Treasure lurks in abandoned storage sheds Bidders willing to gamble can find valuables, pay bills in recession

Beyond the Sun A&E's Storage Wars

At a storage facility on Warm Springs Road and Durango Drive, John Fincher is gambling on finding something valuable. He’s one of 20 people bidding on a 5-by-5 foot storage unit filled with cardboard boxes and some barely visible appliances.

The appliances are pretty much a known quantity. But what might be in those boxes? One man’s junk or another man’s treasure.

Until the rolling steel door was raised on this storage unit, exposing its contents publicly, this stuff belonged to someone who, for whatever reason — maybe the recession, a speedy relocation or illness — could not make the $39-a-month rental payments. And now the possessions are for sale to the highest bidder, something that’s happening more and more these days.

Inside a cramped, fluorescent-lighted hallway, auctioneer Mark Altschuler stands on a step stool, gavel in hand and a cowboy hat on his head.

“One-fifty,” he says, rapid fire. “One-sixty? I got $150 over there, anybody $160?” The prospectors walk past the unit, single file, shining their flashlights into the dark locker for a minute at most. No one is allowed to go inside.

Fincher is still bidding on this locker, and he’s up to $190.

“I got $190 over here, anybody at $200? Last chance, got $190, going once, twice,” Altschuler bangs his gavel against the wall. “Sold for $190.”

Just that fast, Fincher, an on-call engineer who repairs hospital equipment, finds himself the owner of a stranger’s toys, stereo equipment, ice cream maker and unopened chocolate fountains. And there’ll be more, after he finishes pawing through it. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a lock. He slides the door down and secures his new possessions.

He has 24 hours to move the items from the locker to his pickup truck. Then he’ll sort it out, determine what’s trash, what will be donated and what can be sold on Craigslist or eBay.

Welcome to the world of storage unit auctions.

In the deep recession, people who rent storage units and struggle to make ends meet often face a tough decision: Pay the monthly bill or lose their belongings. With no place to keep their property or no money for storage rent — a 5-by-5 unit can cost $35 to $50 a month while a 15-by-20 unit is $249 at Storage One facilities — many people are walking away from their furniture, appliances, decorations and even family photos.

And more people — some call them scavengers — are lining up at storage facilities to profit from that loss. Although hobbyists and profit seekers have been attending these auctions for years, the weak economy and a reality show on A&E that was recently filmed in Las Vegas have attracted newcomers.

Chris Saghin acted almost on a whim.

“I drove by and saw the crowd,” he says. Having some idea of what was going on, he went to get some cash.

When asked how much money he brought with him, Saghin laughs, flashes currency from his pocket and says, “I didn’t know what it was going to involve so I just brought 10 grand.”

Having done well as a car-dealership owner, Saghin is attracted not so much for the money, but for the treasure hunting appeal. Auctioneer Altschuler says the appeal is also about survival.

“Anytime the economy takes a dip, people start looking around to kind of hedge their losses and make some money,” Altschuler says. “Everybody wants buried treasure, you know? They’re all looking for that get-rich-quick thing, especially in this kind of economy.”

Fincher researched storage auctions — including watching YouTube videos of “Storage Wars” — beginning in April and decided he’d try to bring in some extra money.

He buys up units’ contents and sells items on Craigslist or eBay. It’s not hugely profitable, he says, but the thrill of the hunt keeps him coming back.

“It’s definitely a treasure hunt,” he says. “When there’s a bunch of sealed boxes … it’s always fun to open them up and see what’s in there. Sometimes it’s good and sometimes it’s disappointing. It’s definitely a gamble, but as far as I’m concerned it’s more fun and more profitable than taking your money to the Santa Fe casino.”

Sometimes that gamble pays off. Back in the hallway, a group of storage auction regulars trade stories about the big payoffs. One of them boasts about how he paid $7,200 for the contents of a locker last year, only to discover it included Floyd Mayweather Jr.’s boxing gloves, boxing trunks and assorted memorabilia. He was able to eat for many weeks, he says.

With laughter they recall another storage auction regular who spent $5 on a unit no one was interested in. He later found $58,000 in unsigned traveler’s checks.

One of the reminiscing regulars is Rosemarie Ricks, owner of Building 160 Supply Co. in Pahrump. She too enjoys the appeal of finding treasure, but for her it’s also a living.

“I don’t have a life, I just work,” Ricks says. “Anybody else would probably say, ‘Oh, to hell with this, I’m quitting.’ ”

The German native won her first auction 15 years ago, when it was just a new hobby. For 17 years, she worked at Caesars Palace, but her free time went to swap meets and storage auctions.

After five years of buying and reselling on the side, Ricks bought commercial property in Pahrump that had been seized by the Internal Revenue Service in a bankruptcy, quit Caesars and made her profitable hobby a full-time venture.

These days, Ricks has nine employees paid $8 to $10 an hour. Her store is open Saturdays and Sundays only.

“If you ever come up on Saturday, you’ll see them lined up out the door, and they’re storming like herds,” she says of her own treasure hunting customers.

Attending a storage unit auction in Las Vegas, you’ll probably meet hobbyists such as Fincher and professional buyers and resellers such as Ricks. But then you meet David and Rhonda Meeks, a couple from Georgia who may soon be forced to make their hobby their occupation.

The Meekses have attended auctions here for nearly 30 years. He is a cabinetmaker while Rhonda helps by answering calls and handling paperwork. But with no new construction and little remodeling these days, their hobby is becoming their chief source of income.

“Sometimes during the famine times you have to look for other ways to survive,” Rhonda Meeks says.

The same week Fincher bought his $190 locker of stereo equipment and appliances, the Meekses bought the contents of seven lockers for about $3,000. So far, they’ve found a knife collection, swords and gold jewelry — all of which, they believe, will make a profit.

“We hope to at least double our money,” she says.

For now, the Meekses seem to be comfortably staying afloat.

“We’ve been very well blessed,” he says. “Since the downturn it’s made a huge difference.”

But what about the people who are losing their possessions? Are auction-goers profiting from others’ misfortune?

Greg Welsh, owner of Storage One, said renters are given ample opportunities to work out a solution. Most are resigned to losing their belongings, he said, because they have neither money nor an alternative place to store their goods.

He says he and managers of the facilities help renters who can’t pay, but that sometimes the renters simply disappear, abandoning their property. “It’s a sad story,” he says.

For Rhonda Meeks, it’s the discovery of family photos — specifically children — hidden away in a unit that turns the exciting “treasure hunt” into something stressful.

“I would really like to return them but most of the time people have disappeared anyway,” she says. “That is very distressing.”

Fincher said he won’t even bother with a unit if he knows there’s a sad story behind it.

But even so, “one guy said it best,” Fincher says. “Pay your bills or I’m going to buy your stuff.”

At the auction, Fincher has loaded all of his new belongings onto his pickup truck. A woman walking by eyes a pair of doll strollers he picked up, with their original price tags.

She buys them for $10. Even before Fincher has left the site, he has made money.