10 LUCKIEST Storage Unit Finds

most everybody dreams of stumbling across some rare and unique find something that can gain us notoriety and make us rich the only problem being most of us don't know where to look TV shows such as storage wars have opened our eyes to the fact that in storage units all over the map many such treasures can be found collecting dust and once the owners of those storage units default on the rent payments and they're put up for grabs at auction anybody with a few hundred dollars to bid can find themselves in possession of memorabilia artwork or classic vehicles that can provide a payday beyond their wildest expectations while some of these finds were uncovered by the storage wars crew others were stumbled upon by regular people who probably never thought they'd earn a place on today's list the top ten luckiest storage unit finds of all time the Ford Mustang Shelby gt350 is a holy grail of sorts for collectors of classic autos and early models are known to sell for close to a quarter million dollars it's exceedingly rare to find one in its original unrestored condition but that's what happened to one unidentified man when the owner of just such a rare vehicle clued him in to its location shortly before his death the car which had only logged 55,000 miles had sat in storage in a barn in Massachusetts since 1976 but 40 years later it was rescued from exile to go up on the auction block part of the car's appeal was its carryover status meaning that while it was equipped with many upgrades which could be found in the 1966 model its vehicle identification number was issued in 1965 the Shelby was in pretty rough shape understandable for a car which nobody had laid eyes on for four decades but its rarity made it a prime candidate for restoration and its buyer was all too eager to shell out top dollar for a piece of automotive history at auction at Bonhams and Greenwich Connecticut the rare Shelby brought in a hefty winning bid of 150 $9,500 while such a rare classic must be an exciting find one Michigan family trumped it with the discovery of not one but an entire fleet of classic vehicles which had belonged to their late father he'd apparently been quite the collector the treasure trove consisted of a mind-boggling 44 vintage autos all of which had sat untouched in a garage for 30 years the oldest car in the collection was a 1947 Pontiac convertible in dire need of restoration but the fleet's owner had an obvious love of the Ford Thunderbird no fewer than 28 of the 44 vehicles were Thunderbirds ranging in model-year from the early 1950s all the way up to 1976 the fleet included only one foreign vehicle a 1978 Volkswagen Beetle convertible and also included not one but three GMC motorhomes intrepid auctioneers came away with some great deals as most of the vehicles sold for significantly below their market value but the anonymous family isn't complaining all in all they came away from the auction $300,000 richer darrell the gambler' sheets was one of the more abrasive personalities on storage wars but he also had a great deal of success among his finds during his tenure on the show were such famous items as a baseball bat signed by California Angels first baseman and likely future hall-of-famer Albert pools and a bust of c-3po from the original Star Wars movie but perhaps his most exciting discovery of all time was a collection of hundreds of pieces of original artwork by famed artist Frank Gutierrez which had simply been collecting dust in a nondescript storage locker Gutierrez was an important figure in the world of Chicano art through the early 20th century and while some of the pieces were slightly worse for wear the sheer volume of original paintings that sheets found himself in possession of was nothing short of staggering storage wars viewers watched as the collection was appraised by an art expert informing sheets that his $3,600 investment they don't call him the gambler for nothing could translate to a payday of up to $300,000 well there are no formal records of the collection having sold at auction it's pretty safe to say that sheets saw the kind of return on investment that would make any antique hunter green with envy one unnamed man got the shock of his life when he bid on a nondescript storage unit in North Carolina in the early 2000s unbeknownst to him the unit had been rented out on behalf of Michael Jordan's 23 a Chapel Hill restaurant which had been owned by the all-time basketball grade after the restaurant closed the units rental fee began to go unpaid and the lucky bidder that claimed it when it went up for auction came into possession of an absolute treasure trove of sports memorabilia including Jordans recruitment letters and diploma from the University of North Carolina while these finds would have been astounding on their own the storage unit had even more treasures to yield also among the items were a bat used in game by baseball legend Jackie Robinson Super Bowl rings which had originally belonged to members of the Baltimore Ravens and New England Patriots and an 18-page handwritten draft written by none other than Muhammed Ali detailing his conversion to Islam the buyer of the storage unit held on to the items for years before finally putting them per auction in 2014 the Jordan documents alone pulled in over fifty thousand dollars while the bat went for an astounding $162,000 all told the most valuable items among this insane trove of sports memorabilia sold for a combined total of over three hundred twenty-five thousand dollars harley-davidson aficionados are among the most fiercely loyal in the world and exceedingly rare vintage models can cause the kind of bidding wars that can push their price tags into the stratosphere that's exactly what happened when one lucky man discovered a 1927 Harley in a shed in Australia a racing model complete with sidecar that was not widely produced and of which there are a few examples left in the world that's because the FHA 8-valve v-twin racer was designed and built for speed meaning that most models met their ends and crashes on the racetrack of the few that did survive most were subjected to numerous modifications over the years but the Australian storage shed find was an original unaltered model making it even more desirable for collectors after more than 50 years in storage the bike was put up on an auction block at Shannon's Melbourne spring auction in 2015 and effortlessly secured a winning bid of 600,000 Australian dollars which translates to about 420 thousand US dollars an Australian record those who've been on abandoned storage units are always hopeful of funding some kind of lost treasure but very few were lucky enough to stumble upon actual treasure of the type which might have once sat on a cargo hold of a pirate ship however one San Jose man who identified himself only as John suddenly found himself in that very situation when he bid $1,100 on an abandoned storage locker only to see his investment pay off beyond his wildest dreams although the unit was auctioned off by American auctioneers the very same company which is the subject of storage wars the purchase was not part of the series taping and no cameras were present when the discovery was made the treasure consisting of several rare coins and bars of silver and gold was discovered not in a pirate's treasure chest but in a blue plastic Rubbermaid container which was so weighed down with booty that it took three men to move it out of the storage unit the cash was appraised at an astonishing five hundred thousand dollars and the new owner couldn't resist calling laura dotson co-owner of American auctioneers to share his good fortune after the appraisal according to Laura the first words out of the lucky man's mouth were wow this is a wonderful life way back in 1989 long before storage wars publicized the money-making opportunity afforded by a band storage units an anonymous Long Island contractor took a chance on such a unit purchasing it for a mere hundred dollars inside was a mock vehicle which the man assumed to be junk its roof was dented and it was missing several key features most notably the wheels which had been replaced with what appeared to be fins it wasn't until the man went to move the vehicle out of storage that bystanders clued him in to what he had purchased and to make sure they were right he went out and bought a copy of the 1977 classic film The Spy Who Loved me sure enough the Lotus Esprit spree vyas owner had been none other than bond James Bond it was one of several experts mocked up for the film and was the only one to actually function as a working submarine the vehicle had sat in storage for over a decade and apparently the film's production company had simply forgotten to keep making the payments although the vehicle was obviously not roadworthy its status as a singular piece of Hollywood memorabilia was enough to bring a jaw-dropping winning bid of 960 seven thousand one hundred twenty dollars when it was put up for auction in 2013 a little bit less than the appraised value of one point four or five million but the seller isn't complaining as he pointed out it's still not a bad haul for a $100 investment in 2011 a storage locker owned by a pair of Hollywood executives fell far enough behind on its rent to go up for auction an anonymous buyer purchased it sight unseen for an undisclosed sum but whatever the purchase price it turned out to be more than worth the investment inside neatly stored and organized was an incredible 40,000 piece collection of Hollywood memorabilia dating from the silent era to the present day including props signed posters scripts animation cells from Disney Productions and even original artwork from famed director Tim Burton the collection was put up for auction by Don Presley auction company in conjunction with storage wars Dan and laura dotson Don Presley himself called the find a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence and called the stash Hollywood's premier archive of entertainment memorabilia the massive collection went up for sale in 400 separate Lots selling to various international collectors for over a million dollars actor Nicolas Cage is among the most rabid fans of comic books on earth he famously named his son kal-el after Superman's given name and many fans may not realize that his own given name is Nicolas Coppola he's the nephew of legendary director Francis Ford Coppola and took his stage name from Marvel Comics superhero Luke Cage to avoid any appearance of nepotism he was the owner of one of the most pristine copies of Action Comics number one the first appearance of Superman anyway existence until it was stolen from his home in 2000 amazingly the book turned up over a decade later in an abandoned San Fernando storage locker although cage had hope to negotiate the comics return he had already received a hefty insurance payment meaning that the comic of which no more than 100 still exists was the rightful property of the anonymous buyer of the storage unit at auction in 2011 the book which Kage had purchased in the 1990s for $150,000 sold for the mind-bending sum of two million one hundred sixty one thousand dollars easily a new record for a single comic book the previous record-holder another less well preserved copy of the same issue which went for 1.5 million the previous year the most profitable storage locker find of all time was purchased sight unseen by a Florida radio station in 2013 said to contain documents in paper the purchase price was only around three hundred dollars but the documents in paper in question turned out to be no less than a vital part of popular music history the unit's previous owner happened to be a relative of members of the Beach Boys one of the most influential pop bands this side of the Beatles and the documents included original handwritten lyrics bandleader Brian Wilson's ingenious original compositions and even the very first royalty check for $990 ever cut to the band The Beach Boys surviving members mounted a legal battle to retain custody of the trove but were unsuccessful leaving the new owner free to do with the collection as he pleased while they may not have been thrilled about it the band had no choice but to allow the items to go up for auction where they were purchased by sealed bid for a sum in the neighborhood of six million dollars

Channel: Top Trending

Views: 2,308,787

Rating: 4.5674844 out of 5

Keywords: lucky, luckiest, storage unit, storage locker, storage wars, auction, finds, storage unit finds, storage unit auction, treasure, cars, gold, expensive, items, rare, discovery, viral, new

Id: 1iYpwybwDpA

Length: 10min 28sec (628 seconds)

Published: Thu May 03 2018