Five Items You Should Bring To A Storage Auction

Five Items You Should Bring To A Storage Auction

1. Cash

I suppose cash is an obvious one. You’re going to need cash to buy the units. For a while it seemed as if many auctioneers/storage facilities were allowing people to pay with credit cards, however that seems to have died down.

I imagine the facilities weren’t wanting to get hit with additional merchant fees as they are already trying to recover money they are out. It’s rare to find a facility that takes credit cards so be sure to bring cash.

2. Locks

You should bring at least one lock to storage auctions however if your planning on being serious about auctions you should have a number of locks. What happens if you pick up multiple units?

Sure you can buy locks at the facility but they will charge you $17 for a lock you could have picked up at the hardware store for just a few bucks.

3. Gloves

You should definitely bring gloves to storage auctions. If you buy a unit they will definitely come in handy. Not only are things often dusty and dirty but you will come across broken glass, dirt, dust, year old food in Tupperware and other sharp and gross things.

Gloves make the cleaning out the unit experience a much more pleasant one. Don’t buy expensive gloves, you may get nasty stuff on them so it’s nice to have a cheap throw away pair of gardening gloves or something similar.

4. Flashlight

A flashlight is a helpful tool to have. Sure some units are packed to the door, blocked with a mattress, etc. However every edge you can get over the others bidding on a unit is helpful and sometimes a high powered flashlight will allow you to see into a corner or crevice in the unit that others can’t see.

I suppose any flashlight is better than nothing but try to get a powerful high lumen flashlight that can actually light up the back of a unit.

5. Smart Phone

Is a smart phone absolutely necessary? No it isn’t but can it be helpful? Absolutely.

Some people will argue that you just don’t have enough time to be doing price research between looking at a unit and when the bidding starts. This is true in a sense. Your not going to be able to do in depth research but at least having a ballpark idea of what an item is selling for on eBay or Craig List can make or break your purchase.

There’s many items that we may think will bring high dollars but really aren’t that valuable or maybe there isn’t much of a market for it so even if it is a high dollar item you may have trouble selling it.

With crowds at auctions being what they are these days generally if your one of the first people to view a unit you have more than enough time to do some preliminary research on an item you saw
Wrapping Up

Well to wrap up those five items are things that may be helpful to have at a storage auction. Though a smart phone is not a must have you should at the very least bring cash, a lock, and a pair of gloves if you plan on buying a unit.

Though it didn’t make the list a personal favorite of mine is the UTG Messenger Bag by Leapers. You can find a full review here.

At auctions your often times bringing a lot of stuff, locks, flashlights, cash, gloves, maybe an mp3 player because there’s so much waiting around between auctions. You may have your auction list printed out with the schedule, locations, and times for the day. It’s a lot of stuff to keep track of and also to haul around.

The UTG Messenger bag makes it super easy to carry all your items. Your cash is secure in there. There’s plenty of molley clips on the outside of the bag to hang locks from. The water bottle holder though meant for a water bottle is also a perfect place to keep an easily accessible flashlight.

Good luck at the auctions and leave a comment if you have any questions or comments. Also, as always leave a comment as well to request more auctions be posted in your city or state.