Storage Wars Find

[redsox2012]

Anyone else see last week's episode of "Storage Wars"?

Darrell bought a locker with a box of NES stuff.  Most of it looked pretty common, but he took it to a store called Video Game Geeks (must be somewhere in LA) to have it appraised.  There was a Stadium Events, Snow Brothers & Zombie Nation as well as some other rare stuff I couldn't make out (carts only).

They valued it at around $3000.  Darrell offered to flip the owner for either $5000 or $5, but he refused.  Looking at a recent sale, Stadium Events sold for over $8000 for cart only.

[larryinc64]

I call BS on that find.

"OH HEY WE FOUND EARTHBOUND, 5 NWC CARTS, AND SHIGERU MIYAMOTO"
It was probably staged. A lot of these shows are.

Like this episode of Pawn Stars, Pat the NES Punk was trying to pawn his NWC carts, like that would happen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrntYxB92GU


Also, unrelated but related:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YRv6v_ScrJo

[cloud_weaver]

They do stage a lot of the rare stuff they hide in there.  Someone got in trouble a bit back with the show and outed them on it.

[TDIRunner]

I used to really enjoy that show, but it wore off pretty quick.  Of all the reality shows, that one is probably the furthest from actual reality.  Personally, that doesn't bother me.  I don't care if it's real.  I only care if I'm entertained.  For a while I was entertained and therefore, I watched the show.  But now that my interest was gone, I just don't care anymore.

Shipping wars was another.  Absolutely no reality whatsoever.  But it was entertaining to watch.....for about two weeks.

[FritzWhite]

For me, a lot of the entertainment value is linked to it being real. Once I realized it's a sham, my interest faded. I didn't have specific plans to go buy storage lockers, but in the beginning I'd feel the thrill of the hunt thinking that anyone those of lockers and the treasures inside could be mine if I was at the right auction at the right time. Even if the show was real, I'd think it would be a lot harder anyways because a lot of people had the same idea after seeing the show and now overbid those auctions. Same problem with craigslist and a lot of garage sales these days. Too many sharks and not enough good deals. Once or twice, I've had the seller of a well priced lot on craigslist raise it 3x the original asking price because of the ensuing frenzy of calls and emails.

[Quazimoto]

For me, a lot of the entertainment value is linked to it being real. Once I realized it's a sham, my interest faded. I didn't have specific plans to go buy storage lockers, but in the beginning I'd feel the thrill of the hunt thinking that anyone those of lockers and the treasures inside could be mine if I was at the right auction at the right time. Even if the show was real, I'd think it would be a lot harder anyways because a lot of people had the same idea after seeing the show and now overbid those auctions. Same problem with craigslist and a lot of garage sales these days. Too many sharks and not enough good deals. Once or twice, I've had the seller of a well priced lot on craigslist raise it 3x the original asking price because of the ensuing frenzy of calls and emails.

Too true... I used to dabble in buying storage lockers in order to re-sell the contents.  Never enough to be considered a steady job, but it did make me some extra money every once in a while.  You really have to have a good eye for what sells and what doesn't in your area.  And it's a ton of work (you generally only have 24 hours to get the locker cleaned out completely or they start charging you).  And you would be shocked at the amount of pure junk people save and actually pay to store in those lockers.

However, as soon as these shows started popping up on television, everyone and their Brother started coming out of the woodwork thinking there would be secret hidden gems in every storage locker, just like they done seen on the TV.  That's totally not the case at all.  95% of what's in storage lockers is just common household stuff and decent at best furniture.  Didn't stop people from thinking there was hidden treasure in all of them and thus the typical auction price on those units went crazy.  Wasn't unusual to see multiple people bid a few thousand dollars on an 8x10 storage unit that wasn't even packed full.  I couldn't afford to compete with such lunacy, so I just stopped going.

As far as this recent episode with the NES games on it.  I can definitely believe that there would be and NES and games in a storage unit because I've found a good bit of old games and systems in them before.  However, I suspect that anyone who has games like Stadium Events, Snow Brothers, Bonk's Adventure, and Zombie Nation almost certainly knows what they're worth and darn sure isn't going to let them sit in a storage unit that they've stopped paying for and thus see it go up for auction.  These storage places don't sell your unit after one missed month of payment.  They give you plenty of time and notice to get paid up or get your stuff out. 

[larryinc64]

I sometimes wish shows would go all out with the fakeness. I remember some show about truck towing, that was supposed to be this Wild show with people yelling and doing stupid things, but was also supposed to be real. I think with shows would be a lot better if they screw reality and go all out, like Reno 911 dd. It was a mock cop show, but did not bill itself as a reality show so it can get away with doing wilder things.

[Megatron]

While I can only speak for myself, it is VERY possible to have rare, expensive games in a storage unit.  I have about 90% of my collection in a unit in Virginia (recently moved to San Diego) and could not bring them with me right away.  While it is HIGHLY unlikely I would stop paying for my unit and have thousands of dollars worth of games be lost, if I were to get in an accident, die, go bankrupt, etc I could see that being a struggle.  And I have some expensive titles in there...Earthbound, Zombie Nation, Snatcher, to name a few.  So while uncommon, I can see this sort of thing happening.

As for the episode itself?  I saw it. It's likely fake.  One thing that always gets me is when they find some rare item, and nothing else in the unit even compares to it in terms of style or value. 

[TDIRunner]

While I can only speak for myself, it is VERY possible to have rare, expensive games in a storage unit.  I have about 90% of my collection in a unit in Virginia (recently moved to San Diego) and could not bring them with me right away.  While it is HIGHLY unlikely I would stop paying for my unit and have thousands of dollars worth of games be lost, if I were to get in an accident, die, go bankrupt, etc I could see that being a struggle.  And I have some expensive titles in there...Earthbound, Zombie Nation, Snatcher, to name a few.  So while uncommon, I can see this sort of thing happening.

As for the episode itself?  I saw it. It's likely fake.  One thing that always gets me is when they find some rare item, and nothing else in the unit even compares to it in terms of style or value. 

I don't think anyone is arguing whether or not it COULD happen.  It's just that the show is well known for staging their units.  It's the only way the should could work.  Otherwise it would take months or maybe even years worth of storage units to find enough valuable units to make up one entertaining episode.