate these specific allegations, it is not at all out of the question.

ThisNameSux: Of all the fake reality shows on TV, Storage Wars is the fakiest.

Really the towing guys where the guy got lassoed and dragged was the jumping the shark for me

As a self storage manager who is performing an auction Monday, I'm getting a kick out these replies.


I would say one unit out of maybe one hundred that go up for auction has stuff in worth more then a grand or two.

Most of the regulars who come and buy units own resell shops and make their money paying $400 bucks for someones stored apartment and selling it at their shop, making $600 profit.

The units that go up for auction are units people store their stuff in after losing their apartment or house and then falling behind on the storage payments. If someone has items in there worth thousands of dollars, they can generally get enough money to pay off the bill before auction and move the stuff out before losing it.

The only time it doesn't happen is when you can tell it was an elderly person who stored their home in it after moving into a nursing home or something and then passed away.

...and then Chumlee will put all the coins into a soda machine.