Semi-OT: Went to an auction

[HeyBub]

The company auctioning home furnishing and the like has an interesting business model:

When someone doesn't pay their rent or mortgage, a court order is issued evicting them. Officers of the court show up with some really big guys from this storage company. The storage company guys box up all the small stuff and haul the contents of the dwelling off to the storage company.

After 45 days, they sell the stuff to recoup their storage fees.

Let your imagination run amok at the items in this 55,000 sq ft warehouse. Some of the more interesting items:

• A 1979 Corvette, with 21,000 miles, that was the pace car for the 1979 Indy 500 (priced at ,000)

• Rolling tool boxes full of crappy tools (one drawer had, maybe, 150 loose sockets)

• Over 2,000 CDs and DVDs.

• A 3x3x3' box chock-a-block full of costume jewelry (sold for )

• A half-dozen (seemingly) new computers sold for

• Ordinary sofas whose top bid was -.

• A 2' tall plaster bust of Chester A. Arthur with curly hair. Or maybe a Greek god. Thirty bucks.

• At least fifty 2x2x2' boxes full of toys - stuffed animals, legos, etc. The whole collection went for .

I could go on, but there were several interesting observations:

• There were only about 20 people at the auction.

• The company had a cat roaming the warehouse, about two months old. The cat was found as a wee kitten inside of a confiscated sofa! Whether it grows up to be a good mouser only time will tell.

• Most interesting to me was their business model. Their only variable expense was three guys and a truck.

Aside: The owner told me that during their first month of business, he came across a good-looking watch that didn't work. He threw it in a drawer and forgot about it. Some months later he had occasion to go to a jeweler and took the watch.

"Put a new battery in this, please," he requested of the jeweler.

The jeweler looked at him as if he had eaten a bug. "This watch doesn't HAVE a battery. It's a Patek Phillipe. You have your manservant or batsman wind it once a week."

He now wears a $17,000 watch.

I don't know who winds it.

[bob haller]

auction hunters tv show covers this..........

a local friend who works at a large storage facility reports little of value is normally found. people remove the good stuff before the bins are auctioned off.

he believes most discoveries are planted as part of the show.....

[Norminn]

I furnished my first home on auction purchases. Country auctions were good entertainment for the kids in the early days; they ran around and played, got some good sloppy-joes for lunch, and I shopped til I dropped. That was after round oak tables went out of style and before Avon bottles became antiques.

I scrounged through all the boxes of "stuff" to find goodies...spotted a tiny wood-block printed Bible in a box once, but it was gone when the box was sold. Have an 1812 "History of the United States" around somewhere...

[Percival P. Cassidy]

I can't imagine that a person being evicted wouldn't take with him a Patek Philippe watch, if he knew what it was -- or even if he didn't.

Perce

[hrhofmann]

Great story, even if it isn't true

[George]

I was thinking the same thing. Sounds like heybub found a really bad but cheap to make TV show and made it into one of his trademark bizarre stories.

I believe the other similar really bad show is called "storage wars" I actually managed to watch about 3 minutes of an episode.

[RicodJour]

Won't argue on the Corvette, but you're off the mark on some of the others by a large bit. Did you know that the IRS has a standardized deduction for a stuffed toy when you donate it? It's something like three or four bucks. So for the deductions alone, you'd come out way ahead on that particular lot.

R

[HeyBub]

The guy who bought the 50 boxes of toys has a booth at a giant flea market. If he sold each of the stuffed animals at a buck each, he would quadruple his money easily.

As for the Corvette, your estimation of the price being $200,000 too low is off by about $200,000. There are some listed on Ebay (1979 models)

• Current bid, ,000

• Current bid, ,999

• Current bid, ,990

• Current bid, ,600 And three more, down to ,000.

[RicodJour]

I was at my storage place about four or five months ago, and there was a semi backed into the bay with the doors open, a _lot_ of wardrobe boxes sitting along side, and the guys had strung some line along the side of the 40' trailer and there was a ton (maybe literally!) of women's clothing hanging from the lines.

I asked one guy what was up and whether he was having a garage sale or something. He said he had bought some previously-rich woman's storage units at auction for $5,000. Most of the clothing still had the tags, never worn and all of it was designer stuff. Handbags, belts, shoes, yada, yada. The woman had three large, combined units that totaled ~1500 SF full of clothing.

On the side of the truck alone, there was at least two or three grand in leather pants. The wardrobe boxes cost over a grand, and that with a volume discount. The guy bought a high end designer store full of clothing and accessories for five grand.

R

[N8N]

Only if it was the real pace car. There were plenty of replicas sold (every mfgr. that paces the 500 does this, and has for decades.) Only the VIN can tell you for sure. Otherwise it's just a '79 Vette with some ugly decals.

nate

[Malcom "Mal" Reynolds]

Storage wars makes it clear that you can't directly purchase a vehicle at these auctions

[RicodJour]

Are _supposed_ to be reported. It's not like 'they' would know, or like all people always do what they're supposed to do.

R

[RicodJour]

I don't know that what HeyRube was talking about is the same as a storage auction. He was talking about a court ordered eviction. Maybe the rules are the same, and maybe they're not, but I think we can all agree that most of the time nobody knows what the hell HeyRube is talking about. ;)

R

[HeyBub]

I asked about firearms. The owner said they occasionally found long guns; seldom pistols.

[HeyBub]

I recommend you tone it down a notch. I don't think you'll find it rewarding to get into a verbal war with me.

[RicodJour]

I refuse to enter into a battle of wits with an armless man. :)~

Lighten up, this is Usenet - nobody takes it seriously. Ask your ISP.

R

[krw]

But that "storage" is the second drawer in the nightstand. ;-)

[Harry K]

And I'll bet all of lthem are high mileage, non-historic vehicles.

Harry K

[HeyBub]

Oh, I don't mind what others think of me. I'm immune. I do, however, take a dim view of being insulted, held up to ridicule, called a liar or fabricator.

A couple of times now you've claimed my stories are incredible. Let me tell you another one.

In the summer of A.D. 66, Emperor Nero was enjoying a season of games in Greece when the news of the Jewish uprising reached him. He appointed the only general in attendance with the task of suppressing this revolt. The general, Flavius Vespasian, had earlier successfully invaded the Isle of Wight (his only real military accomplishment).

Vespasian set about his task with a vengence. He marched to Judea with a large army, gathering more as he went. He reached the Galilee in early spring of A.D. 67. His first objective was a small town of Jatapa. He first surrounded the town. Then he built giant siege engines.

The leader of the Jews in the northern Galilee was a young man named Joseph ben Matthias. Ben Matthias lost the first battle against the Romans and he and about forty followers took refuge in a nearby cave. The Romans insisted that ben Matthias and his followers surrender, but ben Matthias convinced his men to commit suicide by drawing lots. As luck would have it, ben Matthias himself drew the last lot and promptly surrendered.

Vespasian took a liking to the young man and had ben Matthias accompany him on his campaign of defeating the rebels in Jerusalem.

By this time, Nero had committed suicide, the empire was in a turmoil (the "The Year of the Four Emperors"). In digust of the upheaval, the Army appointed Vespasian as the successor to Nero. Vespasian returned to Rome, leaving his son, Titus, to tidy up the rebellion in Judea.

Eventually Titus returned to Rome with a Triumph - and he took the young ben Matthias with him. In fact, Vespasian adopted ben Matthias as his son.

For his part, ben Matthias took Vespasian's family name of Flavius and Romanized his own name of Joseph.

As Flavius Josephus, he began writing the history of his interesting life.

Now I don't claim to have had as interesting life as Josephus, but I have had some adventures and a talent, so I've been told, of that of an amateur wordsmith. If you don't like my stories, then go read the one's you do like.

[George]

Even if it is just someone reporting their totally honest on target observations?