Tony M, you either own a Storage company or a Auction company!!!! you thinking this is great for the ecomomy is just fricking ridiculous.

lmao, if people wanna pay 800 for a unit, thats there problem

So where does the line go from "entertainment" to "factual show?"

If we suspend the "entertainment" aspect abit, Storage Wars is supposedly telling the viewer that:

* People who are "newbies" can throw their life savings into a locker and easily recoup that back on their first locker (Dave Hester Jr. and that one guy Jarrod helped out being examples).
* You can easily make a profit on the right lockers on random household goods and common particleboard furniture in "good case" scenario. 50% at least above your bid is "good enough." Very rarely do you either break even a/or lose money (well, in Barry's case....this is ignored)
* That people sock away valuables and "conveniently" forget them, usually in the 4 figure prices and up.
* Before you pay for the locker, you can take a "looksie" in it to evaluate if you made a profit or a bust.
* You can find "experts" that can evaluate and appraise the value of an item, such as the local bar or at a retail shop.
* Using an unmanned flying object, dressing up like a homeless person, hiring psychics, use minors, setting up a picnic on private property, and calling help from a dwarf are perfectly acceptable ways to evaluate and bid on a locker. (BIG HINT: Minors can't make legally binding contracts, like auction bids!!)
* You'd find people at an auction like a guy who throws around cash like it's drugs, a guy that is going thru a mid life crisis and is possibly on or suffering from the effects of taking steroids, a bickering couple with clear martial issues, and the rich idiot with no day job. And if we're taking into account SW: Texas, you can find also a hillbilly gay couple, a guido, an old fart with little common sense, and apparently, slavery is still legal in Texas or the fact that an interracial duo is allowed to exist in the south like that prominently.

Oh, but lets see the competition.

According to the Auction Hunters:

* It's perfectly acceptable to insult, bully, make fun of, and willingly destroy items in front of an appraiser who just helped you appraise said item(s) and is your potential buyer!!
* It's perfectly acceptable to ignore the wisdom of an expert and do your own restoration yourself (possibly half-baked a/or ruin the already built in value by messing with it) and then insult a/or bully the buyer into your price.
* You can find guns and sell them freely........in gun strict California.
* Oh, and all lockers you bid on makes you a tidy profit. No losses whatsoever.

And Storage Hunters has:

* The ability to "research" who owned the locker beforehand.
* A crass talking auctioneer who makes jokes that border on being inflammatory, sexist and racist in some cases.
* People who have no bloody idea what items are exactly in their locker.
* The possibility of running into a clandestine meth lab, a fraudulent ID setup, the worlds most poorly designed S&M dungeon, and a shrine to the New York Yankees.

Is it any wonder why people come onto these boards and complain about how this show is ruining their lives?

You are missing the most important thing "new money" that might not be spent elsewhere is coming into the circle. That in itself helps the economy. I guess you think if you type things in capital letters they must be true ;-). I on the other hand think that more capital is what is true here. You've been punned!

"New Money that might not be spent elsewhere is coming into the circle" Makes no sense... It may infact really hurt some in loosing Money! That could have been spent elsewhere. You mean, more money due to higher locker prices....there is only ever one buyer per locker and even without them there still would be one buyer per locker and the only ones that benifit with more and more newbies bidding and unit prices sky rocketing because more and more people think they can get rich quick with a great find of value because of the show are the people auctioning lockers and the storage facility and they sure are not going to pass that "New money" to anyone else, such as lowering locker rental fees. You are the one missing the point. Our point is inregards to the buyer businesses that buy lockers and resell items as a business. There the ones that are doing the work, processing items, reselling items and putting them back into the market for others to buy not to mention reastoring some items to resell and in doing so giving them companies business that means more money changing hands. Basically your whole argument is that more buyer competition is good for two (the auction people and the storage facility) and YES That is correct.

For all the complainers out there:
Number 1. Try getting, how should I say this, a different job. Bidding on storage units is basically gambling. If your career is based on gambling, you should probably try another field. You might not want to count on winning auctions to get you through life. Something a little more stable might help... Just a suggestion, though.Number 2. Stop being so greedy. Storage auctions have been around for a while... Not because of you. You're upset, because you believe that your little secret is exposed. The auctions are open to anyone. Deal with it. If you can't deal with it please refer to number 1.It's reality television. If it encourages people to visit storage units, well then good for the companies! I think you're forgetting storage owners should be profiting the most here. After all they're the ones who have the business. You don't own rights to any auctions, so there's really nothing you can do about. Well, besides blog on the internet about how mad you are :)Just came across these posts, thanks for the entertainment. If you would like to respond, go for it. I most likely will never read you comments.

Anybody who is new to the game needs to realize that ALL units are inventoried before the auction takes place by the storage company. Legally this has to be done prior to the sale. With that being said, the company knows exactly what's in a unit while they watch the auction take place. The company needs to recoup the most it can on back rent. This is where STAGING comes into play. Items that the company knows are most valuable are moved into plain sight so they can maximise return. Certain words are also known to be written on boxes to insure the highest value can be attained. Locks are not cut the moment before auction like they are on TV so there are rarely high dollar surprises inside. How do I know this? I have been doing this for 20 years, and I know many people who own and manage facilities.TV is TV and not reality

You were once a "newbie", did the veterans then hate you too? When do you cease being a newbie and accepted by everyone else?
I would think that most new people would be more cautious with their money.

If "cash moving around" is really a way to help the economy; then high inflation, bailouts, and the Federal Reserve would all be good and not bad. In reality, cash moving about has very little to do with a strong economy, instead a high level of production for a community/nation and a resulting increase in the community/nations standard of living is the signal of a strong economy.
Thus purchases of storage units has little to nothing to do with the health of the US economy b/c nothing is produced. If the unit sells for more than it's value, the seller's standard of living shifts up slightly and buyer's down slightly. If the unit sells for less than its value, the seller's (or previous owner's) standard of living drops and the buyer's goes up. If the price is just right, then it's a wash and there is no adjustment. But high or low costs of storage units (which is a tiny fraction of percentage of the economy anyway) has nothing to do with economic health for the nation.