1639 replies to this topic

[loudfan]

When we saw the ad for this new A&E program, Mr. loudfan couldn't believe it was actually a show, but I think it sounds kind of interesting. Of course, I'm a "Hoarders" fan, so I suspect some of the storage units will contain nothing but cardboard boxes filled with rat poop and musty-smelling piles of clothes.

A&E® PREMIERES NEW ORIGINAL REAL-LIFE SERIES "STORAGE WARS"
FROM THE PRODUCERS OF "ICE ROAD TRUCKERS," 12-EPISODE HALF-HOUR SERIES FOLLOWS TEAMS OF BIDDERS LOOKING TO SCORE BIG IN THE HIGH-STAKES WORLD OF STORAGE AUCTIONS

NEW YORK, NY, NOVEMBER 8, 2010 - A&E presents the new original real-life series "Storage Wars," which follows four professional buyers and their teams as they scour repossessed storage units in search of hidden treasure. Part gamblers, part detectives, these auction pros have found everything from coffins to the world's most valuable comic book collection, paying as little as ten dollars for items valued in the millions. The 12-episode half-hour series premieres on A&E, Wednesday, December 1 at 10PM ET/PT.

Each episode of "Storage Wars" follows a group of bidders as they get a quick peek inside the units, aided only by the beam of a flashlight. They then must assess on the spot if the unit is worth a bid and how high they will actually go to grasp the gold. The high-stakes fun begins as we see if the resulting buy is full of mostly trash... or true treasure. Driven by Dan Dotson, one of the most successful and outrageous auctioneers in the country, the cast of buyers is as colorful and varied as the treasures they uncover.

It's "get rich or die buyin'" in season one of "Storage Wars" as our wily auction heroes try to outfox one another in the pursuit of storage treasure. Collector Barry Weiss finds everything from micro-cars to shrunken heads, proving you never know what's inside a storage unit. After buying a locker for $800, consignment mogul David Hester rakes in $40,000 profit for one day's work. "Storage addict" Darrell Sheets unearths a unit filled, literally, with gold and silver, while upstart Jarrod Schulz uses every trick in the book to keep his business afloat and his wife Brandi happy. It's a modern-day treasure hunt on the savage self-storage battleground.

[33Diva]

Isn't there another show like this? I'm sure I caught the end of one of them one night where the guys found an antique brass cash register in the unit, and all kinds of metal which is apparently valuable.

Edit: I'm thinking of Auction Wars on A&E.

Edited by 33Diva, Nov 30, 2010 @ 5:12 PM.

[OSM Mom]

Since I manage a storage facility, this show interests me. We do auctions differently here. The unit is opened, and the items are pulled out one by one..one box, or groups of furniture or whatever, and then are bid on. I've not heard of an auction where you bid on the contents of the unit as a whole.

[Auntie Diane]

I am ADDICTED to this show -- it's really well done and the buyers are such characters. (But not in a Bravo 'Housewives' way!) I look forward to their opening of the units as much as they do. I can only hope the buyers stay as 'natural' as they are now and don't get caught up in the reality TV curse ...

[monty9]

Borrowed from the lovely houseelf from the A&E Hoarders thread.

Self storage units-- the new addiction!

Want to hear a good one? I set up some contracts for a client who had just bought one of those places. She'd been in the business a while. She told me she felt guilty, like she was a crack dealer. She said people fill up a rented unit when they are moving into a new place and just couldn't "deal" with cleaning and discarding. So she rents them a unit and takes 3 months rent up front. The customer reliably pays the bills for the first 6 months, and then she has to send dunning letters. Then come promises to clear it out before the next bill comes due. Finally, like clockwork, right around the anniversary of the rental, the person either defaults or calls her up and tells her just to throw it all away, cause the customer just doesn't have time right now. My client goes in, pulls out a few useful things like snow tires or appliances, and pitches the rest. Basically she said people just can't think clearly; if they can't get it together to purge when they move, how can they think they'll just feel like doing it three months later?

About 10% of her customers have a need to store a houseful of stuff for a summer or something, and retrieve it as planned. The rest are just people like Arline who want to sit there and sort through everything as though the genies will appear and make space for it all

Has your experience been similar OSM Mom?

On topic! I have seen both this and the Spike TV storage show. I think this one much less of a set up than the Spike show but I really disliked the buyers generally. The 70's mob looking guy with the chains was ok but I would not want to have a beer with the remainder of them. What a bunch of obnoxious braggy pants. I would bet anything that they use the phrase "Work hard, play hard" on a regular basis.

[Auntie Diane]

What a bunch of obnoxious braggy pants.

That's what I love about them! They seem like good guys, though.

And really, you meet characters like these guys all the time at your local mechanics shop or on paint crews. I'd rather have these guys than those well-dressed pimp-husbands on Real Housewives of New Jersey.

[PoorKitty]

My sisters and I own a 300 unit storage complex and I can honestly tell you this show is 99% BS. Luckily, the laws in my state allow me to "buy" the defaulted units, because I would'n't allow that raggedy bunch of a**holes on my property. We sort through the stuff, throw away/give away/donate most of the contents. Whatever is of actually value and worth my time to sell--believe me, it's very little--goes into "yard" sales we have several times a year.

The only purchase shown that was anything close to accurate and representative of the crap that people abandon is the unit bought by the "young gun". Ugh, those nick names grate! He managed to scrape up a $50 profit on the junk, which is just about right.

What's really funny is that our father has owned pawn, bailbonding and storage businesses. Too bad he didn't employ any "little" people. He could have owned A&E.

[camom]

I watched about the first 15 minutes of this, then switched channels. I can't imagine I'll watch again. I didn't find the people that likable and was bored.

[OSM Mom]

Borrowed from the lovely houseelf from the A&E Hoarders thread.

Self storage units-- the new addiction!

Want to hear a good one? I set up some contracts for a client who had just bought one of those places. She'd been in the business a while. She told me she felt guilty, like she was a crack dealer. She said people fill up a rented unit when they are moving into a new place and just couldn't "deal" with cleaning and discarding. So she rents them a unit and takes 3 months rent up front. The customer reliably pays the bills for the first 6 months, and then she has to send dunning letters. Then come promises to clear it out before the next bill comes due. Finally, like clockwork, right around the anniversary of the rental, the person either defaults or calls her up and tells her just to throw it all away, cause the customer just doesn't have time right now. My client goes in, pulls out a few useful things like snow tires or appliances, and pitches the rest. Basically she said people just can't think clearly; if they can't get it together to purge when they move, how can they think they'll just feel like doing it three months later?

About 10% of her customers have a need to store a houseful of stuff for a summer or something, and retrieve it as planned. The rest are just people like Arline who want to sit there and sort through everything as though the genies will appear and make space for it all


Has your experience been similar OSM Mom?

Actually, most of the people we get are either moving, and the place they're moving to isn't ready yet, or they moved into an apt and didn't have room for all their furniture, so they store it. And Christmas decorations. This is a busy month with people coming and getting their decorations, and Jan when they come and put them back. Also, we have several people who have their parents furniture stored, because they don't have room for it in their house or apt, but don't want to get rid of it either. And lots of apts around here don't have adequate storage. If you have more than a box of stuff, you have no place to store anything. And since we have a military base here, we also have soldiers that are getting deployed and need a place to store their stuff while they're gone. I haven't really noticed any "churners", but I'm sure they do indeed exist.

[SparksFan59]

I knew a couple who would bid on storage units out here in California. They would get to peek inside the unit but not touch or open any boxes, then the bidding would begin. I suspect each state has different rules on how to go about dispensing of the contents.

Personally I think being able to see the stuff first would be much more productive, but apparently that varies from state to state.

I quite liked the 2 episodes I saw.

Edited by SparksFan59, Dec 3, 2010 @ 2:51 PM.

[TV Tom]

I had to constantly laugh at the valuing of the items. One guy quickly shuffles through some baseball cards and declares that its worth thousands.

Another thought that crossed my mind was why in the world would a storage unit owner auction off items that could be extremely valuable. Take the storage unit with the restaurant equipment. I agree that these items look expensive. Why wouldn't the storage unit owner sell that on their own? Besides the obvious that its a reality TV show, I could only imagine that 99% of the auctioned units are worthless, and a few have some value. That 1% fortune convinces others to bid high on the other worthless units.

Still I will check out another episode or two.

[am3net]

I thought the same thing about the resturant stuff but then I realized that the storage box could have been opened by the business. So it was probably the business that went under and the bank is unloading the storage.

[OSM Mom]

Another thought that crossed my mind was why in the world would a storage unit owner auction off items that could be extremely valuable.

Why wouldn't the storage unit owner sell that on their own?

When we have a renter who is late on their rent, which is 5 days past their due date in our case, we overlock their unit with one of our locks. They can't get into their unit until they pay and get current. So if they don't pay and get into lien status, and then we auction their unit, they haven't been able to get into their unit. And when the unit goes into lien status, the contents of the unit becomes the property of the storage facility owner to dispose of as they see fit. It's auctioned in the hope that the proceeds from the auction will pay what the renter owed. That's how we do it, anyhow. And an auction is easier and cheaper to do that putting ads in the paper to sell stuff.

Edited by OSM Mom, Dec 8, 2010 @ 11:23 AM.

[shriekingeel]

I like the buyers on this show much more than the annoying douches on Spike TV's Auction Hunters (the other storage auction show people are confusing this with).

[Crunchberry]

I like the buyers on this show much more than the annoying douches on Spike TV's Auction Hunters (the other storage auction show people are confusing this with).

I made a thread for that shit-heap show:
http://forums.televi...;#entry13466917
We won't ever watch it again...

Edited by Crunchberry, Dec 8, 2010 @ 12:41 PM.

[whatevez]

I'm so glad I found this thread. I randomly started watching this show at 3am when I couldn't sleep the other night and I was so confused about what the heck was going on.

I had to constantly laugh at the valuing of the items. One guy quickly shuffles through some baseball cards and declares that its worth thousands.

I agree with this completely. How the heck does he know what it's worth?

What's really funny is that our father has owned pawn, bailbonding and storage businesses. Too bad he didn't employ any "little" people. He could have owned A&E.

Seriously. You win the internets.

[angelmom1]

My son started watching this and the other one or two storage unit shows and I watched a few episodes. So these guys happen to have contacts in all areas of purchase (antique furniture, guns, cars, etc) who are immediately able to pay them hundreds of dollars for stuff they probably can't resell. Right. In reality if you bought most of this stuff from a storage unit you would be selling it on Ebay and not getting 1/3 of what these guys get. It also seems amusing how almost every unit has something valuable and rare in it. I would think the vast majority of these units hold Christmas stuff, old furniture and clothes and maybe books. On the episodes of these I watched (and it could be the other storage show, they all run together); they found very valuable antiques in almost every unit they purchased.

Edited by angelmom1, Dec 10, 2010 @ 11:08 AM.

[TV Tom]

Obviously the whole show is a setup. Most likely these auctions have some truth to them that happened at some point in the past. But if every storage unit had items worth anywhere from $1000-$15000, then the auctions will go much higher.

I find it amusing but do not believe that they're really buying these units.

[eliza422]

Well I think all they do is record a bunch of auctions and then only show the ones that are a boom (or a spectacular bust, I imagine)...I don't think there's much of an audience for watching storage lockers with normal people's stuff.

[sosweety1011]

I was listening to a Bay Area radio station this morning on my way to work, and they brought up this show, which prompted a call from a local who said her niece was Brandi (part of the husband/wife team). Apparently, the producers contacted them at some point about being on the show, they agreed, etc. She did say that they had recently visited the couple, and I guess went to their second hand store, and Brandi was telling them all about the show, how it was filmed, etc. It sounded like she might have pointed out the car that was one of her husband's storage locker purchases. If so, that would indicate it still hasn't sold and therefore hasn't turned a profit for them. It was a brief call, no real inside info.

[whee whee piggy]

I'm too lazy to find this show's regular time and set the DVR--and I do find all the people repulsive, so I can't imagine wanting to watch this show regularly, other than I love looking at other people's junk.

The one douche with the raccoon eyes from his sunglasses, when he took us to his house and it was one step away from a hoarders, I had to laugh. And I particularly enjoyed how he had those Picasso etchings stacked in a corner. So valuable, I can't bother to store them properly!

I did know this was how they cleared storage units in CA. There's just so many of these units, I can't see the owners getting in the business of selling the crap. And it being Southern CA, I can imagine there is valuable stuff. Like Sug Knight's red suit. *rolling eyes*

Really, who is the collector for that?

[MrsSea]

as someone who went through a stretch of unemployment and was afraid I couldn't keep up the paymetn on my storage unit, I may try to catch one ep to see who would have owned my stuff, yet probably appreciated it less

[MrCBM]

My ex-wife's uncle owned a second-hand shop, and I attended a few of these auctions with him in the Baltimore-DC area. What I remember the most is 1) there was always more junk than anything. It was almost impossible to determine whether we made a good choice because after going to the auction, loading all that junk on a van or rented truck, bringing it back, sorting it, getting rid of the junk, and then waiting for it to get sold, were talking weeks to months. We were never able to keep track of what came from where, so it just isn't as easy as they make it seem. 2) there was always some guy who had the inside scoop on what was in the units. There was no doubt, so he would bid up some units, and others that looked the same he would leave alone.

Needless to say, that business no longer exists.

[Aunt Nette]

MrsSea, I can't watch this without worrying that one of the unit owners (now living in a ratty apartment next the freeway after his home was foreclosed on after he went bankrupt after paying for brain cancer surgery) is watching. "My dead brother's baseball cards! My mother's birth certificate! Aaaaggh!"

Now THAT would be an interesting show.

[MrsSea]

MrsSea, I can't watch this without worrying that one of the unit owners (now living in a ratty apartment next the freeway after his home was foreclosed on after he went bankrupt after paying for brain cancer surgery) is watching. "My dead brother's baseball cards! My mother's birth certificate! Aaaaggh!"

Now THAT would be an interesting show.

yeah! I got laid off from a job I was at for 6 years back in 2007, at least with me, I don't have a family, and I was going to be going through another career change (having just finished Real Estate classes a few months before). So my plan wound up on a different path, and it was hard to find work to hold me over and alot of the money I saved for my career change wound up having to go toward the "needs". After holding on to my own apartment for two years, I had to look into getting roomates and putting alot of stuff in storage. Some months were scary and it was a task on a couple of ocassions paying my storage fee late and JUST making their deadline so that the locks wouldn't be cut and my things sold. When other things are taken care of and that one thing is left to do, it's hard!

[ceekay67]

My question for this show is why do the buyers/bidders take only a quick look at a couple things in the unit and then say they'll have their crew come and clean it all out and bring it to the store (or whereever)? I'm typically a trusting person, but if I spent money on a storage unit hoping for a "treasure", I sure as heck wouldn't let anyone else go through it when I wasn't there. Wanna' bet some items end up not coming off the truck or is pocketed? Heck, the buyer/bidder doesn't know what's all in there and wouldn't know if something is missing. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks like that!

[Nena]

My question for this show is why do the buyers/bidders take only a quick look at a couple things in the unit and then say they'll have their crew come and clean it all out and bring it to the store (or whereever)? I'm typically a trusting person, but if I spent money on a storage unit hoping for a "treasure", I sure as heck wouldn't let anyone else go through it when I wasn't there. Wanna' bet some items end up not coming off the truck or is pocketed? Heck, the buyer/bidder doesn't know what's all in there and wouldn't know if something is missing. Maybe I'm the only one who thinks like that!

It would be a gamble. Even if what we see is accurate and they don't have an itemized list of what they're picking up, they really can't be sure what the owner has seen or not seen unless it's buried in a sealed box. From the looks of it, sealed boxes were opened at their shop/clearinghouse. Something as simple as taking a few shots with a cameraphone before they leave would be enough to have a feel for if anything is missing.

[Murrain2]

Barry Weiss reminds me so much of Bricktop that I keep expecting him to feed someone to pigs.

[mccurdy]

Jarrod's wife is a bitch.

[walnutqueen]

Jarrod's wife is a bitch.

And Jarrod is a pussy-whipped pussy.

Riddle me this: why don't I see the duo from Auction Hunters on Storage Wars, or vice versa? They all attend storage auctions in the L.A./SoCal area, so you'd think there'd be a huge overlap. It would seem to create a logistical filming nightmare - unless it's totally scripted and heavily edited - oh, wait, it IS!

Also, I'd like to see what's-his-face get $9K, much less the $90K "valuation" for those yellowed Elvis newspapers ... (unless he only sells a few a year, the price deceases with volume).