Author - Travis Lane

If you spend any time at all attending storage auctions, you'll quickly discover that some units are filled with worthless junk. Not just family photo albums and old tax records; those items at least hold some value to the person storing them. No, inside a self storage unit you're likely to come across truly bizarre items: broken electronics, torn and stained couches, even bags full of regular household trash.

As you dig through the mess looking for anything of value, you might wonder: Why in the world was anyone bothering to store this junk?

To understand the phenomenon, it helps to look at things from the tenant's point of view. Most people who rent storage units are in a period of transition. They might be going through a divorce, lost a home to foreclosure or moved somewhere smaller than their old house. In any case, they very often don't have the time to leisurely move out or meticulously pack their items. They're often rushed and harried, and when you pack at the last minute, you make some odd choices – like gathering up every item in a room and throwing it in a box, whether or not it's actually just trash.

There's also the matter of landfill costs. Large items are hard to dispose of, and people moving in a hurry may find it much simpler to just store a couch along with the rest of their things rather than go through the hassle of driving it out to the dump and paying to get rid of it.

The original tenants may have told themselves that they'd have time to go back and tidy things up later. They might decide that they'll clean out the storage unit of its extra trash once things start to calm down at home. But, as they say, out of sight is out of mind, and it's easy to forget about things once they're no longer cluttering your home. Life gets in the way, and stored items are quickly forgotten.

Which is why you're so likely to find trash and treasure, often in the same unit. After the tenant starts renting it, he or she may start to forget what's inside. It's hard to recall every item you own from memory, and even harder to remember exactly where it is. Someone may have forgotten which items are in storage and which are hidden somewhere in their homes. This is especially likely in those units that were packed in a frenzied state. The tenant may remember moving in the heavy, dilapidated couch but forget all about the box of priceless antiques.

Storage facility rent is cheap, much cheaper than house payments or apartment rent. Most owners don't realize just how much money they've spent in storing items for several years. As time wears on, the task of dealing with the stored items can become daunting, and holding onto the unit may seem easier. So tenants end up paying thousands in rent to store items barely worth a few hundred dollars. Additionally, a unit may pass into the hands of a tenant's relative after death, and that relative may have no idea what's inside and no time or energy to find out. It's often easier to pay the deceased's bills without question when handling more complicated estate matters.

All of this psychology is useful for auction hunters to understand. By thinking like a tenant, you can avoid some common pitfalls that others might make when approaching a unit – such as believing that if someone paid to store a locker for years, it must have something of value in it. Learn to recognize the signs of a unit that was packed in a hurry, and go in cautiously: You may be just as likely to find trash as treasure inside.

Many industries slow down during the summer months, and resale businesses can suffer as well. On the one hand, buyers may have more time off to browse your wares, and summer is certainly flea market season. On the other hand, attending storage auctions in the summer can be hot, frustrating and often fruitless. If you're working in the auction business, it's a good idea to know what you should expect for the warm months.

First, understand that every storage facility handles its auctions differently. Some facilities hold auctions only as needed to clear out their delinquent units. Others hold auctions on a regular basis, either monthly or quarterly depending on its size. If your local facilities don't hold monthly auctions, you may notice that there's fewer auctions being held during the summer than in other times of the year.

If you do chose to keep auction-hunting throughout the summer, be smart about it. You'll be spending a lot of time in the sun, and it's easy to get sunburned and dehydrated. Bring some bottled water, wear some sunscreen and travel between auctions in a car with a nice air conditioner. If you want to avoid the heat and crowds altogether, summer might be the ideal time to try a storage auction online. That way, you can stay comfortable in your home without falling behind on bidding.

One thing to look out for during the summer: Student units. College students sometimes stash away their dorm room items during the summer before returning home, and it's easy for them to forget about these units or lose the ability to pay. You might not start seeing them until the end of summer or early fall, but they're often worth looking out for: electronics, mini-refrigerators, CDs and DVDs are all common dorm room finds.

For many sellers, summer is a time to focus on selling rather than gathering stock. Many communities shut down their flea markets during the cool winter months, so summer becomes a prime time to start selling things you stocked up all winter. There's also more people visiting flea markets during the summer. Yard sales are another popular summer pastime, and you may discover that you get more visitors during the warm months than any other time of the year. Memorial Day weekend in particular is an excellent time for a yard sale.

You can also maximize your sales by targeting your wares to match the season. Throughout the year, try to sort your items by seasonal interests. Just as Christmas ornaments sell best in the winter, items like tents, fishing equipment and sporting goods all sell best during the summer. If you have the space to store them, these items will fetch a higher price in a summer sale than they would in the dead of winter when buyers aren't looking for them.

Overall, summertime storage auctions are a mixed bag. Then again, the same can be said for any part of this business. By being smart and using the season to your advantage, you can maximize your profits without suffering too much from the summer slow-down.

Admittedly, most storage units are filled with dull household items and outdated electronics – and that's if your lucky. Every so often, though, a truly stellar unit comes along to give the rest of us hope. It's these astonishing finds that fuel the treasure-hunting craze and inspire more people to start searching through abandoned storage units.

In the 1970s, a relative of one of the band members placed several items into storage. There they stayed, apparently forgotten, in a Miami, Florida storage unit as the band skyrocketed to its legendary status. Eventually, the unit's owner failed to make payments, and the unit went up for auction.

So, imagine the surprise of the storage hunter who opened some unmarked boxes and found a treasure trove of priceless Beach Boys memorabilia, including the band's first royalty check, photographs, sheet music and hand-written song lyrics. Altogether, there are over two thousand documents in the collection, appraised at around $8 million, which is slated to go up for auction on May 15.

That's the popular version of the story, anyway, as it buzzes around the Internet. Yet few sources covering the upcoming auction have bothered to answer important questions about this historic event: Who found these items in storage, and how did they get there in the first place? The truth of the situation is a bit more complex and much more strange than the headlines would have you expect, as shown by an article in the New York Times.

Although the items are only now up for sale in a sealed bid auction, the collection was actually uncovered in the 1980s by Roy A. Sciacca, a musician, collector, promoter and studio owner. He purchased the items at a warehouse liquidation auction before moving away from Los Angeles. He brought his collection with him to Florida, where he did keep it in storage – but, despite rumors to the contrary, he hasn't lost the storage unit.

Instead, he became embroiled in a lawsuit with the Beach Boys themselves. When that same storage warehouse was sold in 1994, the band discovered that certain items were missing, and accused Sciacca of stealing them. According to them, there was no sanctioned auction ever held in the 80s.

What followed was a long-fought legal battle over who had the rights to the collection. That battle has raged in the courts until now, when it was finally ruled that the items should be auctioned and the profits split between all interested parties. That auction is set to end on May 15, and it's being overseen by the London company The Fame Bureau, led by Ted Owen.

Of course, all of this means that there really was no abandoned storage unit auctioned away in Florida, whatever the media outlets say. Still, plenty of would-be treasure hunters are sure to use high-profile finds like this to fuel their own hopes of fame and riches. The rest of us will get back to work re-selling old electronics and furniture.