Arizona Storage Auction FAQ Universal Auctions

As soon as we get something sold and GONE someone puts something else where that thing was so this is gonna take a while......

Storage units are rented, used to store belongings and then, at some point, the monthly rental fee is not paid for a period of time. After a rather extensive process that must, by law, be followed, the contents of the unit are sold at live auction to the highest bidder.

Theres no minimum amount that has to be reached for units to sell. No "Reserve" price. Some units sell for as low as $5.

Depends upon what bidders see within a unit and number of bidders who see it...and "know what it is". Some units sell for as little as $5 while others go for several hundred. The occasional unit will sell for thousands after a bidding war. That unit would contain antiques and visible very valuable stuff like silver settings and art or just some junk a few people thought was that stuff. Electronics and/or motorcycles. Those are hard to misrecognize. Old Car parts or old books....jewelry boxes, fancy furniture. Construction Equipment, High dollar tools and the like or just tool boxes....can inspire bidding. These could be empty but most usually have something in them.

Of late, TV Shows that focus on Storage Auctions have increased attendance and raised the average price that units sell for. Used to be the average was $100-$150 for a unit. Keep in mind that any "average" is gonna include nearly empty units that sell for $5. Lately, with those TV Shows causing more people to show up at Storage Auctions, average sale prices have gone up and with this increase in attendance to storage auctions being a new phenomenon it is impossible to say right now, with any real confidence, what an "average" price is.

At whichever storage facility you decide to start at on an auction day. Registration will be good for all auction locations on that day. You can start out with us at the 1st site scheduled, register and thats good for all sites on that day or you can show up at a site along the schedule and register there for the rest of that day's auctions.

Basically however you want to in order to get the attention of the auctioneer, its really very relaxed and very easy.

When you register you will be given a number on a white card. If you want to bid on a unit at the price being called by the auctioneer you can raise this card or just raise your hand. Shout, wave, whatever. Different people have different "styles"....if you have eye contact with the auctioneer, a simple head nod can suffice to show that you want to place a bid.

The bid amount + State and Local Sales Tax plus a refundable $50 deposit. The whole $50 deposit is given back to you after your unit is emptied and the unit is swept out. Sales Tax Exempt buyers can furnish a copy of their AZ Dept of RevenueTax License to avoid taxes.

How do I know theres anything good in a unit? Can we see what is inside before we bid?

Auction of a unit does not begin until everyone is given ample opportunity to view the unit's contents from the storage doorway.

Nobody is allowed to enter the space unless directed to do so by the auctioneer. This would occur only if theres like, something that is "perilously perched" as in: fixin' to fall that could hurt someone or damage contents of a unit and when this is the case repair of this situation will generally be handled by auction or storage unit staff.

Everyone gets the same chance, view what the contents look to be from the doorway. Thats the way our storage auctions are done...."level playing field".

Bring a flashlight if you're able to as storage units are not lit from within and the better that one is able to see into a unit, the more likely they are to accurately gauge whats inside.

Until the next day at closing time of the storage site. Two more days after that are available at just $2.00 per day storage fee.

Will the employees of the auction and/or storage site help me to clear out the units I buy?

Yes. You are strongly encouraged to do so. Buyers must bring their own padlock(s) to the auctions to secure their unit(s)

Can I rent a unit that I buy if I want to? So as to clear it out in a more leisurely manner?

Yes. Facilities will, generally, allow a buyer to pay just $2 a day to keep the unit for a few days. It would be up to management at each site as to how long they would allow such an arrangement. If you want to take over the unit for longer than just a few days most storage sites have "Free Month" or other specials that could see a buyer getting a unit for less than that $2 per day. Do the math per how long you want to keep a unit, many auction veterans keep one or more storage units to store viable items that they find and especially if you discover that you like storage auctions but don't have storage space you might wanna have a unit as a place to stash lucrative items that you find in units. Bottom line is Yes you'll be able to take over the rental of units if you want to, the only exception to this would be if a facility has a waiting list for the size of unit in question but staff at storage sites are very happy to work with auction buyers to accomodate what is going to make their life easiest.

Units purchased must be paid for in cash, no credit or debit cards are accepted and no checks. Bring a flashlight to help you see whats in a unit and wear a hat to protect your head from the sun. Bring Water during the Summer months to keep hydrated and bring Padlocks, as many as you think you may need. Upon sale of a unit that unit has no lock left and it's contents now belong to the high bidder so be prepared by having a padlock to put on your unit. Smoking is not allowed at any of our sites, due to the hazard of fire.

Processing units can be made easier from the get-go if you have a few large boxes or tubs (about 5 or 6) so that when you process your unit(s)....remove the stuff inside...you can, as you take stuff out, place it in various appropriate boxes like: "Great Stuff", "OK Stuff", "Trash" (dispose of....but not in trash can at auction sites) and maybe a box called "Donate" (give away to charity or just place somewhere that poor people are with a "Free" sign on it) and "Recycle" for stuff like paper, cardboard...and then a final box called "Personal Items" which would be for personal belongings like Birth Certificates, family photos and childen's artwork which you can get rid of easily by just taking this to storage site staff so they can return this to it's owners. You would want someone to do this for you and this stuff is worthless to you, most likely gonna wind up in a landfill or a recycle bin so its actually easier on a buyer just to take this stuff up to the office....you have to transport it less distance to get rid of it than if you would have had to by finding a place to dispose of it otherwise!!

Being prepared with boxes at the outset makes processing of units go much more smoothly. Yeah....you'll wind up with boxes as you unpack a unit, possibly many of these over the course of unpacking but your initial boxes will become full so those will get put to use.

Just what I have heard of from reputable sources....Grandfather's coin collection worth in excess of $150,000....items like Jewelry and Art worth thousands of dollars.....a Huge collection of vintage Lionel Trains and parts which sold over the course of several months on eBay for over $40,000.....Gun collections worth BIG money have been found...machine shop parts....expensive tools...TVs...appliances are common of course, large and small.....

Pretty much anything that you can imagine people owning is possibly within a given storage unit.

On top of the potential to make money by reselling what you'll find in units, its common for buyers, after purchasing just a few units, to find themselves "fully stocked" on all the household items, tools, drills, decorative stuff ("nic-nacs") that they could imaginably "need" and for their living quarters to become furnished with items that they either could never have afforded or simply would have been unwilling to spend for as such stuff would have cost at retail.

You'll find things that will be uninteresting in the sense that its not stuff that you can personally make use of......used clothing, old receipts and other paperwork etc. but you'll uncover items that will make you say "cool!!" One of the reasons why storage auctions can be so exciting is that one just cannot tell what is within the units......even a seemingly worthless unit can prove to be otherwise with just one valuable item concealed within.....people tend to place their most valuable possessions into a unit FIRST so that stuff gets hidden, its IN THE BACK so you can't generally see it from the doorway.

There is "luck" involved but there is also skill......knowing what you can get for certain items....knowing what to "make" of what you can see.....

Expect storage auctions to be like anything else: the longer you do it the "better" you will get at it, the more time you invest the more you'll get back. Our "veterans", those who've been with us at our auctions for years, certainly have a "sense" about storage units...its something they've developed over time.

Like life itself, there will be "highs and lows" and there is definitely work involved (especially in unpacking the units packed tightly full). Because one never can tell whats buried deep within many units...storage auctions can be one of the most exciting and profitable pursuits around.

If you are one that enjoys the "Grab Bag" concept (just on a much larger scale), if you're adventurous and enjoy games of chance and the excitement of the unknown.... if you're enthused by the mystery of what lies beyond the mountain or past that bend in the road.......storage auctions may come to be something that you look forward to and that bring you great excitement.

Whats with these times listed on the schedule? Theres no way you will be able to do this schedule....do the one auction and then get to the next site at the time listed!!

Listed times are on the schedule as by law an exact start time must be established in order to legally auction storage units .

Auction attendees usually "follow" from one auction site to the next which is why auctions are scheduled one after the other on a day.

Only the time of the first auction upon a day is an exact start time. Start times after that will be based upon how long it takes to do the previous auction(s) and travel times between locations along with how much time is required to register new bidders at each location.

Its simply not possible, due to variables such as how much time it takes to get the units that sold at the previous location paid for and the time it takes to get to the next place, to pin down exact start times at locations which follow the first auction on a day but legally a time has to be declared so thats why the times that you see are there.

Most normally, auction attendees go from one auction site to the next which allows bidders to view the largest number of units and bid on the best units available that day.

Lastly....but so importantly: please return all Family Pictures, Birth Certificates, Photo Albums, Family Scrapbooks, Medical Records, Children's artwork/schoolwork and other belongings of a personal nature that you find to the storage facility staff so that they can get these items back to where they need to be.

Have a storage auction question thats not on this list? Help me get a better list up here by emailing that question to the email link nearer to the bottom of this page.

Need an experienced auction company for your Estate Sale, Business Liquidation, Landlord Lien, Storage facility, Fundraiser or other auction? Look at our credentials at universalauctions.net and email us or give us a call

"Eagle Dancer"

by Doreen Korman

Dos Damas Designs

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