Storage units are a picker’s paradise.
Potential buyers gather around the metal sliding door like kids around the tree on Christmas morning. Within seconds, the padlock is undone and the door whipped open. Buyers step forward to peer into the abyss. Sometimes mountains of boxes and furniture greet them at the edge. Others, there are just a few items inside and buyers get a clear picture of what they are bargaining for.
“Usually the units are stacked clear to the front and all you can see is the very front of it and it is maybe 15-, 20-foot deep,” said Ivan Burke. “So you have to make a decision on how much you want to pay for that unit by looking just at what the people have in the front of it.”
Burke and his wife, Wendy, won the bid on their first storage unit Monday at Kovac’s Mini Storage on King Hill Avenue.
At any given day of the month, storage facilities all over St. Joseph offer up the contents of abandoned or unpaid units to the highest bidder. The event plays out like the reality show “Storage Wars” on A&E, without the fighting.
While the value of each unit could be thousands, the unfortunate circumstance for buyers is that you never know what you’re going to get.
“It’s kind of like going to Vegas,” Ivan Burke said. “You put your money in the slot machine and pull the handle.”
In a matter of seconds, potential buyers have to start rationalizing what kind of person would own the unit based on what items are in view, especially if it’s a full unit. Burke said that’s when most people determine whether or not to bid.
The Burkes have been going to farm auctions for quite a while but wanted to see what a storage auction was like. They may be hooked.
“The suspense,” Wendy Burke said. “I see the potential. I see treasures in the making. And it’s fun to be able to take something that looks kind of yuck and turn it into something cool.”
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