If you’re planning on following in the footsteps of the stars on Storage Wars, you might want to make a pitstop at the ATM on your way over.
Being a bidder on Storage Wars is no cakewalk. As any of the stars will tell you, their work is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Finding those big-money lockers takes a lot of patience and knowledge of different collectible industries. And, not to mention, there are a lot of rules they have to follow to even be able to put their hat in the ring.
In fact, whenever the stars attend biddings, they have to have cash on them to pay for the locker. Checks, debit cards, credit cards and any other form of payment are not acceptable. And they have to have enough to last them the entire day. The auction prohibits them from accessing ATMs or other cash vendors in between bids. Essentially, if you run out of cash, you’re out of the running. So, you have to be smart with the day’s purchases.
Already, this kind of budgeting requires some intense planning, but add a group of extremely competitive bidders to the mix and the task of walking away with more money than you’ve spent is pretty difficult.
The show’s rules aren’t much different than those of any other auction. Really, the only difference between Storage Wars and other auctions is the fact that there are cameras documenting every piece of the action.
‘Storage Wars’ Star Gives Tips for Bidders
With all of the rules that bidders have had to follow, the Storage Wars stars have picked up a few tips along the way, especially Brandi Passante.
Recently, Passante shared a couple of techniques for evaluating the different storage spaces. According to the Storage Wars pro, the most important part of choosing a locker to bid on is the condition of the belongings.
“Are there boxes that are purchased or boxes that are taken from the back of the grocery store, or are they packed in trash bags?” Passante always asks herself before placing a bid.
“If it’s messy, if it’s just tossed in there, you can tell they obviously didn’t care about their things anyway, so why would there be something of value?” she continued.
Passante has also noticed that fans tend to simplify the Storage Wars stars’ tasks at auctions.
“From the very beginning, I think when people saw the show, they just assumed that this was some kind of get-rich-quick, modern-day treasure hunt,” she shared with Distractify. “And in every unit, you’re going to find something great, but that’s just not how it goes. You just have to try your best to make a guesstimate as to what’s going to be in there.”
