Storage Wars, Storage Wars Texas, Auction Hunters, Auction Kings, Pawn Stars, American Pickers… A whole host of shows have sprung up on television revolving around the business of finding, buying, and selling cool, valuable, used things. When Storage Wars came on, I became obsessed with it. Not only did I love watching the show, but I really wanted to try my hand at doing some of it myself. At first, it was just an idea I was toying with not sure how seriously I wanted to take it. Then something happened…
I was at a local thrift store when I found a whole bunch of brand new unopened HP ink cartridges for sale for $0.25 each. After a quick search on my smart phone, I discovered these model cartridges were still in demand and selling for $20 or more a piece on eBay. Sure, why not?
So I scooped them up, took them home, photographed them, and put listings on eBay. A week later, I had my first $100 in profit. Well that was easy! Then the obsession was on. Soon I was hitting thrift stores regularly looking for items I could sell online for profit. From there I found the local auction houses where I was buying boxes full of items to sell. After a couple months of turning over small ball items, I finally had enough money to tackle my first storage unit auction.
There have been plenty of mistakes along the way. There were promising items that ended up losing money. There were sales that got damaged in the mail or returned for whatever reason. I had to learn not just how to find things, but how to sell them, how to ship them, how to track inventory, do paperwork, form a business, and file taxes. I’ve learned a lot along the way and made my fair share of mistakes, but I’m still in love with the idea of finding that next great valuable treasure (and turning over everything else along the way). It’s a lot of physical labor, office work, organization, and nowhere near as glamorous as the television shows make it look, but it’s still fun. I love that first dig into a huge storage unit after getting the winning bid. It’s a white elephant Christmas every day!
This site isn’t so much about selling the things I find as it is about sharing my journey. My intent is to blog about my experiences running cr0nky and to share some tips and advice along the way. Of course, you can always buy from me too! There are links to my Amazon, Etsy, and Ebay stores on the main page for the items available to buy online. You can also message me about anything you see posted on the site. If I still have it, then I’m sure we can make a deal! You can reach me through the cr0nky Facebook page or by contacting me through the web site. Thanks for visiting!
– Mike
