Should you be buying storage units to get vintage guitars and synthesizers for cheap? We spoke to one of the top storage hunters to find out.
Buying Storage Units for Music Gear
TikTok user Locker Blocker made the news recently when the team’s storage auction bid revealed a treasure trove of items that seemingly formerly belonged to Kanye West. In a series of videos posted to the social media channel, the treasure hunters show box after box of Yeezy goods, including stage costumes and masks and – more importantly for us – music gear. The gear included microphones and an Ensoniq ASR-10, Ye’s sampler of choice.
This got me thinking: is buying storage units for music gear a viable way to get your hands on vintage guitars, synths and effects? It turns out the answer is both yes and no – and is surprisingly complicated.
Buying Storage Units for Music Gear: How To Do It
If you’re like me, you spend a lot of time in thrift stores and on resale sites like eBay looking for music gear. There’s another way to get that gear though, a method that’s been growing in popularity the last few years. It involves bidding on storage units whose renters have defaulted on payments. If you win the auction, all of the contents of the storage unit are now yours.
Start by visiting a site like Storage Treasures or Storage Auctions. Find an auction in your area or one that you’re willing to drive to and start bidding. Each auction will have a few pictures and some tags to let you know what you can expect to find inside. If you win, you then travel to the site, pay the agreed-upon amount plus whatever additional fees might be involved and all the stuff is yours.
Buying Storage Units for Music Gear: A Success Story
Can it really be that easy? To find out if it’s really worth buying storage units for music gear, I reached out to David de Haas, better known as the Storage Auction Pirate on YouTube.
“I have bought well over 3000 storages,” he told me. “And yes, I have found some instruments. I’d say of those 3000-plus units, 100 have had an instrument of some form, ranging from a basic kid’s school flute to a decent Martin guitar I sold for $1500.”
In the video below, David buys a storage space that was likely formerly owned by a guitar amp tech. One of the items he pulls out is an Oberheim Matrix-1000, the synth that the Aphex Twin used on Selected Ambient Works Volume II.
Buying Storage Units for Music Gear: “The odds are not in your favor”
Not every storage unit is such a treasure trove. David cautions that you win some and you lose some.
“Most of the time they’re beat-up, well-played, thrashed instruments,” he warns. “It isn’t impossible but it’s like pulling a slot machine. The odds are not in your favor. Most cases are empty.”
In fact, you can see examples of empty cases in the video above.
Buying Storage Units for Music Gear: Beware of Scams
You also need to watch out for scams. As you’re bidding based only on a few pictures, it’s easy enough for unscrupulous people to arrange the storage area so it appears to be more valuable than it actually is.
“The business is at its worst time for scams,” David says. “It’s all online now. People stage storages, make them look good for over-bidding and it’s all empty boxes and empty cases. There are so many different ways scams are going it’s kind of wild.”
Buying Storage Units for Music Gear: Proceed With Caution
Buying storage units is not the jackpot it may appear to be from the outside. There are many things to be cautious of. However, if you’re careful it could still be a fun and profitable way to collect vintage music gear.
“I have bought some good units in my day, do not get me wrong,” sums up David. “But people need to be aware it is not easy, it has mass loss, and it’s at its worst time ever to join the business. One of my coolest music finds was not worth much but it was Yvonne Elliman’s storage unit and I got her upright piano, which sold for a few hundred.”
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