Storage auctions

[boarder4life81]

So I've had some time during summer break to catch up on my Netflix que. One style of show I have really found myself enjoying is those "Auction Hunters"/"Storage Wars" shows about people buying abandoned storage units. I'm just curious if any Oregonians have experience in dealing with storage auctions (in Oregon) that turn up firearms. Do you need to take them to a dealer for a "background check"? Is it a finders keepers kind of deal?

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[jbett98]

Storage auctions are hard to come out ahead, because there is a real close knit group of folks that don't like newbies interfering with bidding up the units they're interested in.
They know what each person in their group looks for and will back off on bidding to help each other out.
I personally know a guy who cuts the locks on units that are coming up for sale and gets to see if there's anything actually left inside the unit.
He then has a first hand look at what was left behind. That knowledge is then dispersed to certain friends.
These folks will bid you up, just to squeeze you out of the game.
As far as firearms are concerned, August 9th would be a pickle of a problem.

 

[boarder4life81]

Storage auctions are hard to come out ahead, because there is a real close knit group of folks that don't like newbies interfering with bidding up the units they're interested in.
They know what each person in their group looks for and will back off on bidding to help each other out.
I personally know a guy who cuts the locks on units that are coming up for sale and gets to see if there's anything actually left inside the unit.
He then has a first hand look at what was left behind. That knowledge is then dispersed to certain friends.
These folks will bid you up, just to squeeze you out of the game.

And this has to deal with the "legal" aspect of my question?

 

[jbett98]

Legally, after August 8th, you would have to take it to an FFL and transfer it into your name and check to see if it was on the stolen gun registry.

 

[Provincial]

I believe it is the seller that is responsible for the background check. The buyer is checked, but the seller can't transfer ownership until the BGC is passed.

It raises the question as to when the transfer is made. If the "seller" is the storage company, they need to pass a BGC to take possession from the renter before they can "sell" the firearm to the highest bidder, and then wait to transfer ownership until the high bidder passes the BGC.

This is how the Legislature thinks they can evade the Second Amendment. They are "regulating commerce" rather than restricting firearm ownership.


I am not a lawyer, and my opinion is simply how I would handle the transfer if I were involved.

 

[jbett98]

All the storage auctions I have been to, you pay up at the front office after the auction ends, and then you can remove the contents.
You can sort through it there, or load it up and go through the contents at home.
How would anyone know what you found?

 

[SOrez]

I have a friend who manages a storage facility. He says almost all of the units that are abandoned have mainly junk in them. He did find a Mosin 91/59 and gave it to me.
I went to a yard sale at some storage units.The people were cleaning out a unit that looked like a garbage dump.

 

[jbett98]

The ones near military bases usually have good stuff in them.
Soldiers get shipped overseas and don't come back for one reason or another.

 

[66PonyCar]

Firearms? What firearms? There were no firearms in there!

 

[Member 5605]

Unless it's planted ahead of time, they are bunk.

 

[soberups]

I guess the idea of investing time and money for the privilege of sifting through other people's abandoned/unwanted junk just doesn't appeal to me. I suspect that the reality TV shows that follow the "professionals" around are probably leaving out the part about having to haul large amounts of crap off to the dump once they done picking through all of it.

 

[Caveman Jim]

We came this close 》 《 to getting into this 20 years ago before all the hype. I'm so glad we were smart enough to go another route.

 

[DuneHopper]

There doesn't seem to be any laws about the storage owners ( that I am aware of ) where they can not open the storage and either see or perhaps take items out for themselves on those that are abandoned after notice. I know of a few storage owners here who have resale shops and take what they want and auction the junk. These TV shows have really sparked People to get out and bid. Want a good deal hit yard sales and Garage sales. As far as FFL, and SB941/594 stuff. Never heard of them before so guess they don't apply
to me or I would have got a memo I am sure

 

[CoastRange57]

What a brilliant business model. Go offer money on a situation where you have no idea what you are getting, and where selling any of it for a profit is damn near impossible. This is nothing more than gambling. At least when I buy stuff to resell on E Bay and other places, I know exactly what I am getting, what I can sell it for and if the probability of turning over what I might buy is low, then I PASS.

 

[nextgenar]

My brother ownes a second hand store, for years he bought storage units, out of the litterally hundreds of units he bought, he found a very small number of guns, I'm guessing less than 6, but there are 3 things you find in every storage unit without fail, they are, a dildo, a pot pipe, and head lice medicine. I'm just wondering what that says about the people that abandon storage units?

 

[teflon6string]

Can't speak about anything happening on those TV shows. We've all seen "news" stories about producers planting big finds, compensated cast members, staged feuds, etc.

As an abject junkoholic, I've always been intrigued with garage sales, swap meets and storage lockers. I've skidded to a halt and sprinted up more than a few driveways looking for vintage tweed guitar amps (damn suitcases).

About 25 years ago in San Diego, I had a buddy who usually had cars or trucks to detail and flip. But he was done with police auctions because they were no longer "the best kept secret in town." No test drive - just start the engine once and turn it off. Too many broken/raggedy cars with major mechanical issues going for functional used car prices.

He was all done with storage locker auctions, too, for the same reasons. Big money for worn out junk - abandoned for good reason. According to him, the tales about stashed jewelry and weapons, or power boats and vintage autos buried behind walls of boxes were just urban legends. I suppose some players get lucky now and then, but...

 

[Swedish K]

A friend managed a storage facility in Lodi, CA. When they had auctions the auctioneer would come by several weeks prior to the auction and they would both be present to cut the lock - the auctioneer would video each unit from the door without entering then the unit would be relocked with both a storage company lock and one from the auctioneer so neither could access the unit until the day of auction. There was also a serialized wire lock seal put in place. A copy of the video was burned as well so both had that. The person who "owned" the storage unit could pay their back due bill up to the auction started for the unit. I recall one unit where the winning bidder was after some "antique" furniture and didn't want to deal with DMV on a motorcycle that was in the unit so he left it - when checking out the bike we found a little pocket .380 stashed under the tool kit and a decent buck hunter 110 as well.

There was a group of 3 units from a liquor store where the owner went to prison that may have had a few cases of booze liberated before the locks were cut... (dang that back wall needed to be repaired from the empty unit behind it).

Other than the beat up .380 found stashed in the bike I don't recall any guns that were in auction units, though I do recall one unit that the feds seized as there were tens of thousands of dollars worth of south American Inca and similar artifacts that had been illegally imported in the unit, mostly in fancy custom display cases. Apparently the owner didn't pay because he had been arrested smuggling a mummy into the country and the feds decided to check out the unit when they got the auction notice in his mail.

Oh - as someone stated above some of the items most commonly found do include sex toys, porn mags, etc. and after seeing hundreds of storage units I'd say most people pay more to store junk than it would cost to replace it all twice. Also stated above, units near military bases do have better odds of having better stuff but don't expect anything of much value in any smaller safe you may find. Every one I've seen was either empty or full of personal papers of no value to anyone else.

 

[Member 5605]

If it's like my mother in law's storage.... She is a hoarder. They pay $300 a month to store a bunch of kids yard toys in THREE storage units that are probably 15' wide EACH, 20' tall and 25' DEEP. Full of hoarding crap. Someday when they go broke and can't pay they will ask us for help on their rent. Not a chance.

So yeah, people pay more to store their crap than it's worth. Many, many times over.

 

[jbett98]

On Storage Wars, the padlocks they cut on all of the storage units, all look the same.
It's a cheap long shackled one that's really easy to cut, unlike most padlocks that renters would use.

 

[DuneHopper]

I was thinking about something funny happened with me and a police storage auction, I went to a police auction ended up with a Electric Scooter that I was going to use for another project. It has a light on it that ran off batteries but didnt work.I took the light off opened it and there was a bag of meth in it. Now I know why the scooter was never claimed. But was funny, I told the cops and then flushed it.
I