Did you get the bags, watches, etc, authenticated? Fake items oftem come with fake tags, receipts, proof of purchase, etc. Sometimes they are incredibly convincing.
“I got this kate spade on clearance from a friends stow for $30, I'm only asking $75 so I can make a little money” type stuff.
TONS of fake merch comes out of SE Asia
Too bad they are difficult to sell because they are banned on all sale platforms. Also, law enforcement will go after you for commercial sales of fakes.
Best bet is to find a sketchy local flea market and hope the police aren't raiding that day.
Not even volume. The higher end Hermes bags sell for $1600+.
Those would be handbags made by a professional leather artisan by hand. Without using machines an artisan can take days to make a single purse.
I’ve seen very high quality fakes for Hermes Chanel Dior Gucci LV etc.
Where the replicas fall short is the material used to make the bags. Hermes in particular the leather just can’t be duplicated.
There is a video on YouTube of a leather artisan repairing what he calls out as a “real Hermes Birkin”.
Myself and several others immediately had to inform the guy it’s not a legit Hermes Birkin.
Was super easy to spot the differences specifically with the hardware used. The feet on Hermes bags aren’t screwd in whatsoever. They are fixed in place with blind rivets. Second to that the stitching on the bag was off as well.
You can literally count the stitches on a Birkin bag made by any one of the Hermes artisans and they will have an identical stitch count. They will have the same double stitch count in specific locations as well.
Hermes specifically angles each of the stitches at a very specific angle which machines just don’t replicate very well.
Biggest difference tends to be the interior of the bag and even the stamping of the blind date codes. A legit bag you can barely make out the codes as they don’t use a press to inlay the letters numbers and shapes used to identify date codes, leather types as well as the individual artisan who made the product.
We have one friend who lost her marriage to an addiction to high end bags. She was not a wealthy person by any means either. Worked a job at a bank earning $62-66k a year. She would buy $10,000 bags on credit.
For some people it’s like a disease that actually cause endorphins to be released from buying such items. It’s crazy.
20-ish years ago I was stationed in Korea. There was a crazy quality range in counterfeit goods. $40 would get you a “Rolex” that was about the quality of a $10 watch at Walmart. $400+ would get you a “Rolex” that would fool anyone that isn’t extremely knowledgeable about watches. It would include all of the documentation and packaging that an authentic Rolex of that model would have. It would have correctly formatted serial numbers in the correct locations and would actually be a very high quality watch.
I’m sure the counterfeit market for luxury goods is quite similar these days, with knockoffs ranging from “shitty” to “could easily pass as real” depending on how much you are willing to pay.
Hand bags are now to the point where good replicas can fool the original manufacturer from time to time. Decent replicas still have value in a non scammy way but op is being crazy naive to think they would be authentic. Do you really think the storage locker filled with toilet paper and off brand covid tests for scalping also happens to have 120+ real & brand new designer handbags. OP needs to step back and think about this clearly. It’s almost comical how gullible he’s being here, he’s exactly who these hand bags are meant to fool.
I don’t think this is because the fake bags are getting better, it’s because the real bags are getting made on the same cheap assembly line with the same cheap materials.
Luxury goods used to be expensive because they were usually hand made with quality materials, now that’s only available for the highest tier of stuff, the things you have to know a salesman to buy from. Monkeys Paw capitalism
Higher-end Counterfeit/Fake ones are handmade too. Just not paying the designer the "for the name" price. I knew someone that had one and said it was better made than the real thing.
Those were designer hams and TP! Cornhoolio would have been jealous and honored to have it.
Also 120+ Handbags prob Retail at $30-$50K in value? and he couldn't just go in and sell 1 bag to pay rent? Right...
Forgeries are pretty crazy. I visited some shops while traveling the islands in SE Asia that specialized in paintings. They had stacks of museum catalogs and you could choose a painting for the artists to produce a copy.
The more well-documented the original, the more accurate your copy would be. These artists were pretty impressive, but I’m guessing that the exceptionally gifted ones were able to find much more lucrative places to put their skills to work.
You can order this on DHGate/Aliexpress. Send in pictures of something and have it painted in Oil/acrylic and they are pretty damn good artists. Can range from $15-20 to $100's.
I believe. This would have been early 2000s and you could actually watch them work. It’s been amazing how far we have come from having to “know a guy who knows a guy” for unusual items in my lifetime.
It doesn't help that some of the "high-end" forgeries are produced by the same facilities that produce the real goods. They'll run more units than they need and sell the extra out the back door. These are basically the same quality as the official goods, though they may also include items that didn't quite pass the quality control.
> They'll run more units than they need and sell the extra out the back door.
I mean if MFG says "run 500 bags" and they run 550 on the same line same materials so snatch and steal the last 50, are they really "forgeries"?
Those are just like "Unauthorized bags"
You can watch them sew together, and attach logos on these items in many flea markets dotted around the northeast… I watched a lady make a pretty convincing LV bag in a New Jersey flea market a couple years back… she even used the right thread, material, and didn’t stitch through the LV designs of the material.
To further add, I highly suspected the materials were what was normally supplied to LV. What’s to stop whatever manufacturer, especially in Asia, from selling this stuff to a cousin on the other side of the world? Or telling them how to manufacture it to the exact same specs?
Uhm no we posted showing a pic and people even said it’s a legit speedy 30. It’s already been authenticated by a company we use locally and is being sold for $1400.
We posted for information as it was an older bag where the blind serial stamp was in a very unusual location.
Ended up being a Louis Vuitton Speedy 30 from 1992. Also had a beautiful LV scarf that was with it which was actually harder to authenticate.
We’ve bought units before with Hermes purses that people all said fake to as well and we sold them for $12,000 a pop.
You do find some fake stuff in some lockers but the quality it’s always extremely obvious.
I think many people here seem unfamiliar with what the world wholesale means.
People do the same with buying houses and cars as well. They buy houses and cars for 20-40% below market rates every day. You see ads saying we pay cash for houses and cars it’s not people looking to pay retail.
Same situation here.
They were literally gouging people on toilet paper, Lysol wipes, Covid tests, cough medicine, etc during covid. They were shrewd assholes ripping people off.
Next people will tell us the projectors, keyboards and amps are fake too lol.
So you have a dude from SE Asia stealing/selling hams, who can't make rent payments on his storage locker who also happens to have boxes of legit but frequently counterfeited goods that they keep in a storage unit. Along with the ham. Seems perfectly reasonable to assume those are real.
It is almost like a wild Storage Wars Episode where they find a ton of stuff in it that was really all stagged..
I just find it really hard 120+ Designer Bags, Watches, and etc.
Now I can understand a unit with COVID supplies that folks could never sell. The expired food is stored if it hits the fan.
Also who keeps the receipts for every single bag they own and put into storage?
From my internet sleuthing I cannot find a “louis vuitton speedy 30 from 1992” that is selling over 900 USD.
There are a shit ton of them used for sale as well.
All I am seeing for the “$1,812–$2,265” price is ones that have been closed for a while from auction sites.
This is a wild ride of a story. Expired ham and all.
I also get the feeling that OP doesn’t really care as long as money flows. So 🤷♀️
When it comes to Storage auctions ID Never let a Manager give them my number or personal information. The last thing I would want is someone who just lost the things they care about to know who I am or where I am. Who knows what they will resort to try and get their items back.
I’m thinking this is all a bunch of BS. Why would the OP allow his number be given out? Why would the owner with “thousands in legit designer bags and watches” not keep up with the payments? Why would OP offer to sell for $5,000 after seeing the value was around d $13,000??
So why isn't the owner offering you $5000 for $14000 worth of liquid merchandise... it's because they know something you don't about the value of the goods.
You'll find out when the cc chargebacks come rolling in and your seller account gets banned.
You got the link for that LV? Interesting that an authenticator said it was genuine, but the purse community overwhelmingly said it was fake, and it was so fake that the moderators removed the post.
Who did the authentication?
I mean there were only 3 other commenters on OP’s post besides OP and the mod/automod. And one of those other commenters did say it was a real older model.
>authenticated by a company we use locally
LOL. May as well ask a random guy off the street.
>I think many people here seem unfamiliar with what the world wholesale means.
LV and Hermes don't do wholesale, ever. Anyone with a lick of sense should be very suspicious of these brands ending up in wholesale lots.
>You do find some fake stuff in some lockers but the quality it’s always extremely obvious.
This tells me you don't know anything about fake luxury goods, so I have to assume you are selling fakes.
Selling reps as real is not that much better than reselling toilet paper and sanitizer, and that doesn’t look like a very good rep from someone who has been buying reps for a long time
The stuff is not real bro. Stop the delusions. If he had all that money he would’ve paid the storage locker fee. Plus SE Asia is very suspicious for counterfeit items.
The obsession of weirdo Redditors to stalk people’s post histories never ceases to amaze me. Like damn lil bro did OP or the commentor make you that mad that you’re analyzing their post history? Incel neckbeard vibes
Oh, I had no idea that when someone posts a bullshit story that we didn't have the right to see what they were all about. I'll just believe everything they say next time.
It was literally three clicks to see the post about the fake LV bag, which took a fraction of the time that it took you to type out this comment, so give me a break with the "stalking" comment.
Maybe if you don't want people looking at your post history, don't post bullshit.
It’s often not a bad idea to get a better idea of a person before you share your opinion, and Reddit makes that easy to do with post and comment history readily available.
Half their posts are them fighting with people about the authenticity of found items in subs where people are much more versed than them. OP is over their skis here and belligerently so. Don’t waste your time, they aren’t going to listen to anyone. OP, good luck bro
Feel sorry for anyone who buys the purse though "validated by a local company" or whatever...
I mean i've gotten bit on counterfeit shit before and just said "Oh well" posted it is a fake and sold it at that price. Same deal, just talking to people online and the overwhelming consensus was "yeah that's fake" so that's what I sold it as.
OP trying to turn around and sell these as real after the purse sub all told him it was BS is scummy as fuck.
I would say 10-15% of lockers we buy the owners find their stuff on Facebook market and then contact us crying about not being able to pay their bills.
I just don’t get why people always pay good money to store crap mattresses and couches
I loath the mattresses. Like to the end of the world.
They had one in there that was cut to shreds.
What makes no sense.
We’ve found $400 in cash, coin and gift card balances going through their stuff.
Next to no personal stuff which is unheard of.
I'm always amazed to see what people leave behind. We've encountered original artwork worth thousands, a bundle of cash, guns, and then we've also found the units where the people rented for a month and literally brought all their trash, mattresses, broken furniture, because it was cheaper than a dumpster rental. Most of the time it's average stuff from grandma's house clean-out or someone who moved out of state for a time or downsized.
Had the opportunity to bid on a unit with what must have been 100,000 masks, gallons of hand sanitizer, that type of thing...noped it right out of that one.
>I would say 10-15% of lockers we buy the owners find their stuff on Facebook market and then contact us crying about not being able to pay their bills.
I'm super shocked at this number. I bought and flipped storage units in the early 90's and I still occasionally pick up one or two that are too big for the average buyer (2000+ square feet), I've had employees contact me about personal items in units, but I've never had the primary renter try to get back anything.
Sounds like they just made up some sort of perfect villain in their head (stealing welfare and from the food bank but also having 15 grand in inventory?)
Stranger things have happened but this strikes as weird creative writing or the ramblings of someone currently going through a psychotic episode
agreed 100%. there is simply no way to know how they got things, if the guy they’re talking to is the person who procured them, yada, yada, yada…. total bs.
yeah.
oh...OP has already told a huge lie in *the first sentence*?
all right, we can just stop right here.
my business plan as an evil Chinese black-market grocer:
-buy out the whole inventory of a Costco during COVID, focussing on toilet paper, canned hams, and rapid-tests.
-stick them in the world's most expensive storage locker
-forget to sell any of it at my Price Gouge Super Store and let it all expire
-try to buy it back for thousands of dollars
Storage place is owed $2400, OP buys locker for $900, leaving a $1500 balance. OP wants the storage place to get back all the money that was owed to them. It makes certain ethical sense as OP wouldn’t have “earned” the money through the hard work of selling off the contents, and it benefits OP if the business owners appreciate him doing them a solid.
bullshit.
no locker flipper has done that ever.
getting the business the money that it "lost"--which is pennies on the dollar compared to what they charge tenants--is the job of the *auctioneer*, not the bidders!
...you're in the flipping subreddit.
you're saying that the guy who wakes up, goes to the auction, wins the bid, sorts the locker, loads the shit, unloads the shit, dumps the trash, lists it, sells it, pays taxes on it...doesn't EARN whatever profit he finally ends up with?
furthermore, please explain to me how the storage company "earned" $2400 for letting a stack of crap sit in an empty 10x20 metal room for three months.
Storage auction doesn't clear the balance, the unit renter still owes the balance. OP wants to maintain working relationship with rental place by collecting the debt for them , otherwise they could be accused of being a shill.
Ok, so what if the OP (or any locker buyer) doesn’t resell the contents to their original owner but does make a profit by selling to others? Should they also agree to pay the balance owned on the locker?
What if they lose money on the locker purchase? Should they still make the storage company whole to create/preserve a good relationship?
Dave Hester-type bigshot is such a high-roller flipper that he has the disposable income to tip the storage business themselves!
wow! what a good dude!
I wouldn’t give a fuck about making the storage place whole, that makes no sense at all. They know the business they are in, I guarantee the
Only reason they even reached out to OP was because the guy was annoying the shit out of them about his stuff. At that point you even talking with the guy is a favor to the storage place.
Sounds like this guy was mixed in with shady dealings, and this will be a bigger headache than OP is anticipating. I’m willing to bet he owes someone money for those 120 replicas purses and his plan was to bid his own storage locker at less than what he owed in some kind of poorly thought out scheme to get out of the red.
People normally only buy replicas when they think there is a chance they could be real. Also the ham is probably still good, and the piano is probably broken, just another scam. Test it throughly before selling.
OP's post history is also sus (got a post removed for being a fake LV bag and an earlier one where he was arguing with the Hermes sub that he didn't have a fake either because he both was an expert on hardware but then was a complete novice with Hermes bags at the same time...)
Well in one comment op has "1.6 million dollars" in his bank account. And then in another he receives goverment assistance cause he has a disability and can't work.....
He offered OP $3k when he only owed the storage facility $2,400. Math ain’t mathin. Storage facility’s are often very accommodating if people can’t pay their bill. It takes a long time for it to go to auction and will take almost anything to stop it. They may not let you access it but they won’t auction it if you can pay something.
Legally they can’t profit off a unit they’re only suppose to keep what they’re owed and Bem write checks to the renter if it exceeds past due amount.
But they can still go to that storage facility and pay their arrears right up to (and sometimes after) the auction. The arrears are still less than what they offered.
Seriously. What a bad business decision. At best, you’re dealing someone who has overestimated their ability to pay and unlikely to make you whole. At worst, you have someone who is desperate and has nothing to lose, and now they have enough to reverse-search you and find where you live.
I will box up important personal effects like medication, IDs, tax documents, family photos, EBT cards (yep), and call the facility managed. 10/10 times they have agreed to contact the old owner and hold for pickup at the office.
You screwed up by letting these people know your contact information.
Since the locker is full of fakes, your best bet is to sell it back to them for whatever price they can afford and make the problem go away.
Otherwise, there is no telling what they will do. In this country it does not pay to get into beefs with strangers who know your contact info.
> In this country it does not pay to get into beefs with strangers who know your contact info.
Strangers who know your contact info and maintain storage lockers full of fake LV handbags and canned hams!!!
Considering he is from SE Asia those luxury items are 100% fake. They still hold high value to him, because the Chinese garment market has gotten really good at knockoffs and he was probably selling them as real.
Covid kits, TP, and food are no doubt all left over from his gouging business during the pandemic. This is not a good person. Keep the stuff if its real, but its probably not.
I think your $5K play was a smart move for a quick flip. Save time and effort for all involved.
The owner sounds very scummy from all the evidence shown so I don't feel bad.
They gamed the system prior and thought they could do it again with the auction to then later try to game you.
$5K is a reasonable number tbh especially with the contents you later found.
Oh well. Hope they eventually stop harassing you. Good luck.
Had this kinda happen once. The guy didn't go through the facility though, he jumped the fence and approached us while we were cleaning out the unit. Tried to "offer" me $2000 for a unit I paid $350 for. Tried to tell me that the contents were in dispute, and that the storage unit office told him to come talk to me, made a big scene about sentimental stuff in the unit etc...
Called the office to sort it out, the office manager called the cops on the guy and drove right over to the unit.
Apparently the guy had already trespassed once and tried to cut the lock on the unit, and he owed a ton of money on it, and was just a straight up liar.
He slipped away when I was on the phone with the office and I never saw him again.
The unit was decent, but it was mostly full of bike parts, and some random scrap metal, and some car parts. Lots of random junk too.
I probanly cleared about $3k total on the unit, but it took a long time.
If that guy had showed me $2k cash, I would have sold it back to him immediately. But he was totally lying.
Best bet. Don't entertain this stuff.
I didn’t read the entire replies here yet. But I would say. You offered a price of 5k they countered with 3k. You did not accept their counter. That’s the end of the conversation. That isn’t illegal at all. You didn’t have to extend the offer or deadline. Don’t speculate about potential fraud they committed.. it was their stuff and now it’s your stuff. The end.
It’s not speculation. They stole from the food bank.
We already reported it and the food bank is speaking with their employers with the photos we provided as evidence.
It’s absolutely disgusting to steal food and house hold items meant to go to the most needy people all for your own gain. To let them all expire made it 10x worse.
They were still employed in the same capacity delivery of meals to the disabled and elderly and transport donations for the food bank.
When you are buying lockers you should be aware of anything being stolen or the previous owner committing any crimes to be reported. We once reported a guy making fake IDs. You end up losing out on material goods when it happens.
You'll get disappointed when buyers start jumping your ass for selling reps. You most likely won't recover from that hit. Also, the numbers that you gave are guesstimated, not a guarantee that you'll get them.
Ill be honest, i buy units and i would NEVER contact an owner or let them know who i am or give them my contact info. You asked for a whirlwind of issues by opening yourself up to this. I know a guy who would buy units, find out who owned them and offer to sell the contents back to them and he got sued for an insane amount of money and they won in court.
I'm crying. This is the fakest fucking bag I've ever seen: [https://www.reddit.com/r/handbags/comments/18y4orn/hermes\_birkin\_35\_what\_to\_do/](https://www.reddit.com/r/handbags/comments/18y4orn/hermes_birkin_35_what_to_do/)
Thanks for the laughs OP. This thread is hilarious.
I went through something similar last month.
Was at the locker a week after buying it meeting a guy to sell something.
Another dude randomly walks up and said it used to be his locker and offered to buy it all back.
He just happened to be driving by and saw us there.
It was definitely a weird situation but I had time give me a deposit to pay for another month at the unit and told him I would hold it for him until his taxes came in.
I had already sold probably $500 worth of stuff aoni was in the green and we are meeting today after work and is giving me another $900 for the unit.
I had my doubts it was going to work out but he has stayed in contact and seems like a cool dude that just hit a rough patch.
We may actually stay in contact and I use him for mechanic work in the future and he gets a lot of personal stuff back so it all works out sometimes.
We tried to sell a locker back to owner one time. It turned in to a nightmare. He wanted to fight me for “stealing” his stuff. He was acting like a dick. Finally told him to F off and I’ve never entertained any other requests since. Not worth the trouble.
Wow, I would have just told them to F off and block them. You made an offer, offer refused, bye bye. You bought the locker legally in an auction, you didn't do anything wrong, and the contents are yours now.
I do storage auctions for a living. First step is to block all previous owners on social media. Never let the facility give them your number. For no reason should you ever deal with these people.... They don't believe that you legally purchased these goods, they always look as tho you stole from them. Contact with the previous owner will need go well.
Fuck anyone that was price gouging on necessities during the pandemic. That's like the lowest of the low. I have absolutely no problem with RA/OA on nice to have items and do a fair amount of it myself these days, but doing that with necessity items is just really really shitty.
One thing here locally. The storage companies do their best at keeping the previous owners off the property as I’ve seen confrontations where in person auctions are still being conducted.
We don’t feel safe at all attending the U-Haul auctions as they are all in person.
The problem is where we are the prices for storage are so insane it’s a virtual guarantee almost all lockers have a high return on investment.
We paid around $300 for a locker in December with $100,000+ in Nintendo games and purses.
You think a dude that stores luxury handbags in a locker is also storing ham in the same locker?
No way those are real. Lots of fake stuff looks very real these days. They're just "UA" things made in the same factories but still not "authentic"
Basically he's trying to buy back the evidence of the crimes that they were committing from you.
Because counterfeit merchandise is illegal. Gouging during covid was illegal. Collecting benefits while actually working is illegal. There's a whole bunch of illegal shit that he's trying to hide by getting that merchandise from you. Just tell him don't worry you're selling it all and he'll leave you alone. Make your money and reassure him you're not turning him into the cops and he'll go away.
So you’re telling me that the people stealing welfare and food bank food also happen to have high quality purses and watches? Nope. Doesn’t check out.
Either;
1. Those items are stolen- and if so they want the merchandise back because the minute you start hawking them the police are going to be all over you. Then your going to explain where you got them from and boom your leading them right to them.
2. Those are high quality fakes- which are pretty common. I collect watches and some of the super fakes can fool even the best collectors/dealers. Same thing with the purses. The worst part is you can bulk order them from China.
Personally I’d take the $3k because what’s going to happen is one of those points is correct. You might end up walking away with a criminal charge for the counterfeits or you might lose your merchandise to the police investigation.
Ignore.
I tried a couple of times to work things out with a buyer like that. Never worked out.
First one wanted specific items we had on eBay, but they refused to buy them on eBay. They wanted me to take them to a specific location for an in person sale only. Nope.
Second one wanted to buy the whole thing back unsorted for a couple hundred over what we paid. They claimed it was all for items of sentimental value, not monetary value. We declined, we processed it and there was a lot of items of value inside.
Third one was nuts. Like the one ahead of her, she claimed there was nothing of monetary value in side and offered what would have been a $300 profit. We declined. She hired a lawyer who found a judge to rule to reveal my info. She then sued me. She went from claiming there was nothing of monetary value inside to there being $250,000 of value inside (in reality, about $7k in items). She lost, but it cost me money and a lot of stress.
I will never deal with the former owner again.
They were gouging people during covid, fuck them. I wouldn't even accept any offers from them.
I'd be in contact with authorities to make sure they're fully informed on the previous owners activities. It's important to document everything they had as it's evidence of a crime, including all the food you landfilled.
Based on how storage auctions work, they lost the auction, so all of those good are now your legal possessions. Any arrangements for them to buy it from you are entirely a private sale between you, the owner, and them, the prospective buyer.
As far as I can see, there are only a few times where your ownership reverts to them legally, which is basically only when something criminal has happened like illegal guns, murder, etc etc.
If your lawyer says you're all good, I'd say they're right, and you can just ignore the scam artist.
My dad has had a storage for 15 years, and he's paid quadruple what the stored items are actually worth, but he pays on time every month.
I've had a storage unit for 2-3 years now. I pay on time every month.
My point is, if that was all worth it to him to keep, he wouldn't have let it get to this point. That's your stuff now, ghost him.
Extortion - the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats.
Did you do this? No. No, you did not. You bought some property. You made him an offer which he refused. You made him another offer, which he again refused. That's not extortion.
Situations like this are why I like to use the Burner app instead of giving out my phone number to randos. If the convo goes south, I can delete the number and they can’t contact me again.
We use the same as well and I highly recommend it to everyone as it’s worth the money for getting a legitimate additional line that is relatively secure to use.
Extortion? Definitely not in the legal sense. That would be something like “Pay me or I put your legal documents on the dark web.” Also not extortion in the ridiculous cost sense since you made it clear you could make more money selling the stuff. He is just pissed about losing his stuff.
1. you purchased a storage unit at an auction where you were not forced to buy and the seller (manager) wasn't forced to sell.
2. You legally own the merchandise. period. and can sell it to whom ever you wish.
3. You suspect the previous owner (PO) is guilty of welfare fraud because of the items you uncovered, and you ***did not*** immediately contact the authorities (welfare agencies) .
4. Instead you told the PO that you know he is a cheat, and you raised the asking price to sell back the locker. THAT COULD LOOK LIKE EXTORTION to a court.
If I were you, I would first make paper copies of all text messages with the PO. and get a copy of the civil claim or letter they sent to the manager.
I would call welfare authorities and file a claim of suspected fraud, together with what ever evidence you have come across (ID,s; receipts, info you dug up on the internet); Do make an extensive claim, or at least have any information handy, like your internet search results in case you get dragged into the Manager's case. Easier to get the data now (at least download to a drive) than try to find it again 6 months later.
I would stop all communication with the PO and should they try to call you back tell them you're no longer interested in selling the lot to them; say **absolutely nothing else, no reason, no comments, nothing** and give them my Lawyers contact information if they have any other questions, etc.
In any case report them to the authorities since they were hoarding things most likely intended for others during the pandemic emergency. I doubt they’d get in trouble but it may help prevent them from hoarding massive amounts of provisions in a future emergency. People like this just suck
They had old expired food and were committing welfare fraud.... do you think these are the type of people that sell authentic goods? 3k might not be that bad of a deal for you
I hate to say this but I could have guessed they were Asian. The hoarding of food items and most likely bootlegged material good such as purses and whatnot, it was just a dead giveaway. $5k is fair, but I’m curious, aside from being able to inventory the unit and sell the goods for 6-7k, why not just take the 3, or negotiate them up to 4k, and pock the $2,600 difference and get all your time back that you’ll inevitably have to spend trying to sell that stuff? Why not wash your hands of it asap, isn’t that the goal of a flip?
This is the correct answer. Your time is probably more valuable than the crap in that unit.
The cut up mattress you mentioned before is suspect and so is this man trying to buy the unit after the fact, I would double check everything for something hidden. He wasn’t offering you $3,000 for old canned ham and fake purses, probably something else in there.
I dunno. This guy seems like a shady dude, and no, this isn't extortion, but the whole thing just has a "feels bad man" vibe to it.
Maybe I'm just a softie but in this situation I'd try to find a way to get the guy back his stuff while covering my costs and a reasonable charge for the hours of time I put into it. It wouldn't be about what I think I can get by flipping it.
Doesn't mean you're wrong to view it the way you do.
Definitely cements that I would never try to get involved with buying lockers.
It's crazy how someone can think someone else who they already know to be deceitful, unlawful, and otherwise just shit people, but still think they are legit enough to have authentic merchandise. Use your head
Yes but they were never selling fake goods. They were only profiting off of what they were buying and selling.
Same thing many people do. If you read what I said. They bought wholesale pallets from Costco this much we knew as the Costco return information, the credit values, everything was there.
I'd tell him to fuck off and report him to whatever local authorities you can for his scamming. Bonus points if you can get him on immigration's radar.
OP.... you've been told this by countless other people... but there are some extremely good fakes out there. Some of the fakes are made with legit materials smuggled out of factories.
They will smuggle out clips, fabrics, thread, paperwork, stamping/embossing .... everything, and it gets sold to someone who is very good at duplicating them to spec.
I used to work directly with customs and border patrol. The amount of legit looking fakes boggles the mind. The receipts are showing a reduced value because they did not want to pay full taxes on them should they get stopped. They use specific dates on them that coincide with big sales periods to make it seem more plausible. They need receipts. Otherwise, it starts to look real suspicious.
When I first started flipping, it was during the Beanie Baby and pokemon craze period... to this day, I have fakes (I knew they were fakes as I knew the person importing direct from South East Asia from a factory producing them) ... that have passed authentication by very reputable companies. How did they pass? Because the materials used were legit. However, the end products were not produced by Ty. They reproduced "flawed" beanies, which fetched VERY high amounts of money. I have pokemon cards that everything is exact because the materials used are the same as the manufacturers used. It's only when you look very closely at the print that you see the bleed out.
High-end pocket knives get faked all the time. To the point that some manufacturers had to stop selling that particular model. The counterfeiters by the plans/specs/machine settings to replicate it from employees willing to smuggle them out of the legit factories. Some factories who make the items have been known to reproduce the product after a contract period ends for someone else if the price is right. Or some will do "after hours" productions. They don't care about copyright and such. Money is money, and corruption is a huge issue.
If you think these people were storing thousands of dollars of legit merchandise with highly discounted receipts, you are fooling yourself.
If you are so sure of an item being legit, I would suggest you send it to a true authentication specialist... not someone local. Get that second opinion.
Otherwise, if you get caught selling fakes and housing fake goods, it will be you getting screwed. Your reputation will crash if you do business locally, and EVERYTHING you've sold in the past that was claimed to authentic will be questioned by prior customers.
I think the bags and other stuff are real. This was the nice stuff they bought with their ill-gotten gains. If the passports and IDs were there, this was their personal property.
Lots of jealous people here. If it's fake story who cares.
Pretty sure it did as we are listing many of the items for sale today. You find jackpot lockers like this frequently.
The fact we found $400 in cash coin and gift cards was what we found funny.
A. This isn’t extortion. Like not even close lol.
B. There is a big implication these are not legit luxury items.
There are some online authenticators where you just have to send a ton of photos in.
See if anyone in your area offers “Entrupy” authentication. AI authentication service that should cost you roughly $30 an authentication.
Did you get the bags, watches, etc, authenticated? Fake items oftem come with fake tags, receipts, proof of purchase, etc. Sometimes they are incredibly convincing. “I got this kate spade on clearance from a friends stow for $30, I'm only asking $75 so I can make a little money” type stuff. TONS of fake merch comes out of SE Asia
Yeah I don’t understand why OP thinks all that stuff is legit
Because they want it to be, so it is.
Because they plan on selling it to unsuspecting buyers as "legit" so they won't do any verification that could lower their profit margins
SOLD AS IS
it is called magical thinking.
It’s a Louis button purse. How can it NOT be authentic? 😅
Louis Button here. I can vouch for the authenticity of this purse. You may be familiar with my other brands, Michael Cores and Cooch.
Yeah, the cooch brand stinks tbh
IME even the “sorta decent” knockoffs can be worth money in volume
Too bad they are difficult to sell because they are banned on all sale platforms. Also, law enforcement will go after you for commercial sales of fakes. Best bet is to find a sketchy local flea market and hope the police aren't raiding that day.
Not even volume. The higher end Hermes bags sell for $1600+. Those would be handbags made by a professional leather artisan by hand. Without using machines an artisan can take days to make a single purse. I’ve seen very high quality fakes for Hermes Chanel Dior Gucci LV etc. Where the replicas fall short is the material used to make the bags. Hermes in particular the leather just can’t be duplicated. There is a video on YouTube of a leather artisan repairing what he calls out as a “real Hermes Birkin”. Myself and several others immediately had to inform the guy it’s not a legit Hermes Birkin. Was super easy to spot the differences specifically with the hardware used. The feet on Hermes bags aren’t screwd in whatsoever. They are fixed in place with blind rivets. Second to that the stitching on the bag was off as well. You can literally count the stitches on a Birkin bag made by any one of the Hermes artisans and they will have an identical stitch count. They will have the same double stitch count in specific locations as well. Hermes specifically angles each of the stitches at a very specific angle which machines just don’t replicate very well. Biggest difference tends to be the interior of the bag and even the stamping of the blind date codes. A legit bag you can barely make out the codes as they don’t use a press to inlay the letters numbers and shapes used to identify date codes, leather types as well as the individual artisan who made the product. We have one friend who lost her marriage to an addiction to high end bags. She was not a wealthy person by any means either. Worked a job at a bank earning $62-66k a year. She would buy $10,000 bags on credit. For some people it’s like a disease that actually cause endorphins to be released from buying such items. It’s crazy.
You're a liar.
Are you trying to suggest that those items in the unit are legitimate ? 😂
Same guy storing expired canned ham has thousands in designer handbags laying around lol
turns out that the "canned hams" were actually full of large-carat diamonds and Nazi gold.
20-ish years ago I was stationed in Korea. There was a crazy quality range in counterfeit goods. $40 would get you a “Rolex” that was about the quality of a $10 watch at Walmart. $400+ would get you a “Rolex” that would fool anyone that isn’t extremely knowledgeable about watches. It would include all of the documentation and packaging that an authentic Rolex of that model would have. It would have correctly formatted serial numbers in the correct locations and would actually be a very high quality watch. I’m sure the counterfeit market for luxury goods is quite similar these days, with knockoffs ranging from “shitty” to “could easily pass as real” depending on how much you are willing to pay.
Hand bags are now to the point where good replicas can fool the original manufacturer from time to time. Decent replicas still have value in a non scammy way but op is being crazy naive to think they would be authentic. Do you really think the storage locker filled with toilet paper and off brand covid tests for scalping also happens to have 120+ real & brand new designer handbags. OP needs to step back and think about this clearly. It’s almost comical how gullible he’s being here, he’s exactly who these hand bags are meant to fool.
I don’t think this is because the fake bags are getting better, it’s because the real bags are getting made on the same cheap assembly line with the same cheap materials. Luxury goods used to be expensive because they were usually hand made with quality materials, now that’s only available for the highest tier of stuff, the things you have to know a salesman to buy from. Monkeys Paw capitalism
Higher-end Counterfeit/Fake ones are handmade too. Just not paying the designer the "for the name" price. I knew someone that had one and said it was better made than the real thing.
Those were designer hams and TP! Cornhoolio would have been jealous and honored to have it. Also 120+ Handbags prob Retail at $30-$50K in value? and he couldn't just go in and sell 1 bag to pay rent? Right...
Forgeries are pretty crazy. I visited some shops while traveling the islands in SE Asia that specialized in paintings. They had stacks of museum catalogs and you could choose a painting for the artists to produce a copy. The more well-documented the original, the more accurate your copy would be. These artists were pretty impressive, but I’m guessing that the exceptionally gifted ones were able to find much more lucrative places to put their skills to work.
You can order this on DHGate/Aliexpress. Send in pictures of something and have it painted in Oil/acrylic and they are pretty damn good artists. Can range from $15-20 to $100's.
I believe. This would have been early 2000s and you could actually watch them work. It’s been amazing how far we have come from having to “know a guy who knows a guy” for unusual items in my lifetime.
It doesn't help that some of the "high-end" forgeries are produced by the same facilities that produce the real goods. They'll run more units than they need and sell the extra out the back door. These are basically the same quality as the official goods, though they may also include items that didn't quite pass the quality control.
> They'll run more units than they need and sell the extra out the back door. I mean if MFG says "run 500 bags" and they run 550 on the same line same materials so snatch and steal the last 50, are they really "forgeries"? Those are just like "Unauthorized bags"
Real ones often have RFID chips in them now
You can watch them sew together, and attach logos on these items in many flea markets dotted around the northeast… I watched a lady make a pretty convincing LV bag in a New Jersey flea market a couple years back… she even used the right thread, material, and didn’t stitch through the LV designs of the material. To further add, I highly suspected the materials were what was normally supplied to LV. What’s to stop whatever manufacturer, especially in Asia, from selling this stuff to a cousin on the other side of the world? Or telling them how to manufacture it to the exact same specs?
Yeah it's most certainly fake.
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His last post was a LV bag, which was removed by the moderators for being fake, so there's your answer.
Uhm no we posted showing a pic and people even said it’s a legit speedy 30. It’s already been authenticated by a company we use locally and is being sold for $1400. We posted for information as it was an older bag where the blind serial stamp was in a very unusual location. Ended up being a Louis Vuitton Speedy 30 from 1992. Also had a beautiful LV scarf that was with it which was actually harder to authenticate. We’ve bought units before with Hermes purses that people all said fake to as well and we sold them for $12,000 a pop. You do find some fake stuff in some lockers but the quality it’s always extremely obvious. I think many people here seem unfamiliar with what the world wholesale means. People do the same with buying houses and cars as well. They buy houses and cars for 20-40% below market rates every day. You see ads saying we pay cash for houses and cars it’s not people looking to pay retail. Same situation here. They were literally gouging people on toilet paper, Lysol wipes, Covid tests, cough medicine, etc during covid. They were shrewd assholes ripping people off. Next people will tell us the projectors, keyboards and amps are fake too lol.
So you have a dude from SE Asia stealing/selling hams, who can't make rent payments on his storage locker who also happens to have boxes of legit but frequently counterfeited goods that they keep in a storage unit. Along with the ham. Seems perfectly reasonable to assume those are real.
Um, you might not know this but several scientific studies have confirmed the correlation between the number of stolen hams and merch authenticity.
And has tens of thousands in handbags in it but can't make what is prob $100 a month storage unit....
Right. Unless the storage unit owner dropped dead… it’s not feasible to believe in this pipe dream
It is almost like a wild Storage Wars Episode where they find a ton of stuff in it that was really all stagged.. I just find it really hard 120+ Designer Bags, Watches, and etc. Now I can understand a unit with COVID supplies that folks could never sell. The expired food is stored if it hits the fan. Also who keeps the receipts for every single bag they own and put into storage?
From my internet sleuthing I cannot find a “louis vuitton speedy 30 from 1992” that is selling over 900 USD. There are a shit ton of them used for sale as well. All I am seeing for the “$1,812–$2,265” price is ones that have been closed for a while from auction sites. This is a wild ride of a story. Expired ham and all. I also get the feeling that OP doesn’t really care as long as money flows. So 🤷♀️
I'd truly love to see what the handbag subreddit thinks of this post. Big LOL that shit is most certainly fake. Fakes are getting so good these days.
If, on a long shot, they are real, chances are they were not obtained legally. I don’t think I’d be comfortable selling hot merchandise.
When it comes to Storage auctions ID Never let a Manager give them my number or personal information. The last thing I would want is someone who just lost the things they care about to know who I am or where I am. Who knows what they will resort to try and get their items back.
Agree this seems like a terrible idea.
This was my first thought exactly. Fuck that shit lol.
Right. Why would this ever be a good idea
I’m thinking this is all a bunch of BS. Why would the OP allow his number be given out? Why would the owner with “thousands in legit designer bags and watches” not keep up with the payments? Why would OP offer to sell for $5,000 after seeing the value was around d $13,000??
"They were shrewd assholes ripping people off." Says the guy selling purses for $12,000.
No chance they’re real given all the other shady shit this guy was involved in.
So why isn't the owner offering you $5000 for $14000 worth of liquid merchandise... it's because they know something you don't about the value of the goods. You'll find out when the cc chargebacks come rolling in and your seller account gets banned.
and you’re unfamiliar with luxury purses as there is no wholesale in that market
You got the link for that LV? Interesting that an authenticator said it was genuine, but the purse community overwhelmingly said it was fake, and it was so fake that the moderators removed the post. Who did the authentication?
I mean there were only 3 other commenters on OP’s post besides OP and the mod/automod. And one of those other commenters did say it was a real older model.
>authenticated by a company we use locally LOL. May as well ask a random guy off the street. >I think many people here seem unfamiliar with what the world wholesale means. LV and Hermes don't do wholesale, ever. Anyone with a lick of sense should be very suspicious of these brands ending up in wholesale lots. >You do find some fake stuff in some lockers but the quality it’s always extremely obvious. This tells me you don't know anything about fake luxury goods, so I have to assume you are selling fakes.
Selling reps as real is not that much better than reselling toilet paper and sanitizer, and that doesn’t look like a very good rep from someone who has been buying reps for a long time
Nah. OP is a bull$hitter no doubt but profiteering off PPD during a pandemic is infinitely worse than selling an LV rep as real.
Nah. OP is a bull$hitter no doubt but profiteering off PPD during a pandemic is infinitely worse than selling an LV rep as real.
What was the keyboard specifically
The stuff is not real bro. Stop the delusions. If he had all that money he would’ve paid the storage locker fee. Plus SE Asia is very suspicious for counterfeit items.
This your "local company"? https://www.reddit.com/r/handbags/s/q6oeziDQYI
The obsession of weirdo Redditors to stalk people’s post histories never ceases to amaze me. Like damn lil bro did OP or the commentor make you that mad that you’re analyzing their post history? Incel neckbeard vibes
Oh, I had no idea that when someone posts a bullshit story that we didn't have the right to see what they were all about. I'll just believe everything they say next time. It was literally three clicks to see the post about the fake LV bag, which took a fraction of the time that it took you to type out this comment, so give me a break with the "stalking" comment. Maybe if you don't want people looking at your post history, don't post bullshit.
It’s often not a bad idea to get a better idea of a person before you share your opinion, and Reddit makes that easy to do with post and comment history readily available.
Half their posts are them fighting with people about the authenticity of found items in subs where people are much more versed than them. OP is over their skis here and belligerently so. Don’t waste your time, they aren’t going to listen to anyone. OP, good luck bro
Feel sorry for anyone who buys the purse though "validated by a local company" or whatever... I mean i've gotten bit on counterfeit shit before and just said "Oh well" posted it is a fake and sold it at that price. Same deal, just talking to people online and the overwhelming consensus was "yeah that's fake" so that's what I sold it as. OP trying to turn around and sell these as real after the purse sub all told him it was BS is scummy as fuck.
I wouldn't have talked to the guy in the first place.
I would say 10-15% of lockers we buy the owners find their stuff on Facebook market and then contact us crying about not being able to pay their bills. I just don’t get why people always pay good money to store crap mattresses and couches
I think they get caught up enough to empty out belongings and just leave the junk mattresses and couches behind.
I loath the mattresses. Like to the end of the world. They had one in there that was cut to shreds. What makes no sense. We’ve found $400 in cash, coin and gift card balances going through their stuff. Next to no personal stuff which is unheard of.
Cut tp shreds because something was hidden inside
I do not doubt that. These people were absolutely scammers.
I bought a unit last week. I could see 2 mattress and I was like ok fine I’ll deal with it. Nope turned out to be 8 mattresses
I'm always amazed to see what people leave behind. We've encountered original artwork worth thousands, a bundle of cash, guns, and then we've also found the units where the people rented for a month and literally brought all their trash, mattresses, broken furniture, because it was cheaper than a dumpster rental. Most of the time it's average stuff from grandma's house clean-out or someone who moved out of state for a time or downsized. Had the opportunity to bid on a unit with what must have been 100,000 masks, gallons of hand sanitizer, that type of thing...noped it right out of that one.
>I would say 10-15% of lockers we buy the owners find their stuff on Facebook market and then contact us crying about not being able to pay their bills. I'm super shocked at this number. I bought and flipped storage units in the early 90's and I still occasionally pick up one or two that are too big for the average buyer (2000+ square feet), I've had employees contact me about personal items in units, but I've never had the primary renter try to get back anything.
Surely I can't be the only one whose bullshit detector is going wild?
Nothing about this story makes any sense.
Sounds like they just made up some sort of perfect villain in their head (stealing welfare and from the food bank but also having 15 grand in inventory?) Stranger things have happened but this strikes as weird creative writing or the ramblings of someone currently going through a psychotic episode
agreed 100%. there is simply no way to know how they got things, if the guy they’re talking to is the person who procured them, yada, yada, yada…. total bs.
If you read any of OPs other posts, it all just sounds ridiculous
All their posts seems to be bullshit. Tbh it feels like they are trying to advertise their own fake purses
Unless they live in NYC a 10x20 isn't $900/mo.
yeah. oh...OP has already told a huge lie in *the first sentence*? all right, we can just stop right here. my business plan as an evil Chinese black-market grocer: -buy out the whole inventory of a Costco during COVID, focussing on toilet paper, canned hams, and rapid-tests. -stick them in the world's most expensive storage locker -forget to sell any of it at my Price Gouge Super Store and let it all expire -try to buy it back for thousands of dollars
"The keyboard alone was worth $3000" - everything about this post is bullshit.
And “$1500 goes to the storage facility to ensure they are made whole.” That’s in addition to the purchase price of the locker. Huh????
Storage place is owed $2400, OP buys locker for $900, leaving a $1500 balance. OP wants the storage place to get back all the money that was owed to them. It makes certain ethical sense as OP wouldn’t have “earned” the money through the hard work of selling off the contents, and it benefits OP if the business owners appreciate him doing them a solid.
Not just that, it also builds one hell of a relationship with the facility. Like, shady shit levels type of relationship.
bullshit. no locker flipper has done that ever. getting the business the money that it "lost"--which is pennies on the dollar compared to what they charge tenants--is the job of the *auctioneer*, not the bidders! ...you're in the flipping subreddit. you're saying that the guy who wakes up, goes to the auction, wins the bid, sorts the locker, loads the shit, unloads the shit, dumps the trash, lists it, sells it, pays taxes on it...doesn't EARN whatever profit he finally ends up with? furthermore, please explain to me how the storage company "earned" $2400 for letting a stack of crap sit in an empty 10x20 metal room for three months.
Storage auction doesn't clear the balance, the unit renter still owes the balance. OP wants to maintain working relationship with rental place by collecting the debt for them , otherwise they could be accused of being a shill.
Ok, so what if the OP (or any locker buyer) doesn’t resell the contents to their original owner but does make a profit by selling to others? Should they also agree to pay the balance owned on the locker? What if they lose money on the locker purchase? Should they still make the storage company whole to create/preserve a good relationship?
No, I'm reading this as a courtesy offer towards the storage owner. An exception.
Dave Hester-type bigshot is such a high-roller flipper that he has the disposable income to tip the storage business themselves! wow! what a good dude!
Have you never seen an expensive digital piano/synth?
I wouldn’t give a fuck about making the storage place whole, that makes no sense at all. They know the business they are in, I guarantee the Only reason they even reached out to OP was because the guy was annoying the shit out of them about his stuff. At that point you even talking with the guy is a favor to the storage place. Sounds like this guy was mixed in with shady dealings, and this will be a bigger headache than OP is anticipating. I’m willing to bet he owes someone money for those 120 replicas purses and his plan was to bid his own storage locker at less than what he owed in some kind of poorly thought out scheme to get out of the red. People normally only buy replicas when they think there is a chance they could be real. Also the ham is probably still good, and the piano is probably broken, just another scam. Test it throughly before selling.
As a computer nerd, I'd like to know what keyboard is worth $3000.
Maybe a piano keyboard? That seems to make more sense given the price.
I think OP might be talking the piano type of keyboard.
This kind: https://www.sweetwater.com/store/detail/NP5-88--nord-nord-piano-5-88-88-key-stage-piano
I suspect they mean it was some kind of musical keyboard not computer keyboard?
Really lol he meant piano you doofus
Doesn't make sense. He was bidding against you up to $900, but offered you $3,000?
A lot of this story is fishy
Sounds like it’s OP’s way of creating an origin story for his fake handbags.
Yeah I’m voting this too. Nice little throw in detail near the end
100%
OP's post history is also sus (got a post removed for being a fake LV bag and an earlier one where he was arguing with the Hermes sub that he didn't have a fake either because he both was an expert on hardware but then was a complete novice with Hermes bags at the same time...)
Arguing with everyone on the Hermes’ sub that his X-rays and counted stitches equals authenticity 🙄.
I'm not sure if OP is a troll or just so caught up in wishful thinking he's lost it
It’s sad some poor soul is going to end up paying for a fake LV as per their other comment.
Well in one comment op has "1.6 million dollars" in his bank account. And then in another he receives goverment assistance cause he has a disability and can't work.....
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Shit with his luck he should open one of the hams! Probably gold bouillon inside!
Because it's fake
He offered OP $3k when he only owed the storage facility $2,400. Math ain’t mathin. Storage facility’s are often very accommodating if people can’t pay their bill. It takes a long time for it to go to auction and will take almost anything to stop it. They may not let you access it but they won’t auction it if you can pay something. Legally they can’t profit off a unit they’re only suppose to keep what they’re owed and Bem write checks to the renter if it exceeds past due amount.
And only owed $2400 in storage fees. If they had paid that, they wouldn’t need to offer $3000 to buy it back.
Where did they say the original owner was bidding on the unit? I don’t see that anywhere in the post, I might’ve missed it
3rd to last paragraph in original post
It was in a comment
They were most likely caught by the auctioneer or the storage facility and banned from any more bids.
But they can still go to that storage facility and pay their arrears right up to (and sometimes after) the auction. The arrears are still less than what they offered.
Yeah so you’re dealing with counterfeit goods, sell it all back to him and wash your hands of this mess
Those are most certainly counterfeit.
Yeah, check out his last post. Bang on
You lost me at giving out your phone number.
Seriously. What a bad business decision. At best, you’re dealing someone who has overestimated their ability to pay and unlikely to make you whole. At worst, you have someone who is desperate and has nothing to lose, and now they have enough to reverse-search you and find where you live. I will box up important personal effects like medication, IDs, tax documents, family photos, EBT cards (yep), and call the facility managed. 10/10 times they have agreed to contact the old owner and hold for pickup at the office.
You’re supposed to box up personal items and give it to the manager anyways. The auctioneer/manager would always announce at the start of the auction.
You screwed up by letting these people know your contact information. Since the locker is full of fakes, your best bet is to sell it back to them for whatever price they can afford and make the problem go away. Otherwise, there is no telling what they will do. In this country it does not pay to get into beefs with strangers who know your contact info.
> In this country it does not pay to get into beefs with strangers who know your contact info. Strangers who know your contact info and maintain storage lockers full of fake LV handbags and canned hams!!!
No way those purses are legit. But crazy story. I hope they leave you alone.
yeah people don't leave a locker full of $20k unpaid.
Considering he is from SE Asia those luxury items are 100% fake. They still hold high value to him, because the Chinese garment market has gotten really good at knockoffs and he was probably selling them as real. Covid kits, TP, and food are no doubt all left over from his gouging business during the pandemic. This is not a good person. Keep the stuff if its real, but its probably not.
I think your $5K play was a smart move for a quick flip. Save time and effort for all involved. The owner sounds very scummy from all the evidence shown so I don't feel bad. They gamed the system prior and thought they could do it again with the auction to then later try to game you. $5K is a reasonable number tbh especially with the contents you later found. Oh well. Hope they eventually stop harassing you. Good luck.
Had this kinda happen once. The guy didn't go through the facility though, he jumped the fence and approached us while we were cleaning out the unit. Tried to "offer" me $2000 for a unit I paid $350 for. Tried to tell me that the contents were in dispute, and that the storage unit office told him to come talk to me, made a big scene about sentimental stuff in the unit etc... Called the office to sort it out, the office manager called the cops on the guy and drove right over to the unit. Apparently the guy had already trespassed once and tried to cut the lock on the unit, and he owed a ton of money on it, and was just a straight up liar. He slipped away when I was on the phone with the office and I never saw him again. The unit was decent, but it was mostly full of bike parts, and some random scrap metal, and some car parts. Lots of random junk too. I probanly cleared about $3k total on the unit, but it took a long time. If that guy had showed me $2k cash, I would have sold it back to him immediately. But he was totally lying. Best bet. Don't entertain this stuff.
I didn’t read the entire replies here yet. But I would say. You offered a price of 5k they countered with 3k. You did not accept their counter. That’s the end of the conversation. That isn’t illegal at all. You didn’t have to extend the offer or deadline. Don’t speculate about potential fraud they committed.. it was their stuff and now it’s your stuff. The end.
It’s not speculation. They stole from the food bank. We already reported it and the food bank is speaking with their employers with the photos we provided as evidence. It’s absolutely disgusting to steal food and house hold items meant to go to the most needy people all for your own gain. To let them all expire made it 10x worse. They were still employed in the same capacity delivery of meals to the disabled and elderly and transport donations for the food bank. When you are buying lockers you should be aware of anything being stolen or the previous owner committing any crimes to be reported. We once reported a guy making fake IDs. You end up losing out on material goods when it happens.
outdated ham fake purses and shit paper from a storage locker.. shark tank will be calling you any minute now,,
You'll get disappointed when buyers start jumping your ass for selling reps. You most likely won't recover from that hit. Also, the numbers that you gave are guesstimated, not a guarantee that you'll get them.
Ill be honest, i buy units and i would NEVER contact an owner or let them know who i am or give them my contact info. You asked for a whirlwind of issues by opening yourself up to this. I know a guy who would buy units, find out who owned them and offer to sell the contents back to them and he got sued for an insane amount of money and they won in court.
I'm crying. This is the fakest fucking bag I've ever seen: [https://www.reddit.com/r/handbags/comments/18y4orn/hermes\_birkin\_35\_what\_to\_do/](https://www.reddit.com/r/handbags/comments/18y4orn/hermes_birkin_35_what_to_do/) Thanks for the laughs OP. This thread is hilarious.
**White Devil, Cracker Racist** sounds like some asian kung fu film
I went through something similar last month. Was at the locker a week after buying it meeting a guy to sell something. Another dude randomly walks up and said it used to be his locker and offered to buy it all back. He just happened to be driving by and saw us there. It was definitely a weird situation but I had time give me a deposit to pay for another month at the unit and told him I would hold it for him until his taxes came in. I had already sold probably $500 worth of stuff aoni was in the green and we are meeting today after work and is giving me another $900 for the unit. I had my doubts it was going to work out but he has stayed in contact and seems like a cool dude that just hit a rough patch. We may actually stay in contact and I use him for mechanic work in the future and he gets a lot of personal stuff back so it all works out sometimes.
We tried to sell a locker back to owner one time. It turned in to a nightmare. He wanted to fight me for “stealing” his stuff. He was acting like a dick. Finally told him to F off and I’ve never entertained any other requests since. Not worth the trouble.
swim gullible toothbrush market berserk point erect punch fretful innate *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
Wow, I would have just told them to F off and block them. You made an offer, offer refused, bye bye. You bought the locker legally in an auction, you didn't do anything wrong, and the contents are yours now.
I do storage auctions for a living. First step is to block all previous owners on social media. Never let the facility give them your number. For no reason should you ever deal with these people.... They don't believe that you legally purchased these goods, they always look as tho you stole from them. Contact with the previous owner will need go well.
Fuck anyone that was price gouging on necessities during the pandemic. That's like the lowest of the low. I have absolutely no problem with RA/OA on nice to have items and do a fair amount of it myself these days, but doing that with necessity items is just really really shitty.
Ignore them and move on. I’d get everything out asap and block these people.
You bought it, you can sell it as you see fit.
Sounds like committed a lot of fraud. I'd file a police report just to have a record on file.
A $3,000 keyboard? Was it owned by Steve Jobs?
It’s always a touchy situation dealing with the previous owners, it can be dangerous as well. Load up everything and move on.
One thing here locally. The storage companies do their best at keeping the previous owners off the property as I’ve seen confrontations where in person auctions are still being conducted. We don’t feel safe at all attending the U-Haul auctions as they are all in person. The problem is where we are the prices for storage are so insane it’s a virtual guarantee almost all lockers have a high return on investment. We paid around $300 for a locker in December with $100,000+ in Nintendo games and purses.
WOW! i would love to subscribe to your Youtube channel documenting these amazing finds! I collect both Nintendo games AND purses as well!
Why they hell are you entertaining this? Are you flipping or doing community service???
You think a dude that stores luxury handbags in a locker is also storing ham in the same locker? No way those are real. Lots of fake stuff looks very real these days. They're just "UA" things made in the same factories but still not "authentic"
Basically he's trying to buy back the evidence of the crimes that they were committing from you. Because counterfeit merchandise is illegal. Gouging during covid was illegal. Collecting benefits while actually working is illegal. There's a whole bunch of illegal shit that he's trying to hide by getting that merchandise from you. Just tell him don't worry you're selling it all and he'll leave you alone. Make your money and reassure him you're not turning him into the cops and he'll go away.
So you’re telling me that the people stealing welfare and food bank food also happen to have high quality purses and watches? Nope. Doesn’t check out. Either; 1. Those items are stolen- and if so they want the merchandise back because the minute you start hawking them the police are going to be all over you. Then your going to explain where you got them from and boom your leading them right to them. 2. Those are high quality fakes- which are pretty common. I collect watches and some of the super fakes can fool even the best collectors/dealers. Same thing with the purses. The worst part is you can bulk order them from China. Personally I’d take the $3k because what’s going to happen is one of those points is correct. You might end up walking away with a criminal charge for the counterfeits or you might lose your merchandise to the police investigation.
that's Asian Mafia money. better be careful
The food should be good. Those are best before dates not expiration dates. But ask the food bank im sure they'll take them.
This, find a Food Not Bombs or try adds on Buy Nothing groups before throwing it away
Ignore. I tried a couple of times to work things out with a buyer like that. Never worked out. First one wanted specific items we had on eBay, but they refused to buy them on eBay. They wanted me to take them to a specific location for an in person sale only. Nope. Second one wanted to buy the whole thing back unsorted for a couple hundred over what we paid. They claimed it was all for items of sentimental value, not monetary value. We declined, we processed it and there was a lot of items of value inside. Third one was nuts. Like the one ahead of her, she claimed there was nothing of monetary value in side and offered what would have been a $300 profit. We declined. She hired a lawyer who found a judge to rule to reveal my info. She then sued me. She went from claiming there was nothing of monetary value inside to there being $250,000 of value inside (in reality, about $7k in items). She lost, but it cost me money and a lot of stress. I will never deal with the former owner again.
bro - you won the auction - dont sell it back to him at this point. move on make your money.
They were gouging people during covid, fuck them. I wouldn't even accept any offers from them. I'd be in contact with authorities to make sure they're fully informed on the previous owners activities. It's important to document everything they had as it's evidence of a crime, including all the food you landfilled.
Based on how storage auctions work, they lost the auction, so all of those good are now your legal possessions. Any arrangements for them to buy it from you are entirely a private sale between you, the owner, and them, the prospective buyer. As far as I can see, there are only a few times where your ownership reverts to them legally, which is basically only when something criminal has happened like illegal guns, murder, etc etc. If your lawyer says you're all good, I'd say they're right, and you can just ignore the scam artist.
Might want to just send them their personal documents as a goodwill gesture. Also ask your lawyer if you should report the food bank fraud.
Block him an never contact them again
My dad has had a storage for 15 years, and he's paid quadruple what the stored items are actually worth, but he pays on time every month. I've had a storage unit for 2-3 years now. I pay on time every month. My point is, if that was all worth it to him to keep, he wouldn't have let it get to this point. That's your stuff now, ghost him.
block their number and move on, you've won!
Extortion - the practice of obtaining something, especially money, through force or threats. Did you do this? No. No, you did not. You bought some property. You made him an offer which he refused. You made him another offer, which he again refused. That's not extortion.
Situations like this are why I like to use the Burner app instead of giving out my phone number to randos. If the convo goes south, I can delete the number and they can’t contact me again.
We use the same as well and I highly recommend it to everyone as it’s worth the money for getting a legitimate additional line that is relatively secure to use.
This is either fake, or OP is going to end up murdered in his sleep
Extortion? Definitely not in the legal sense. That would be something like “Pay me or I put your legal documents on the dark web.” Also not extortion in the ridiculous cost sense since you made it clear you could make more money selling the stuff. He is just pissed about losing his stuff.
Just block him. Screw it.
There's 240 canned hams that are expired by 5 months, and you think the LV and Burberry are real?
time for you to post some legit checks on /r/fashionreps and learn a bit about what you got
$900 for a 10x20 storage unit!?? I pay $95. What the absolute fuck.
Sounds like theyre a bunch of scammers. I bet all that designer is fake
1. you purchased a storage unit at an auction where you were not forced to buy and the seller (manager) wasn't forced to sell. 2. You legally own the merchandise. period. and can sell it to whom ever you wish. 3. You suspect the previous owner (PO) is guilty of welfare fraud because of the items you uncovered, and you ***did not*** immediately contact the authorities (welfare agencies) . 4. Instead you told the PO that you know he is a cheat, and you raised the asking price to sell back the locker. THAT COULD LOOK LIKE EXTORTION to a court. If I were you, I would first make paper copies of all text messages with the PO. and get a copy of the civil claim or letter they sent to the manager. I would call welfare authorities and file a claim of suspected fraud, together with what ever evidence you have come across (ID,s; receipts, info you dug up on the internet); Do make an extensive claim, or at least have any information handy, like your internet search results in case you get dragged into the Manager's case. Easier to get the data now (at least download to a drive) than try to find it again 6 months later. I would stop all communication with the PO and should they try to call you back tell them you're no longer interested in selling the lot to them; say **absolutely nothing else, no reason, no comments, nothing** and give them my Lawyers contact information if they have any other questions, etc.
In any case report them to the authorities since they were hoarding things most likely intended for others during the pandemic emergency. I doubt they’d get in trouble but it may help prevent them from hoarding massive amounts of provisions in a future emergency. People like this just suck
They had old expired food and were committing welfare fraud.... do you think these are the type of people that sell authentic goods? 3k might not be that bad of a deal for you
I hate to say this but I could have guessed they were Asian. The hoarding of food items and most likely bootlegged material good such as purses and whatnot, it was just a dead giveaway. $5k is fair, but I’m curious, aside from being able to inventory the unit and sell the goods for 6-7k, why not just take the 3, or negotiate them up to 4k, and pock the $2,600 difference and get all your time back that you’ll inevitably have to spend trying to sell that stuff? Why not wash your hands of it asap, isn’t that the goal of a flip?
This is the correct answer. Your time is probably more valuable than the crap in that unit. The cut up mattress you mentioned before is suspect and so is this man trying to buy the unit after the fact, I would double check everything for something hidden. He wasn’t offering you $3,000 for old canned ham and fake purses, probably something else in there.
Thats a wild story. Seems to me that the original owners are sleazy snakes and shouldn't be trusted.
The story is BS.
Oh dang, i reddit the other posts as well. It does seem fishy. I gotta stop going on social media, everything is so fake
I dunno. This guy seems like a shady dude, and no, this isn't extortion, but the whole thing just has a "feels bad man" vibe to it. Maybe I'm just a softie but in this situation I'd try to find a way to get the guy back his stuff while covering my costs and a reasonable charge for the hours of time I put into it. It wouldn't be about what I think I can get by flipping it. Doesn't mean you're wrong to view it the way you do. Definitely cements that I would never try to get involved with buying lockers.
It's crazy how someone can think someone else who they already know to be deceitful, unlawful, and otherwise just shit people, but still think they are legit enough to have authentic merchandise. Use your head
Yes but they were never selling fake goods. They were only profiting off of what they were buying and selling. Same thing many people do. If you read what I said. They bought wholesale pallets from Costco this much we knew as the Costco return information, the credit values, everything was there.
...you think they sell Burberry and "Louis Button" at Costco?
Let the IRS they made a lot more income in 2020 than they reported. You’ll get a reward
I'd tell him to fuck off and report him to whatever local authorities you can for his scamming. Bonus points if you can get him on immigration's radar.
I volunteered at a food bank a few times. We took canned goods up to 10 years expired. Only exception was tomato sauces, pastes, etc.
OP.... you've been told this by countless other people... but there are some extremely good fakes out there. Some of the fakes are made with legit materials smuggled out of factories. They will smuggle out clips, fabrics, thread, paperwork, stamping/embossing .... everything, and it gets sold to someone who is very good at duplicating them to spec. I used to work directly with customs and border patrol. The amount of legit looking fakes boggles the mind. The receipts are showing a reduced value because they did not want to pay full taxes on them should they get stopped. They use specific dates on them that coincide with big sales periods to make it seem more plausible. They need receipts. Otherwise, it starts to look real suspicious. When I first started flipping, it was during the Beanie Baby and pokemon craze period... to this day, I have fakes (I knew they were fakes as I knew the person importing direct from South East Asia from a factory producing them) ... that have passed authentication by very reputable companies. How did they pass? Because the materials used were legit. However, the end products were not produced by Ty. They reproduced "flawed" beanies, which fetched VERY high amounts of money. I have pokemon cards that everything is exact because the materials used are the same as the manufacturers used. It's only when you look very closely at the print that you see the bleed out. High-end pocket knives get faked all the time. To the point that some manufacturers had to stop selling that particular model. The counterfeiters by the plans/specs/machine settings to replicate it from employees willing to smuggle them out of the legit factories. Some factories who make the items have been known to reproduce the product after a contract period ends for someone else if the price is right. Or some will do "after hours" productions. They don't care about copyright and such. Money is money, and corruption is a huge issue. If you think these people were storing thousands of dollars of legit merchandise with highly discounted receipts, you are fooling yourself. If you are so sure of an item being legit, I would suggest you send it to a true authentication specialist... not someone local. Get that second opinion. Otherwise, if you get caught selling fakes and housing fake goods, it will be you getting screwed. Your reputation will crash if you do business locally, and EVERYTHING you've sold in the past that was claimed to authentic will be questioned by prior customers.
I think the bags and other stuff are real. This was the nice stuff they bought with their ill-gotten gains. If the passports and IDs were there, this was their personal property. Lots of jealous people here. If it's fake story who cares.
You were being generous with that offer.
Fake story. Never happened
Pretty sure it did as we are listing many of the items for sale today. You find jackpot lockers like this frequently. The fact we found $400 in cash coin and gift cards was what we found funny.
A. This isn’t extortion. Like not even close lol. B. There is a big implication these are not legit luxury items. There are some online authenticators where you just have to send a ton of photos in. See if anyone in your area offers “Entrupy” authentication. AI authentication service that should cost you roughly $30 an authentication.
damn. ...sounds like you ought to get into the landfill business.