Many people have opposing opinions on whether or not you should make nice with your fellow storage hunters. After all, it’s a business; these people are your competition, so you should harden your heart and take no prisoners. And you know what, that makes perfect sense—but I’m the type of person who likes to kill ‘em with kindness, so to speak. I’m of the belief that being nice can get you a lot further down the road than being a nasty old grouch.

Now, I’m not saying you have to be best buddies with every single person you attend storage auctions with and invite them over on Super Bowl Sunday. But chances are, you’ll find yourself at the storage facility early with a couple of the same regulars waiting for the auction to begin. Sure, you can stand there silently scowling like the mysterious lone wolf that you are, or you can drop the tough guy/gal act strike up a simple conversation. After all, every one of you has something in common or else you all wouldn’t be standing there at 6AM on a subzero winter morning.

So here’s a radical idea for the next time you’re in this situation: why don’t you try being nice? Maybe you’ll find out through simple small talk before the auction that Joe’s passion is collecting Pez dispensers and he’s really hoping to find more to add to his collection. Lucky for you, you end up buying a unit that has a whole box of them. So then Joe offers to buy them all from you, on the spot. And he tells you to call him any time you find more. Done deal. You just made your first connection. That’s a lot easier than trying to sell them one by one at the flea market, isn’t it?

You see, you don’t have to be best friends forever. You just have to be nice. You might be thinking “but Dave Hester’s a jerk and he’s a millionaire!” Point taken. But being a jerk works for Dave Hester because he has been in this business for a long time, and is now in a unique position where he doesn’t have to answer to anyone. He’s a TV star. People watching at home eat it up when he raises the bid and then drops the unit on Jarrod and Brandi. But since we all don’t have the benefit of cameras following us at the auctions, being a bitter, spiteful fuddy-duddy like Dave Hester loses its charm.  

Think of it this way: say you’re looking online for reviews of this new restaurant in town.  Each review you read says the same thing: the food is great, but the service is terrible. You can hear the owner in the kitchen screaming at his waiters. Thus, the waiters are miserable and hate their jobs, and in turn, hate you. What’s more, you’ve heard rumors that the owner sabotaged his competition’s food when the fancy New York City food critic came to town. But the food is great, trust me.

Does this really sound like some place you want to eat? Sure, the food is good, but at what cost? This relates to you as a storage hunter. Okay, you’ve got some great products you’re looking to sell, but if you’re a conniving, ruthless son of a gun, people will take notice. People will talk. Other sellers won’t want to network you, they’ll purposely bid against you, and potential buyers will be too afraid to approach you. Word of mouth spreads like wildfire, especially in such small crowds.

Contrary to popular belief, backstabbing and being a jerk isn’t always the best life strategy. I know many will disagree, but I don’t think it works for businesses, either. You can still be assertive, you can still show the newbies who’s boss, but you don’t have to be a jerk. Treat others the way you want to be treated. Give it a shot and see for yourself the difference it can make. 

As a storage hunter, you know that the resale industry is very important. Why even attend a storage auction if you can't resell the goods you find, right?

Well, thanks to a case currently being reviewed by The Supreme Court, reselling goods that you bought might soon be considered illegal. That sounds absolutely ridiculous, right? How is that even possible when you already paid for it fair and square? Well, according to this absurd and alarming article , it's entirely possible. Take a quick look at it.

 The basic gist of this story is about a young man named Supap Kirtsaeng who came from Thailand in 1997 to attend college in the good old U.S. of A. When he discovered that his text books, made by a company named John Wiley & Sons, were significantly cheaper to buy in his home country, he asked his family to buy copies for him and send them over here. After he was done with them, he resold them on eBay and somehow managed to make roughly 1.2 million dollars. John Wiley & Sons, after hearing about this and probably pretty burned that a college kid had managed to outsmart them, subsequently sued him for copyright infringement. This is the money-grubbing, legal-action-happy kind of thing that would happen only in America.

Kirtsaeng countered the case with the first-sale doctrine, which up until this point, protected and allowed buyers to resell goods that they had legally purchased without the permission of the original copyright holder. This included all goods, ranging from DVDs to books to artwork and anything in between.  However, in 2011, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit upheld a lower court’s ruling that anything that was manufactured overseas is not subject to the first-sale doctrine, meaning, by their skewed logic, that it only applies to goods physically made in the U.S.

Kirtsaeng’s case does not end here, however; The Supreme Court is scheduled to hear oral arguments on the case on Oct. 29.

In the meantime, let’s talk about how this affects you as a storage hunter, and the country as a whole. John Wiley & Sons miraculously win this case; this could mean some serious changes are in store for the resale business. Changing this law would mean you could not even simply sell your car, even if it was manufactured by an American company. Do you know how many foreign made parts are in that thing?

Hey, are you trying to sell at a flea market? Be careful, I heard the police are confiscating non-American made goods. Hey storage hunter, did you find a Nintendo DS in a storage locker? Sorry, you can’t sell that unless you get permission from Nintendo…they’re a Japanese company, after all.  In fact, using this logic, the auctioneer probably can’t hold a storage auction without getting permission from every single foreign copyright holder for every single item in this locker!

Does that not sound like the most ridiculous joke you’ve ever heard? We might as well be living in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi movie where the entire world has fallen into poverty except for Big Brother, who laughs and watches us starving and killing each other just to survive. And if that happens, I expect to Arnold Schwarzenegger to come in, guns blazing, and save us all from our imminent doom. Give me a break!  

Imagine: companies like Goodwill would probably go out of business. Half of the stuff you donate couldn't be sold or purchased without permission from the copyright holders. Nobody would care enough to donate their goods or even hold a tag sale…getting a copyright to sell a Furby sounds like too much work. So instead, we start throwing everything out; perfectly good items that we no longer need go in the trash, piling up on street corners, landfills, sewers, backyards—everywhere. Resale, as well as the concept of recycling, becomes obsolete, and sooner than later we’ll be living in mountains of garbage that we can’t resell and won’t bother to reuse.

Now obviously, this is an extreme worst case scenario, but what I’m trying to illustrate is just how ridiculous this is, and the fact that we need resale. So many Americans depend on secondhand goods, whether they make a living off of selling them, or they’re able to live more comfortably by buying them at reduced prices. And this is exactly why I think this case doesn't stand a chance.

So storage hunters, get out there and exercise your rights to resell goods! Help your fellow Americans live better lives by saving them some money. Help the environment and the world we all share by keeping junk out of landfills. And help yourself by knowing your rights and standing up for them! 

Practically everyone and their grandma is on Facebook. In fact, Facebook now boasts over 950 million users logging on in a given month…29 percent more than a year ago. With facts like that, it’s easy to see why Facebook is the most successful social media website in the world. Many businesses big and small have taken notice, making Facebook fan pages a must-have for any aspiring entrepreneur in the year 2012. You're probably thinking: what does this have to do with storage auctions? Well, even you as a storage hunter can use it to your advantage! Here’s why:

Free Advertising

This is the best reason for any business to make a fan page. You have a place to reach out to fans and potential customers without paying a penny! Facebook does offer paid ads that will help boost your reach, but they’re not necessary to be successful on Facebook. Word of mouth, even in the digital age, is one of the best ways to gain a following. If you have a shop of any kind, promoting it is the best way to make sales. How are people going to know to buy from you if they don't know you exist?

Connect with a Larger Fan Base

You may be well known to the antique dealers and collectors in town, but if you’re looking to broaden your horizons and network with people all across the globe, this is the best way to do it! Not only can you find new customers, you can also make new connections. Who knows, if you ever decide to  travel to a California storage auction, wouldn’t it be nice to have a familiar face when you got there?

Show the World What You Got

People on Facebook love pictures. This works great for if you have an eBay store. Share links to products with the community on Facebook to spark interest, and maybe even get people to share the photo with their Facebook friends. The more eye catching the photo, the better! Tread lightly with this, however: if you post too many pictures with a “BUY NOW!” caption, people are going to get angry and assume you’re just spamming them. Nobody likes a spammer.

Get Real and Share Your Stories

Facebook fan pages are a great way to show customers a “behind the scenes” look at what you’re doing. Take pictures of the bizarre things you found in a storage unit, or share a funny joke that the auctioneer told the crowd. People love feeling like the seller they’re dealing with is a real, relatable person, and it will make people trust you more. The more people trust you, the more people will want to buy from you!

Offer Specials, Promotions, Etc.

If you’re running a sale in your shop, Facebook is a great way to let people know. Certain selling sites like Etsy even allow sellers to offer “coupon codes”, which you can share exclusively with people who like your Facebook page. May Facebook savvy users offer free giveaways through Facebook, or offer discounts if a certain amount of people like their page. This is an excellent way to get more traffic flowing through your page—people can’t refuse a bargain!

So storage hunters, if you have a shop of any kind, whether it’s good old brick-and-mortar or online, Facebook is an indispensable tool to build your customer fan base. Whether we like to admit it or not, we’re a society that thrives on social media, and only the smartest and internet savvy businesses survive. 

For some people, "secondhand". Who would spend hours at a storage auction picking through somebody's old unit just to find worthless, used junk? Who would step foot into a thrift store and rifle through old, nasty things that people threw away? Well, all of that is a huge misconception, because secondhand goods are pretty awesome.

With the economy the way it is, more and more people are turning to secondhand goods, and the stigma of "used" items is becoming far less--making storage auctions an even more viable source of product for your eBay store of flea market table. So next time someone tries to belittle you for picking through old storage units, here are some great comebacks that you can use to stop them in their tracks. 

It's Cheaper.
The most obvious and probably best reason to shop secondhand is the price difference. Say your child wants an XBox 360 for his birthday. There's no way you can afford it new....but go on eBay and look at used ones. You'll be surprised at the money you'll save! Som people get hung up on things like not having the original box, or a tiny superficial scratch here and there, but really--if the product works as well as a new one, what's the big deal? The only difference will be the amount of money you spend. And for us, that's a good thing.  
It's Good For the Earth. 
Many people don't realize that by purchasing and selling secondhand goods, you're actually doing the environment a huge favor. All of those goods you found in the storage unit you just won could have easily ended up in a landfill, sitting there for years and taking up more space in our already overcrowded dumps. But by selling and buying secondhand goods, you're keeping all of these perfectly useful goods out of the dumps, and in the homes of folks who might not have that much money to play around with. So not only are you helping the Earth, you're helping your fellow human beings! 

It's Unique. 
Sure, you can go to the mall and buy a brand new, mass produced ACDC shirt that was made in China. Or, you can shop secondhand and get an authentic World Tour tshirt from 1979. It's up to you...but we know which is the cooler option. Secondhand goods can make really great gifts, as well, especially for collectors or people with unique interests. 

It's Fun. 
Most importantly, buying and selling secondhand goods is fun! You never know what you're going to get--it's a brand new treasure hunt every time. You might buy a storage unit filled to the brim with antiques, or maybe vintage comic books, or something completely different. If you keep your eyes open, you can find some incredible things that people just decided to throw out. It goes to show you that the old saying is true: one man's trash is truly another man's treasure.  

So what are you waiting for?! As you can see, the odds are clearly in your favor. Start your storage hunting career today and become a master of secondhand selling!