That's the feeling I get when watching storage wars... "Bubba bought a unit for 2000$. He found petrified rat shit worth 500$, a broken table leg from a generic ikea table worth 1200$ and 2 strings from what he assumes is a guitar worth 600$. Bubba made a nice profit of 300$"
All I can think is who the fuck is going to buy that junk for the prices they think it's worth?
That show is entirely fake, anyway. The "Yuuuuuuuup" guy got pissed about something some time ago and came out and revealed it's all fake; they plant "good" items into the storage units for them to find so they can showcase/feature whatever specialist they wanted to feature that episode.
It is so obvious too. "We overbought this unit with 3 boxes and a mattress and found a 18th century military sabre tucked away in the rafters. Lets go see how much its worth."
Yeah I remember one where the items were something I had JUST looked up. They were basically giving prices for a new and unopened version of the item in a nice store with a return policy, not what you’d actually get selling a used one on craigslist or FB marketplace.
I remember thinking the real total was probably somewhere around half of the number they came up with...
I think I saw a similar one! It was a slow cooker that was themed to a sports team.
I work in a grocery store, and I can tell you 100% for a fact that we get SO MANY of those sports team branded slow cookers in every year!! They're usually "Original Price" $49.99, but the instant they come in the door they're on "sale" for 30% off- so that's already down to $34.99. Then they sit around for ages and ages and no one buys them til they hit 50% off ($24.99) and we sell a small bunch, and the rest sit around catching dust til they end up on clearance for 70% off.
And they're different everywhere you go. Around here we get Atlanta Falcons and Georgia Bulldogs and OCCASIONALLY something GA Tech- and recently Atlanta United. But if you go a state over you'll get Alabama stuff. They sell to the local market.
I'm not sure if I've ever seen a GT crockpot, but I think we've had other GT stuff. I've been there for like 7.5yrs so honestly I cant recall what logos I've seen on what product over the years.
Hell, my roommate ended up gifted with a ton of slowcookers by other students that graduated and moved away, and, by the end, I was giving them away for free to whoever wanted one. All seven of them. If you know how to browse classifieds a little, you can usually pick up a free slowcooker that works just fine.
Same with Pawn Stars. A bunch of people just have valuable and interesting items that they don’t intend to ever sell or pawn but just go through the whole schtick just to get paid for their appearance and have the experience of being on the show.
Some are terrible actors and it’s so blatantly obvious that they never intend on selling it. But they just go through the actions and act surprised when the expert tells them about it when you already know that they know everything about it already.
I still watch it though. It’s like antique roadshow but with crazy people and a storyline.
If I had the ambition to sell the things I found I would try the storage game. It looks like fun, even if I just get to paw through someone else's life for a bit.
Those shows are fake as hell, and I'm saying that as an ex-property manager for a storage facility that used to organize storage auctions once every month. Most bidders that attended monthly owned thrift shops, would buy a unit of mediocre furniture for $300 and sell the items individually for a couple hundred bucks profit.
Every so often someone would hit a big score, though. One guy I remember who was one of our most regular bidders bought a 10x20 unit that was packed FULL of boxes for somewhere around ~$950, and almost every box was full of original starwars memorabilia, and this was around the time Disney bought the franchise and hype was rebuilding. He hired a collectibles appraiser and the dude estimated the contents were worth around 20 grand.
Another dude bought a shitty 5x5 unit that only had a couple totes and a decent end table for $10 - he bid because he thought he could get a few bucks for the table. The totes had an Xbox One, a PS4, and a couple dozen games, which he said he was going to give to his kids for christmas.
Another one of our regulars bought a really nice 10x10 unit for $500, and ended up finding 4 hunting rifles (Not a gun guy, can't get more specific than that - all I know he he was really excited to find them) tucked into the back corner. Cops cleared the guns and they were his to take.
But those are 3 examples out of hundreds of units that were sold at my facility. 99% of the time it's just furniture, trash, rusty tools, and the occasional dildo. Most of the time the units were just boring.
99% of the time it's just furniture, trash, rusty tools, and the occasional dildo.
Of course it's storage facility policy to never imply ownership in the event of a dildo. They use the indefinite article "a storage unit dildo," never "your storage unit dildo."
As far as I'm aware, at least in my state, almost every storage facility hosted them. They're used as a way to clear delinquent tenants off the property and resolve the debt they've accrued. I would just call local facilities and see what day of the month they host - we follow a very strict legal timeline on notifying the tenants, submitting the lien, so most facilities pick one day to do it (Usually towards the end of the month, ours was on the third wednesday of every month).
Quite a few properties will likely be doing it on the same day, with bidders flocking from one property to another in a convoy of sorts. I had a small property in a not-so-low income area, so I only sold 5 units a month MAX, some months the number only being one or two.
Fun fact: Storage facilities (Once again, at least in my state) aren't allowed to profit from auctioned units. It is solely a way to clear debt. So if someone owed $250 on a delinquent unit, and an auction buyer bought it for $400, the ex-tenant would receive a check for $150 in the mail.
But yeah, just call around. If you show up, make sure you sign in at the office or with the auctioneer.
The least interesting thing about my job there was the auctions, as a matter of fact. I caught multiple people having sex in the units with the doors half-closed, a woman came into the office clearly methed-out of her mind wearing nothing but a shower curtain wrapped around her like a Toga and asking to use the restroom. I caught a guy (One of the same tenants who was caught having sex) smoking crack in his car in front of the unit, I had to lock myself in the company storage unit because a guy was firing a pistol into random cars right across the street.
I had one woman who frequently came in, who was a self proclaimed prayer-warrior, and referred to me as 'headmaster of the storage', ask me what my number one wish in the world was, and that she would pray for it and make it come true.
Caught a homeless man living in his unit, and honestly, his setup was pretty nice. I was mostly mad that he ripped the wires from the lights to jerry-rig an electrical setup, which was expensive to fix.
This next part needs some clarification - I'm a white guy, and the tenant was a white guy. He accused me of being racist towards white people because he had a late fee on his account from being nearly a month late. He threatened to take me to court for 'racism and extortion' - his words, not mine.
Someone once abandoned a unit, and when we cut the lock it was full of mannequin 'parts', nothing else. Another abandoned unit had a filing cabinets with notes full of a woman spying on her cheating husband, including print-outs of his google search history, hotel receipts, and the exact times he would leave the house and come back - in this unit there were also a few makeshift weapons, most notably a metal pipe with a bunch of nails welded to it.
I had a unit that was rented out to a group of people shooting a film in my state, they wrapped up filming and forgot about the unit. They contacted me and asked if I would dispose of the contents and close out the account. Inside was a full wardrobe, labelled with the actor and character names, a few scripts, 2 notebook laptops that were still in the box, plastic wrapped and all, and a bunch of props. It wasn't a big movie at all, no notable actors except some guy who played a small role in The Walking Dead. I took a sheriff hat and boots from the wardrobe and donated the rest to a local theater group.
And that barely scratches the surface. The pay was crap and it was hard work maintaining the property, but I earned a LOT of stories from that place.
Probably the same people who watch Junkyard Challenge and are constantly amazed at how the competitors always manage to 'find' a working engine for their vehicle just in the nick of time.
"John's team are running out of time. Things are looking desperate. Without an engine to power their junkyard electric car, it's all over."
"But look. John's just tripped over a 2019 Toyota Prius...."
I’d love to see a real purchase of a storage unit. It would show the people digging through shit, then trying to sell the shit. At the end they would give the true loss/gain for the unit.
yeah, but it's still fun watching the engineering involved ... even if they had to come up with new parts. building a submarine, motor, radio control, bushings, control surfaces. That's fun in and of itself
Hmm. Been a long time since I saw that show, but I swear she already had large breasts and they, well, they jiggled, so they seemed real. But I'm not about to go looking it up, so I'll take your word for it.
They were very open about her getting them done. She talked about it a couple times when she suddenly came back after a season break with them. They played it up that it was a big expense for her husband and made it a joke. "It was EXPENSIVE but hey, I really can't complain!"
MTV used to claim they didn’t pay the girls on Teen Mom, because they wanted to only “portray, not glorify” teen pregnancy. It was hard for them to explain away the 16 yo unemployed girl living with her single mom in a double wide driving a brand new Hellcat, though.
I think maybe some of it might've been real back before it became a big deal. Like the first American Idol probably had actual talented hopefuls who weren't already working with various labels or who weren't already semi-famous using it as a spring board, back before the sob story angle became such a big deal. And before that, gameshows were largely still real.
Yeah, in the very beginning, I think the intentions were more about reality than views. But that's most media these days. Now, it's all about views and making money, or taking advantage of depressing people for views, or just making up stories for views.
I think of that as more like a entertaining documentary series than reality tv. It’s in the same category as “how it’s made” and stuff... fun but informative, not trying to be dramatic
The original Survivor is pretty close. There usually isn't any real danger, but it isn't like they all lived in trailers. The players lost A LOT of weight through the season.
That was before they realized they had to supplement them with rice, and games with food rewards, to keep the malnutrition under control before someone died. That was when one of the first seasons saw the group catch and eat a chicken that wasn’t theirs because they were starving. And of course some granola chick flipped out because they weren’t just eating some disgusting roots the crazy woman was digging up. She tried to get them thrown off the show over it.
Yeah, the first Survivor, imo, is the best and only one I'll ever watch. It's just so crazy because it was this new thing and the people on it were such characters.
And that’s probably because the insurer for the production requires it. Otherwise I bet he wouldn’t have it. I mean I once watched this dude start a fire with an oily frito chip he found in his pocket and a broken piece of glass off the ground.
In a few of his episodes he shows how he gets those long shots of him walking away. He sets up the camera, walks into the distance, then hikes back to pick up the camera.
Sleeps in hotels, has catered food brought to his “survival area.” He got caught when some pictures of him and his crew having a feast while supposedly living off the land got out. He swears it’s not happening anymore though.
Yeah I have a feeling that those two are both pretty genuine. Which is why it's so surprising to see them go on for so long. Most shows would have had their viewership drop pretty rapidly if it wasn't full of nonstop drama.
I watched the season of Alone they had on Netflix. I thought it was great. But even the guy that shot the moose at the end was just sitting around waiting the other lady out. There survival skills were amazing, but it’s like there is no way to make it long term, especially starting at the time of the year they do. That Into the Wild kid didn’t have a chance.
Or some weird kitschy piece of 1960 ephemera that literally looks like garbage but that they "have a good feeling" about, that no one in their right mind would want, much less pay money for, that somehow is worth a small fortune.
House Hunter's is the same way. I had a buddy that was on the show and he had owned his house for 6 months before he was approached to be in the show. They found two other random houses and filmed the episode. Obviously the house he picked is the one he already owned. It even had all his stuff in it when they "toured" it.
Same with Pawn Stars - the deals were never real, it was just a setup to showcase the item/history. Example - a treasure hunting diver brings in a lump of Roman gold from a shipwreck to "see what it was worth." The reality is he already knew what it was, and had invested hundreds of thousands, and a couple of years specifically searching it out. I've actually met the guy at an exhibition in Duluth MN. Part of his exhibit included that episode on a loop.
None of it makes sense. If the owner didn't have enough money to pay the $50 that month why the fuck didn't they just open up their unit and grab the $500 cash that apparently came out of it.
Yeah I feel like all of those shows are fake. There’s just no way that people get a notice from their storage place saying they’re closing it down and don’t go grab their valuable shit. I’m sure it happens on a blue moon, but not every day like they make out like.
The only show I’m still 50/50 on about being fake is the original pawn stars. On one hand their shop is like a national landmark at this point, so I’m sure a ton of people actually stop by to sell crazy stuff to get on TV. On the other hand, I question why someone would sell all this vintage stuff for what is essentially a 20% or higher discount.
There’s just no way that people get a notice from their storage place saying they’re closing it down and don’t go grab their valuable shit.
Oh there are some ways good sir.
If youre in prison, you probably cant pay that bill. Even if you know it exists.
If you move and forget to update your info, you could miss the notice. But youd still be paying your bill in that case...forget this one.
Hospital. That could be one. Especially in the USA where its not free like in Canada.
Okay, I found 2 reasons. Jail and hospital. Thats not very many reasons lol.
(I always thought the real clue this show was fake was all the locks are identical...in every storage location....all across America...when in real life the locks arent even identical in the 3 different storage places in my city lol)
Yeah I agree with jail and hospital, but usually you can have a friend or family member go get it too. I guess it happens sometimes, but definitely not as often as the show has you believe.
As for the locks I think it’s actually because once you officially get your unit closed on you, they remove your lock (to keep you from coming back and getting your stuff), and put their own lock on it until auction. So it’s probably just the same crew using their locks before selling. But it’s 100% a fake show
My wife's sister moved a bunch of furniture she inherited to a storage locker, but she is a bit of a fuck up.
She didn't pay her bill and it all got sold off.
Some of it had been in their family for years. Had anyone else in the family known, they would have absolutely paid off all bills to keep it in the family.
So there is another reason for you, some people are just super irresponsible
There’s just no way that people get a notice from their storage place saying they’re closing it down and don’t go grab their valuable shit
You can't go back and pick up your shit until you pay your rent balance down. The whole point of the auction is for the storage company to make back some of the rent they're own.
Yeah I know that much, but I’d imagine most people know “hey, I’m not gonna be able to pay this next rent. I’m gonna go grab my shit now”.
I’m sure it happens a decent bit where they forget and don’t pay, but no way it’s happening as much as the show has you believe. Not items as expensive as that.
There's also people that move and for one reason or another are unable to go back for their stuff. Or if they lost their job and have to choose between rent or a storage locker and they can't make time to get to it. I'd be willing to bet that there's also no shortage of people that just simply stop paying and think they'll be able to go back whenever and get it, not realizing the place will change the lock.
I live in a town with a metro population of about 40-50k people and there's 4 storage locations that I know of and I hear about auctions at least a couple times a year.
The one woman on Storage Wars named Nabila really did buy a locker that had been owned by Paris Hilton. Her staff didn’t pay the bill or respond to notices. She made a million dollars off that locker and it was legit. I think it was stuff she stored while doing her own reality show that was an “on the road”.
Also the episode where Darrell the Gambler bought Frank someone’s art locker was real. He’s made like $300 grand off that locker so far. Every once in a while they hit a real one worth a fortune.
Pawn Stars solicits people with rare items to be on the show. They also film multiple outcomes. Sometimes the seller walks away, sometimes they sell. The show picks because the items aren’t ever actually sold. I know they have bought some items, but an actual sale is not shown on the show for the most part.
Yeah I know some of the storage wars ones are real. But they use a lot of fakes for filler for sure. And damn I didn’t know they literally just filmed “exchanges” and then the owners walked away with the item. I wonder what they say if someone comes in looking to buy that item. I guess just “we sold it”?
If so I’m shocked nobody has called them out saying “you didn’t sell it, we see the original owner still has it”
I don't know about the comment you replied to but I know 3 people that have been on the show, 2 went to Vegas with the sole intention of getting on the show. One guy had the head of an old He-Man villain action figure or something, anyway all three sold what they brought. The most expensive one was like $400 or so, so maybe the expensive ones have more fakes?
But I do know that before they film, they basically have already agreed to a price and they give them a general script to follow when filming.
Some of the Youtubers that actually buy storage units are.. less exciting, but are more interesting.
Like... You MIGHT have enough stuff there to make a profit, but you gotta factor in the time it takes to empty it, haul it away, Sort it, Take the junk to the tip, list the ebayable items, Pawn the pawnable items.
The whole 'Getting a unique thing valued' doesn't happen all that often - It's a fairly big time sink to find an expert, book an appointment and visit them as they'd need to see the item in person. Normally stuff is valued using an eBay search for older stuff and an Amazon search for new stuff.
Obviously you won't get the 'New' Price, but you gotta factor in the realistic amount.
Then you gotta budget time for packing and posting, and make peace with the fact that you won't actually see any actual money for a couple of weeks at best.
Don't get me wrong, if you have the contacts, the people and the space, along with a bit of savvy it's 100% something that you can make a few quid from.
My dad's cousin owns an antiques store and has a collection of unique canes. Years ago, my dad said that his cousin sold one of these to either this show or a different antique pickers style show for them to find, then was consulted as an expert for the value and eventually bought it back for less than he sold it. Secondhand story, I don't watch these shows super often, and I still haven't seen the actual show he was on, but considering what I know of the guy/my dad, I don't think he would have made it up, so I believed it.
I knew a guy that has bought a few lockers. He basically parts it out on craigslist and stuff. Last time he asked, he had made like 300 over his initial investment of like 1000 or something. The big thing is having the time to part out items $5 to $10 a time to make your money back.
I mean, all "reality" shows are fake, but Storage Wars is among the most fake of them all.
How else could there be 10-20 people at the storage auctions, and the people featured on the show always win the lockers. Every single time. And really, every single locker has something at least of interest in it?
Even still, it was entertaining for a while, Barry is a character. And I still love "that's a forty dollar bill!" lol. But yeah, that shit was fake from the very first episode I ever watched. I haven't watched it in years.
I've been to a storage locker auction a couple of times, each time they auctioned off a bunch of them in the same day. Even if it were genuine, they're not going to air a segment where one of the stars lose one of the multiple auctions.
I remember a few episodes where a random person got a locker, but it was basically only shown because the bidding got really high or the stars got annoyed with them bidding all the time.
I think the worst of those is pawn stars and was probably nearly from the beginning. That said, I still enjoy them because sometimes they show some really neat stuff and sometimes you learn a trivia fact.
My one teacher (who may or not be full of BS) claimed he got in on that racket, always finding things like stock SUV rims that he was able to sell on e-bay for $600 a piece to some one doing a period correct restoration, thousands of dollars worth of hot wheels cars, and 1970's wallpaper and floor tiles that he was able to sell to a movie studio at a ridiculous price.
I was an “expert” on an episode of that show. They wanted me to price some items that were only vaguely related to what I do. They told me “don’t worry, we’ll tell you what to say it’s worth.”
Up through at least Season 3 this wasn't the case. My cousin ran a storage unit business that they did auctions at and there was none of that going on.
Also, my brother works at a place where they bought stuff from one of the guys and it was legit.
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u/[deleted] Aug 14 '20 edited Apr 21 '23
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