Storage Unit Auction Item Sells for 6 Times Cost

A few weeks ago I posted about buying items at Storage Unit Auctions that you can resell on eBay and elsewhere.

Here is a product I bought at an auction for $10.00 and sold for $61.00 on eBay:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=5714168154

This particular auction was one in which the auctioneer sold the items piece by piece as opposed to auctioning off the entire unit at once. I didn't have time to stay for the entire auction but there were some very nice items that could be picked up very cheap.

However, I noticed a lot of trades people and contractors there and they were really bidding up the tools. Most of the good power tools went for almost retail even though they were used. The reasoning is that if the contractor needs a tool for a certain job or is looking for tools he frequesntly uses he would rather get a used one then buy a new one at full retail even though the price different is only $10 - $20. Or at least that is what one of the contractors told me when I asked him why someone would pay $90.00 for a used tool when he can get the same thing brand new for $110.00.

Certain items in particular areas are going to be over bid. In my area, since there are a lot of contractors, power tools are one of those items.

On the other hand, there are a lot of other items that go for practically a song because people don't have any practical use for. For instance, I was the only bidder for the reel to reel tape player.

I also noticed a surplus of bicycles that sold for practically nothing. In fact, the auctioneer usually grouped the bicycles together in lots of two or three just to get an opening bid for them.

I'm going to do some research on eBay and come up with a list of bicycles that seem to sell well and take this to the next auction. This might be a great little niche to exploit.