DEVIN GOLDEN
Who knows what strange treasures lurk inside a storage unit?
Storage-auction bidder Mark Binkley of Starkville knows all too well.
In some, bidders may find a makeshift home.
“It’s a cheap place to stay,” Binkley said. “It’s a $50-a-month hotel room. It’s illegal, but it’s a cheap place to stay.”
Binkley has participated in storage auctions for about three years.
Ken, who lives in Monroe County and declined to give his last name, has been participating in storage auctions for more than 30 years.
His first was in 1977 in Nashville, Tenn. He remembers it well: When the door was lifted, there was a mattress, a small TV and a pot of fresh, hot coffee.
“So they were living in there,” he said. “It’s not unheard of for people to do this.”
“One time they raised the door and there was only one item in there, and it was a hot tub,” Binkley said. “Of course, everybody was trying to be contortionists, trying to lay on the ground or jump in the air to see if there were any cracks or holes in it.”
People stash cars, motorcycles, trucks — anything someone can fit inside.
“I bought a ’74 Charger out of one a few years ago. Mint condition. Big hot rod,” Ken said. “Maybe once or twice a year you see something like that. I bought a unit last Christmas that had five bars of silver in it. But the real money to be made is in common, household bedroom items. A bedroom set you get for $100, you can sell for $200 or $250. That’s where the real money is.”
On TV, the “cream of the crop” is featured, Ken said, but there are several people who make their living off the small purchases.
“It’s sort of feast or famine,” Binkley said.
Ken has bought units for as low as $1 and as high as $2,000.
“Right now I’m waiting on two buildings to come up for auction. One is full of Civil War relics, and the other one has a 1965 Mustang in it that only has 15,000 miles on it,” he said.
The units, usually 10 feet tall and 8 feet wide, are filled with all sorts of stuff. Most of it is useless, but there are hidden diamonds in the rough.
Read complete article at the Starkville Dispatch.
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