Whether you’re a new or a experienced bidder/treasure hunter - we’d like to know if you prefer bidding in the comfort of your own home, or being in the presence of the unit? Do you find online auctions more productive and convenient? Do you find attending a live storage auction can be time-consuming or entertaining?
List a simple pros and cons list, if you’d like. 
I think online auctions are better than being there in person. With me the online scenario makes it like a treasure hunt when you actually get to the unit.
Thanks for your input @kcmorgan! It definitely is a treasure hunt for storage diggers. I’m glad you enjoy online auctions!
Happy bidding!
I like on line auction because live auctions are often cancelled at the last minute.
Very true. It would be a waste of time driving to the facility just to find out auctions have been canceled. Thanks for your input!
Happy bidding.
I am not entirely sure if this is a British Columbia thing or an Alberta thing, but it sure seems like people pay a higher premium bidding online then when standing in the facility bidding in person. Although convenient, I found prices much lower on lockers in Alberta. I prefer being there in person because I can get the 3D visual and smell. Not being a smoker, smell was a big part of my bidding in person. I have passed on many lockers because its harder to sell items that smell like cigarette smoke. Thats something you can’t determine when bidding online.
So, in summary, online bidding can be counter productive because more people bid on lockers that they would otherwise never bother to go see in person. Its driven up locker prices, narrowing the profit margin and in a lot of cases, you make nothing and end up in the hole.
The smell factor of a unit is probably one of the main reasons as to why some storage pickers still attend live auctions. Out of curiosity, have you ever regretted buying an auction online due to its content smell when you came to pick it up?
I have bought a few lockers that due to the smell, I had to put more cleaning into the contents and of course, tossed some things that couldn’t be cleaned. It does effect sell ability. Some people like to ask if its from a smokers home or not. So, I guess I have regretted buying some lockers.
Dude that sucks. Maybe one day in the future when smell-o-vision is common place, we’ll get our vendors to upgrade their cameras 
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/videos/b/dc4c9002-b437-4fae-919b-a406b8ed2ffa
Online auctions are much better for me. I hate when I have to travel around to 3 or 4 places in a day and there are no good units. It is a waste of time and money. In person has its advantages but for the most part online is more cost efficient
I prefer live auctions. You can see what is in the locker better then you can with pictures. Also you can smell the locker and see how dusty everything is. If it is dusty, you know that nobody has been going through things. You can’t tell that from a picture. Prices seem to be about the same. Last storage auction I was at, there must have been 50 people and it went great. Liked seeing some of the other people again. Always contact the storage facility to inquire if it is still happening before showing up. I have had them cancel and had online ones cancel as well.
Yup. Online auctions is a definite game changer. Very cost and time efficient. Thanks for your input! 
It is nice that attending a live auction is a social gathering. You get to socialize and meet with people who could be storage hunter pros or newbies.
You said you can’t tell a lot from a photo, but how do you find Bid13’s presentation of the unit through a video? I don’t think any other online storage auction website can offer that. We try to stimulate a live auction as much as possible.
I haven’t won an online auction yet, but we do like the live ones. Hoping to win an online one soon! Just found this site, and only one auction within 100km, but we will keep our eyes peeled.
Nice! I hope you enjoy the online auctions as much as you enjoy the live auctions.
Good luck and welcome to bid13!
Had a great looking online auction that turned out to be a crazy cat lady’s stuff.
EVERYTHING smelled so bad…
Took it to the flea market & left it out uncovered the night before…
Never used so much hand sanitzer in my life.
I like live storage more because with the one I saw live I got to watch them clip the lock so I knew it was a fresh locker. Usually on these videos the lock is already gone and most of the boxes look open… Not saying the lock cutters/ video people are taking “the good stuff” out before the auction is posted but it could be interpretted by some that way. I would suggest showing at least the last 30 seconds of the lock removal at the beginning… So as someone who has won 2 bids here I would prefer to be live or else see at least some of the lock removal to prove it is fresh.
live auctions give you up to 6 days to clean out vs 2. I like at home auctions, not big with standing around like a heard of cows going from unit to unit. I have won a storage for just a dollar at a live auction once.
There is too much room for fraud from the proprietors, employees and whomever else . There needs to be a newspaper dated when the lock is cut, third party witness of some sort, and recourse when unscrupulous actions are uncovered, just as paypal, ebay, amazon have evolved this way. We bid before online, and found some locker contents in the dumpster out back from what we had won, so obviously it was rummaged through before hand. There are too many opened boxes in many of these pictures, too much room for fraud for sure.
When you see opened boxes, it’s usually a sign that the owner of the locker grabbed everything of value before abandoning the unit. I think it’s pretty rare that facility owners dig through the units. Most of them want nothing to do with the stuff in there. They are in the business of renting space, not selling junk.
Besides, once they put the Bid-13 security clip on the door they can’t open it again. If they took something out before they put that security clip on, and the renter pays up, they are going to get caught. The renter has right up until the auction is final to pay off their debt and keep their stuff. That’s why nobody is allowed to enter the unit until the auction is final -it still belongs to the original renter of the unit. It would be a dangerous game for facility owners to steal stuff from lockers. They could easily lose their business for doing it.